Southern Arkansas University Athletics

Ken Cole has served as a head athletic trainer for 30 years and is in his 24th year at Southern Arkansas, where he has built one of the top athletic training programs in the country.
 
During his tenure, the program has evolved from an internship for students to a four-year, B.S. degree in athletic training.  His former students have gone on to full-time positions with Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians, Anaheim Angels and Chicago Cubs, the Harlem Globetrotters, the former World League of American Football and current NFL Europe’s Barcelona Dragons, and numerous rehabilitation clinics, universities, colleges and high schools; and have served as interns for MLB’s Atlanta Braves, Pirates, Angels and Cubs, and the National Football League’s Detroit Lions and former Houston Oilers.
 
Cole came to SAU in January of 1989 after serving over six years as head athletic trainer and biology instructor at Bartlesville (Okla.) High School.  He began his athletic training career as a freshman in high school working with the football and basketball teams.  From that point, he served two years as a student athletic trainer for Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College, before moving to Central Missouri where he was both a student and graduate assistant athletic trainer while earning his B.S.E. (1981) in physical education/biology and M.S. (1982) in athletic training.
 
Cole is a former examiner for the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) board of certification national exam, is a current member of the Southwest Athletic Trainer’s Association (SWATA) executive board, and served on the SWATA college and university athletic trainers committee from 1996-2002 and the SWATA Honors and Awards committee from 2003-2009.
 
Active in the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association (AATA) since 1989, Cole was a member of its scholarship committee from 1992 until this past year, serving as its chair the last 10 years.  He was president of the association in 1993 and 1994, and has been a member of the honors and awards committee since 1995.
 
While in the Gulf South Conference, Cole represented SAU on the Athletic Trainers Committee and served as the chair from 2007-2010.  In the new Great American Conference, he was elected by his peers to serve in the same position.
 
At Southern Arkansas, Cole is responsible for the coverage and care of approximately 300 student-athletes across 11 sports.
 
In 2005 Cole was inducted into the AATA hall of fame, and now serves on that committee.  As a member of the NATA, he received the 25-year service award in 2003.  During the past 38 years, Cole has a phenomenal streak of having worked 567 consecutive football games as an athletic trainer.
 
In April of 2011, Cole was appointed by Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe to the Arkansas State Board of Athletic Training which oversees and governs the licensure of state athletic trainers.
 
In June of 2011, Cole received the prestigious honor of being named the NCAA Division II national athletic trainer of the year by the NATA’s College/University Athletic Trainers’ Committee, presented to him at their national convention in New Orleans, La.
 
Ken and his wife, Kathy, who is the director of on-line learning at the university, have been married 34 years and have two children and one grandchild, a daughter, Megan Jackson, and her husband, Jason, and a son, Andrew.