One of Salem’s most successful football coaches, Kenneth E. Farrar, now retired, coached Salem Wildcat teams from 1943-1951, the football teams compiling a 62-18-2 record. With a North Egypt Conference record of 458-1, Farrar-coached Wildcat teams captured four North Egypt Conference championships.

Salem teams in Farrar’s first two seasons were 12-0 in conference play, netting back-to-back crowns. Overall those two years, Salem’s record was 15-1-1.

Only a 7-7 tie marred an otherwise perfect season in 1943, but one game that year vaulted the Wildcats into world-wide prominence. With so many Salem alumni serving around the world in World War II, Salem’s 188-0 win over Fairfield was read by Salem servicemen in major papers in Texas, California, Hawaii and London.

The Wildcats also won conference championships in 1947 with a 6-0 league mark and in 1949 with a 5- 0-1 record. Three other years the Wildcats were 51 in conference play but finished second in a strong North Egypt Conference. In those three seasons, 1945, 1946, and 1950, they had overall records of 8-1,
8-2, and 8-1.

In the chief rivalry of the Wildcats with Centralia, after scheduling was resumed in 1945 following a three-year hiatus, Farrar’s teams came out on top, 4-3, scoring three shut-out victories.

Farrar also served two stints as Wildcat basketball coach, taking over for the 1943-44 season with the Wildcats posting a 25-10 record and reaching the sectional finals. The 1944 regional victory marks the last time a Salem team has tasted that type of victory.

From 1943-46, Farrar’s basketball record at the Wildcat helm was 66-38. He again took over in 1951 as basketball coach when Coach Mike Lenich was recalled to the service for a second time. Farrar resigned as coach in January, 1952, following the first Annual Salem Invitational Tournament.

A graduate of Monmouth College, Farrar is married to the former Wanda Brasel and they have two sons – Ken, a developer in Denver, and Bill, a surgeon in Columbus, Ohio. The Farrars now reside in Sun City West, Arizona.