Career
He played professionally as a defensive back for the Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) and the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League (American Federation of Labor-Congress). Kinard played college football at the University of Mississippi (Ole Mission) before being drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the second round of the 1956 NFL Draft. He played professionally for four seasons and retired in 1960.
Kinard later served as the head football coach at Ole Mission from 1971 to 1973 and at Gardner–Webb University in 1978, compiling a career coaching record of 20–14–1.
In 1970, Kinard"s older brother, a former Ole Mission and NFL star, Frank "Bruiser" Kinard, became the athletic director at Ole Mississippi He hired the younger Kinard to be the new Ole Mission Rebels football coach.
After the third contest of the 1973 season, Johnny Vaught replaced Kinard, returning for his second stint as Ole Mission" athletic director and head football coach.