Ken Cole has served as a head athletic trainer for 39 years and is in his 33rd 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 Texas Rangers, 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. Several students have served as athletic training interns for MLB’s Atlanta Braves, Pirates, Angels and Cubs, Mariners, 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 the University of 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.
In 2005 Cole was inducted into the Arkansas Athletic Trainer’s Association (AATA) hall of fame, and now serves on that committee. As a member of the NATA, he received the 35-year service award in 2013. In 2011, Cole was named the NCAA DII, National Athletic Trainer of the Year and in 2013 he received the NATA Athletic Training Service Award. In 2012, Cole was inducted into the Southern Arkansas University, Sports Hall of Fame. During the past 40 years, Cole has a phenomenal streak of having worked 582 consecutive football games as an athletic trainer. That streak came to an end in September of 2013, when he became injured on the sideline of the second game.
Cole is a former examiner for the NATA board of certification national exam, served on 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. Cole was appointed to the NATA Professional Responsibility in Athletic Training committee (2016) that deals with professional responsibilities and ethics of athletic training.
Active in the AATA, Cole was a member of its scholarship committee from 1992 - 2012, serving as its chair the last 10 years. He was president of the association in 1993 and 1994, is a member of the honors and awards committee since 1995, and served on the Governmental Affairs committee from 2005 to 2016. In April 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. He rotated off the ASBAT in 2016.
Cole was elected in 2012 by his peers in the Great American Conference to serve a two year term as chair the athletic trainers committee, and he served in that same capacity in the Gulf South Conference from 2007-2010.
At Southern Arkansas, Cole is responsible for overseeing the coverage and care of approximately 425 student-athletes across 14 sports. He is the Athletics Health Care Administrator for the athletic department.
Ken’s wife Kathy is the Director of On-line Education here at SAU. They have two children Megan (36) and Andrew (33). They have 6 grandchildren.
