Personal
Kessinger married Carolyn Crawley—also from Forrest City—in 1965. Their son Keith Kessinger was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 1989 and had a brief career (nine years, minors and majors, in the Reds and Cubs organizations) as a professional baseball player, and son Kevin was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1992, but was sidelined during his first season with the Geneva (NY) Cubs by a back injury.
Prior to the 1991 season, Kessinger was hired as the head baseball coach at his alma mater, the University of Mississippi. Kessinger would spend six years as the Ole Miss skipper, leading the Rebels to four 30-win seasons. His 1995 team produced a school record for wins, going 40-22 and earning the school’s first NCAA Regional bid since 1977. Ole Miss finished on the verge of its first World Series appearance since 1972, placing second at the NCAA Atlantic I Regional behind host-Florida State. Both of his sons had the opportunity to play for their father at Ole Miss. Following the 1996 season, Kessinger resigned his head coaching position to become Mississippi's Associate Athletics Director for Internal Affairs, while concurrently serving as Chair of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee. He finished with a six-year record of 185-153.
Kessinger is a 1989 honoree of The Chicago(land) Sports Hall of Fame, Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame, Wrigley Field Walk of Fame, Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame, Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, National High School Sports Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. He was also recognized as the 12th Best Athlete in the history of the Southeastern Conference in 2007 and named to the Ole Miss All-Century Basketball Team in 2008. Presently, he is the President of Kessinger Enterprises, Inc. and owns a real estate business in Oxford, Mississippi.
While writing his 2012 novel "Calico Joe," -- detailing a fictional young player on the Cubs in the early 1970s -- author John Grisham drew from Kessinger's memories. "But Grisham gets the baseball right - among the people he consulted while writing the book was Don Kessinger, a longtime friend who was the Cubs' slick-fielding shortstop in the period the flashback portion covers."
Read more about this topic: Don Kessinger
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