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Fred Akers passes away at age 82

satyanash

By satyanash
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horn4life

horn4life 3759

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I don't know if it was ever better to hate Arkansas, than when Fred was at the helm, but Arkansas was good then.

.  He was the coach for the undergraduate years when I arrived in '79.

Unfortunately Fred ran into the unfortunate situation of playing two semi-pro teams in A&M and SMU, when cheating was an art form.  Good guy, who lived most of his tenure as head coach in a situation not unlike Herman is in today, except alumni were half against him from day one.  All I know is I got to see some great games as a young buck when I arrived on the 40 Acres.  We were in the mix most every year and '79 was a great freshman year undefeated home season.  First trip to OU and it was #3 vs #4 Texas and we pull it out 16-7, frigging awesome. Thanks Fred and God's speed!

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ztejas

ztejas 43411

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2 hours ago, TexArcher said:

Why does Mike Barnes need to remind everybody, potentially including Akers' grieving family, that Akers wasn't well liked?  Just say everything you said after the comma in that sentence.  Or maybe you're the asshole?

Yeah that seemed really strange. For someone that never got to see any of his teams, I certainly don't dislike him or harbor any ill will. He was trying to follow Queen at Live Aid and came up a little short. Still the 3rd best coach in program history and his teams were much closer to our standard than those of four of the five guys since. 

Like someone else said upthread, I'd give my left nut to get a guy on campus again that plays for a national title every 4-5 years and produces a Heisman winner. Whoever our next coach is, let's find a guy that can at least do what Akers did here before worrying about finding someone that can one up DKR. Akers wins at least one MNC in most timelines - just didn't happen in this one.

Edited by ztejas
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cafe society

cafe society 2860

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I apologize for repeating myself.  I was friends with Fred and Diane.  Met him my freshman year when he came to my dorm to talk football, Fall 1978.  I stayed behind and we struck up a quick friendship.  Fred was smart, articulate, generous and kind.  And he could coach.  Sure, he had a predilection for putting his best athletes on defense, but he wasn't the offensive neanderthal that lesser minds would have you believe.  He was shit upon from the beginning - sabotage from within - yet his teams won, and won big.  It wasn't until the rest of the conference decided that utter chaotic cheating was the way to go did Fred encounter competitive issues.  
Even after the distasteful treatment he received, Fred remained around Austin, other than his time at Purdue.  And he was never bitter.  He remained better than his critics to the end.  He was never given the benefit of the doubt that our current embattled coach was;  otherwise he would have overcome the rampant cheating that was ultimately his undoing.  

RIP Coach.  RIP friend.

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Hagbard Celine

Hagbard Celine 10851

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39 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I was there for the end times and he was not popular. 

as was i.  in hindsight it is easier to lionize the man and his career.  it should be mentioned that although he was born pig and played pig, he started his career in edinburg and was co-oc with bellard under royal for 8 years before the brief 2-year HC job in Laramie.  look at the record in that 1984 season.  big, solid, wins to start the season, beat smu during the height of pony expre$$, got the cotton bowl gift PI call to tie, the season was looking solid.   then, an inexplicable 13-10 win in lubbock set the scene for losses to houston and sub-500 baylor and aggy.  another therm year in 85 left him exposed.  the rest of the conference was in full cheat mode.  akers really got a shit deal.  and then so did mcwilliams.

based on the last round of hell, it takes about 15 years to return from the wilderness, so we are in theory only halfway through.

the man put up 2 undefeated regular seasons and 2 conference titles, just like mack, less the natty.

rip.

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Steel Shank

Steel Shank 9421

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4 minutes ago, cafe society said:

I apologize for repeating myself.  I was friends with Fred and Diane.  Met him my freshman year when he came to my dorm to talk football, Fall 1978.  I stayed behind and we struck up a quick friendship.  Fred was smart, articulate, generous and kind.  And he could coach.  Sure, he had a predilection for putting his best athletes on defense, but he wasn't the offensive neanderthal that lesser minds would have you believe.  He was shit upon from the beginning - sabotage from within - yet his teams won, and won big.  It wasn't until the rest of the conference decided that utter chaotic cheating was the way to go did Fred encounter competitive issues.  
Even after the distasteful treatment he received, Fred remained around Austin, other than his time at Purdue.  And he was never bitter.  He remained better than his critics to the end.  He was never given the benefit of the doubt that our current embattled coach was;  otherwise he would have overcome the rampant cheating that was ultimately his undoing.  

RIP Coach.  RIP friend.

I tip my hat, sir.    +rep.

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jw4381

jw4381 3070

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8 minutes ago, cafe society said:

I apologize for repeating myself.  I was friends with Fred and Diane.  Met him my freshman year when he came to my dorm to talk football, Fall 1978.  I stayed behind and we struck up a quick friendship.  Fred was smart, articulate, generous and kind.  And he could coach.  Sure, he had a predilection for putting his best athletes on defense, but he wasn't the offensive neanderthal that lesser minds would have you believe.  He was shit upon from the beginning - sabotage from within - yet his teams won, and won big.  It wasn't until the rest of the conference decided that utter chaotic cheating was the way to go did Fred encounter competitive issues.  
Even after the distasteful treatment he received, Fred remained around Austin, other than his time at Purdue.  And he was never bitter.  He remained better than his critics to the end.  He was never given the benefit of the doubt that our current embattled coach was;  otherwise he would have overcome the rampant cheating that was ultimately his undoing.  

RIP Coach.  RIP friend.

Very cool. I count myself very fortunate that I got to call him Coach. 

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Victorious1

Victorious1 140

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First Longhorn game I attended in person was '83 aggy game when I was 19 and I still have a picture of Fred when he walked by at halftime.  Aggy jumped out 0-13 in 1st quarter and I was thinking oh shit but Texas answered with 45 straight and Kyle Field was about 80% empty when the game ended.

I went to the '84 and '85 games against aggy which didn't work out so well against the cheatin' Sherrills and things had started sliding downhill.

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Revolution512

Revolution512 1487

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Fun look back...RIP coach.

 

A search will begin immediately for what has been one of the most high-profile football coaching jobs in the nation. Such names as Miami’s Jimmy Johnson, Arizona’s Larry Smith, Texas Tech’s David McWilliams (a former Texas assistant) and Arizona State’s John Cooper are among those being mentioned in early speculation.

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conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

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1 minute ago, Revolution512 said:

Fun look back...RIP coach.

 

A search will begin immediately for what has been one of the most high-profile football coaching jobs in the nation. Such names as Miami’s Jimmy Johnson, Arizona’s Larry Smith, Texas Tech’s David McWilliams (a former Texas assistant) and Arizona State’s John Cooper are among those being mentioned in early speculation.

Boy, you want to talk about changing CFB history if we went a different direction there.

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Gut Wagon

Gut Wagon 8065

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1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Yeah that seemed really strange. For someone that never got to see any of his teams, I certainly don't dislike him or harbor any ill will. He was trying to follow Queen at Live Aid and came up a little short. Still the 3rd best coach in program history and his teams were much closer to our standard than those of four of the five guys since. 

Like someone else said upthread, I'd give my left nut to get a guy on campus again that plays for a national title every 4-5 years and produces a Heisman winner. Whoever our next coach is, let's find a guy that can at least do what Akers did here before worrying about finding someone that can one up DKR. Akers wins at least one MNC in most timelines - just didn't happen in this one.

Timing has so much to do with perception of a coach or player's contributions. I was at UT for DKR's last season and Fred's first. DKR was beaten down at the end, and expectations weren't that high going into the 1977 season. Which of course made Fred's debut all the more magical. A healthy Earl, Brad Shearer, Lam Jones and a bunch of other bad hombres got rolling early and kept rolling. Fred was pretty much the king of Austin in no time, even though following right behind a Texas legend. Of course, had DKR retired while still on top, and then our team crashed in Fred's first year, the latter would have been run out of town before he ever even coached in the '84 Cotton Bowl.  

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Hagbard Celine

Hagbard Celine 10851

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.... let's examine coach akers against the yardstick.

W 1977 #5 Texas 13 - 6 Oklahoma #2

L 1978 #6 Texas 10 - 31 Oklahoma #1

W 1979 #4 Texas 16 - 7 Oklahoma #3

W 1980 #3 Texas 20 - 13 Oklahoma #12

W 1981 #3 Texas 34 - 14 Oklahoma #10

L 1982 #13 Texas 22 - 28 Oklahoma (UR)

W 1983 #2 Texas 28 - 16 Oklahoma #8

T 1984 #1 Texas 15 - 15 Oklahoma #3 (in all fairness, and i was 20 rows up in the endzone behind the call, but we got a gift phantom PI to get a walkoff tying field goal.)

L 1985 #17 Texas 7 - 14 Oklahoma #2

L 1986 UR Texas 12 - 47 Oklahoma #6

the tale of the tape says Coach Akers went 5-4-1 against 0u, but in reality that 1984 game would have ended in a L with Big12 officials.  recall at the time it was always OOC officials, neither SWC or Big8.  whoever that crew was, the SWC got the call that day.

Coach Akers greatest achievement was opening his career 5-2 against thieves including 3 in a row.  A quick scan of winsipedia shows 3 coaches won 3 in a row before the war.  Of course, Royal won more than 3 in a row.  And shockingliny we forget Peter frickin Gardere, who gave McWilliams the stunning accolade of also winning his last 3 in a row over 0u.  But no coach since then has managed it.  Mack fell short of 3 in a row 3 times.  And with the 4 assrapes plus 2004, Akers record in Fair Park is clearly superior to Mack's on balance.

In 4 of Fred's 5 wins in Fair Park, both teams were in the Top 10.  In 2 of those wins, both teams were Top 5.  That's stout.

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