When Larry Kindbom arrived as the head coach of the Washington University football team in 1989, the Bears had gone through four different head coaches in ten years and had not had a winning season since 1978. Now, at the end of this season, Kindbom will leave having transformed the Wash. U. football program.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Football coach Larry Kindbom receives the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team Honorary Head Coach Award October 2018.

Kindbom will retire this year after 31 seasons at the helm for the Bears, Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Christopher Mitchell announced in an email yesterday afternoon. Kindbom will go down as the Bears’ all-time winningest football coach, accumulating 186 wins over a Wash. U. career that spanned four decades. He provided stable leadership as the team went from a consistent loser to a perennial contender in Midwestern Division III football. He led the Bears to 12 University Athletic Association (UAA) championships, including most recently in 2016, and shepherded the team through its transition from the UAA to the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin last fall.

“For the last 31 years, Larry has coached Wash. U. football with enthusiasm and love while simultaneously representing integrity and character as one of the University’s greatest ambassadors,” Director of Athletics Anthony J. Azama said in the email announcement. “Very rarely do we see such sustained devotion to one institution in collegiate athletics. We have benefited from Larry’s leadership, passion for excellence and unyielding commitment to our student-athletes during his three decades with the university.”

Kindbom’s tenure at Wash. U. has been record-breaking. He has the fifth most wins of any active NCAA Division III head coach and is one of only 91 coaches across all of the NCAA to have achieved more than 200 wins in a career (he has 214, including the 28 from his six years coaching at Kenyon College before coming to St. Louis).

“Washington University has been my home and family for over 30 years,” Kindbom said in the email announcement. “What I have learned is that my total focus is dedicated to the next play and the next play, so my thoughts are in preparation for our upcoming opponent. At some point, I will have time to reflect back to my time here.”

The emphasis on constant focus will be on display throughout the fall, as the Bears are just one game into their season. They demolished the University of Chicago in the season opener on Sept. 7, 43-7, and are off this week before their home opener against No. 5 North Central College next Saturday, Sept. 21.