Larry Kindbom coached on the WashU football staff for 35 years. (Photo courtesy: WashU Athletics)
Steven Millbrook
Staff Writer
CLAYTON, MO — Longtime Washington University assistant football coach Larry Kindbom announced his retirement on Friday. Kindbom, who was the head coach at WashU from 1989-2019, spent 35 years with the Bears, and was most recently WashU’s special teams coordinator/defensive backs coach.
Kindbom generated a 192-119 (.617 winning percentage) as head coach of WashU. After retiring as head coach on Sept. 11, 2019, Kindbom immediately returned to the coaching staff following his retirement as the Special Team Coordinator/Defensive Backs coach. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Kindbom returned to the sidelines in 2021.
Most recently, in 2023, the Bears ended the season with a 7-3 record.
In 2022, WashU finished the year with a record of 8-3, including a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) record of 7-2. Additionally, the Bears competed in the Isthmus Bowl against the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
In 2021, the Bears finished with a record of 7-4 and participated in the inaugural Isthmus Bowl contest against UW-River Falls. WashU turned in a CCIW record of 7-2.
In 2013, Kindbom led WashU to an 8-3 overall record and an appearance in the NCAA Division III Playoffs for the first time since 1999 and second time in school history. The Bears also won their 10th UAA Championship with a 3-0 record and ended the season with seven straight wins, their first regular-season seven-game win streak since 1948.
WashU capped off the most successful decade in team history with one of the most successful seasons in history in 1999. The Bears won their first outright UAA title, posted an 8-3 record and earned the school’s first bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
In 1995, the Bears savored their most successful campaign since 1948, finishing the season with a 9-1 record. WashU captured a share of the UAA title in 1994, 1995 and 1996 to go along with the 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2012 and 2013 outright crowns.
With 7-3 records in 1990, 1994, 1996, 2007 and 2010, an 8-3 season in 1999 and 2013, an 8-2 mark in 2001 and 2018 and his 9-1 mark from 1995, Kindbom is the only coach in school history to have guided 10 different WashU teams to seven or more victories.
As a collegiate athlete, Kindbom lettered four years at Kalamazoo College, a Division III school in Michigan. Then, after serving as an assistant coach at three NCAA Division I institutions, he guided Division III Kenyon College for six successful seasons before moving to WashU in 1989.
Prior to his six-year stint at Kenyon, the Lancaster, Pa., native served two years as a graduate assistant at Ohio State under Woody Hayes and four years as an assistant coach at the University of Akron.
After Akron, Kindbom was handed the coaching reins at Kenyon in 1983, where his first team enjoyed a 5-3-1 record. The following year, Kenyon savored its finest season since 1976, equaling a school record for victories with a 7-3 mark. Kenyon also was nationally ranked in 1984, and rated fifth in the nation for its passing offense.
WashU sports information contributed to this story.