Kansas Sports Hall inductee: Terry Beeson

In multiple endeavors, Terry Beeson fit a lot of accomplishments into limited time.

Within four seasons as a linebacker at Kansas, Beeson helped the Jayhawks to two bowl-game appearances in three years, then an unprecedented achievement and one that took KU three decades to reach again.

Beeson set Seattle Seahawks records for single-game and single-season tackles as a rookie in 1977, and in eight years as part of the Coffeyville Community College coaching staff, he experienced two national championships.

“I played six years in the NFL and two years in the USFL – that’s eight years,” said Beeson, a Coffeyville native. “That’s a long time for a linebacker in those days.”

Sustaining football success at Kansas has almost always been a chore, but Beeson’s teams managed it, with 24 wins in four seasons, a second-place finish in the Big Eight in 1973 and a No. 18 final ranking that season.

Don Fambrough, perhaps KU’s most well-known football coach, left the team following the 1974 season before returning five years later. Beeson played two seasons for Bud Moore, a situation that he said affected him personally since Moore, an Alabama native, was seen as an outsider.

But Beeson didn’t let the change disrupt his production. He led KU in tackles in 1975, Moore’s first season, and was an All-Big Eight performer the following year before being selected by Seattle with the 41st overall pick in 1977.

“I would have said that was perseverance,” Beeson said. “We had a great deal of talent on those football teams during that period of time. We had eight players drafted every year I was at KU, and even the year after I left there were another seven players drafted.”

Beeson was Coffeyville’s athletic director until 1998 and now sells insurance in his hometown.

This story was originally published October 3, 2015 at 3:00 AM with the headline "Kansas Sports Hall inductee: Terry Beeson."