University of Tennessee Athletics
Former Vol Kirk Honored in Carolina
October 26, 2010 | Football
Oct. 26, 2010
Former Tennessee footballer Todd Kirk was the recipient of an Oct. 15 tribute when Laurens Academy in Laurens, S.C., named its football field in his honor.
Kirk is headmaster at Laurens, located nearly halfway between Greenville and Columbia, as well as the only head football coach the school has known. The naming ceremony took place at halftime of the Crusaders' game against Wardlaw Academy.
The Laurens Academy playing surface now bears the name Todd Kirk Field.
A native of Pennington Gap, Va., near Bristol, Kirk was hired as football coach in 1999 and started the first-ever football program at Laurens Academy. The team competes in South Carolina's 8-man division and stands 9-0 this season.
Although Laurens Academy has had success under Kirk -- winning a state championship in 2006 -- this year's undefeated season has been even more gratifying.
"Our varsity team has never been here before," Kirk said. "In fact, I've never been on or coached with any team that was 9-0."
Kirk started three seasons at center for UT in the mid-1980s, when Tennessee won the 1985 SEC championship and defeated Miami in the Sugar Bowl. The 1988 graduate served as a grad assistant for the Vols from 1988-89 before moving to UT Martin as an assistant coach from 1990-96.
After a brief coaching stint at Presbyterian, Kirk became Laurens' head coach at the school where his children, Ethan and Madison, attended and his wife, Lisa, already was employed as admissions director.
Three of Kirk's former players have gone on to college careers: Michael Mims and Matt Gault at Presbyterian, and Ryland Culbertson, who currently is a deep snapper at South Carolina.
