John Akers ’79: Helping Build Cyclone Basketball Greatness?

Eventually, I knew that my recent interview with Iowa State basketball coach Fred Hoiberg for Basketball Times would lead to a discussion of the many coaches in his career. With equal certainty, I knew he would forget to mention one of the first of those coaches.

That would be me.

Larry Bird and Larry Brown. Tim Floyd and Kevin McHale. Johnny Orr and John Akers. Which of these names does not belong with the others?

I was a co-coach of Fred Hoiberg’s fifth-grade flag-football team while I was the sports editor of the Ames Tribune in 1984. His coaches back then were such great talent evaluators that the eventual all-state quarterback spent his fifth-grade season at wide receiver. (In our defense, our actual QB, Bubba Lichtenberg, was an ISU assistant football coach’s son who would play quarterback at Ohio University.)

My life even took some parallel paths with Hoiberg after that. While I was covering Stanford’s sports programs for the San Jose Mercury News, he included Stanford among his finalists before becoming “The Mayor” and the most popular basketball player in Iowa State history. And one year after my wife and I moved to Minneapolis, Hoiberg joined the Timberwolves.

Hoiberg had no idea he was following me around – or thinking of following me. I know this because during his first media day with the Timberwolves, I reintroduced myself to him as his fifth-grade flag-football coach. A long and awkward silence followed. Stalker, I imagined him thinking.

Fortunately, my recent interview with him went much better. My story on Fred Hoiberg will appear in the September issue of Basketball Times.

–By John Akers      

Akers worked for the Ames Tribune, the Iowa State Daily and the ISU sports information department during his time on campus. He is managing editor of Basketball Times, based in Charlotte, N.C.