[1] Sermon attended Warrensburg Teachers College—now known as the University of Central Missouri, where he was captain of the football, basketball, baseball, and track teams.

Sermon coached at Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri during the 1914–15 academic year.

[2] At Kirksville Osteopath, Sermon also played on the football team for three years and coached basketball, baseball, and golf.

He left Kirksville in 1925 to become the backfield coach for the football team at North Carolina State University.

[3][4] Sermon served as the head men's basketball at NC State from 1930 to 1940.