Lenoir-Rhyne University Athletics

Marion Wesley Kirby, a 1964 Lenoir-Rhyne graduate, has followed a fine football career at L-R with one of the most outstanding coaching careers anywhere.  A native of Hickory, Kirby came to Lenoir-Rhyne following an All-Conference and All-State career under L-R Hall of Famer Frank Barger at Hickory High School.  Kirby was fortunate enough to join the Bear football team in the fall of 1960.  In the NAIA National Championship game in St. Petersburg, Fla., Kirby booted a late fourth quarter field goal to give the Bears the national title.  That season still stands as the most outstanding campaign of any Lenoir-Rhyne athletic squad in history.  The Bears went back to the national championship game in 1962, in Kirby's junior year.  Following his graduation, Kirby attended East Carolina University to earn his masters degree then became a teacher and assistant football coach at John A. Holmes High School in Edenton, N.C., in 1965.  The following season - 1966 - he became head coach at Edenton and so began his road down championship lane.  Since that first head coaching job in Edenton where he won three conference titles, Kirby moved on to Page High School in Greensboro, N.C.  At Page, Kirby compiled a 219-51-5 record and won five state championships.  Kirby was also first-ever Head Coach of Greensboro College which started its program in 1998.  Kirby, a 2013 inductee into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, also served as Guilford College's Athletics Director for five years (2002-07).