The Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame inducted five new members on Wednesday at the Gardens in Park Hills. This month’s class included Robert (Bo) Kemper, Glenn Coyle, Eric Neuhaus, Ted Volpenhein and Gary Akers.
Kemper is a 1962 Covington Catholic graduate and a standout baseball and softball player. He played area softball for 24-plus years, but says his greatest accomplishment came as a coach and organizer. He was instrumental in developing the instructional basketball program for first and second-graders at Villa Madonna.
Coyle graduated from Dixie Heights in 1969 and was an All-Region, All-Conference and Honorable Mention All-State player during his senior campaign. Coyle helped the Colonels to a district title during his junior year and was later inducted into the Dixie Heights Hall of Fame
Neuhaus ran on three state cross country championship teams while at St. Henry High School, graduating in 1997. He attended Wilmington College where he was a three-time Academic All-American. As a runner in Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon, he won his age group in 2006 – a year later competing in the Boston Marathon. Neuhaus also coached cross country at St. Henry, leading them to five consecutive state titles and named Coach of the Year twice by the Kentucky Track and Cross Country Coaches Association. He later went on to coach at the University of Cincinnati.
Volpenhein was a two-sport athlete at Covington Catholic in basketball and softball and later went on to play at Thomas More as a walk-on in basketball. As a member of the Saints basketball team, he was named team MVP twice where he was the leading scorer and rebounder and hit the game-winning buzzer-beater against Xavier in 1972, the Saints first ever win over a Division I team.
Akers, a 1961 graduate of Betsy Layne High School, arrived at Bellevue High School in 1969 to coach basketball. He started out as a JV basketball coach from 1969-73, becoming the varsity coach in 1973-79. He guided the Tigers to the semifinals in the region in ‘76, the first time the program did so since ‘49. Akers was named Ninth Region co-Coach of the Year that season.
John Erardi, a Northern Kentucky resident and former sports writer and columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, served as the guest speaker.
