Jack Bentley Sparks was born in 1903, in Missouri, to Roy and Minnie Sparks. His family subsequently moved to Clarinda, Iowa. Sparks graduated from Clarinda High School in 1920 and began attending Drake University that same year. While a student at Drake, Jack Sparks was a member of the Chi Delta fraternity, the Men's Glee Club, the basketball team, and was class Vice-President. Perhaps most notably, Sparks was the quarterback on the Drake football team, which in 1922 went undefeated, the only team to do so in Drake University history. After he graduated from Drake in 1924, Sparks began working as a bond salesman and later was owner and operator of Sparks and Co. in Des Moines. Jack Sparks passed away in 1988 at the age of 85.
