The history of sports in Northern Kentucky goes back a long way. A very long way. Decades. Centuries.
We know you’ve seen these lists before, but this is a different and unique way of presenting our “50 sports icons in Northern Kentucky” as we’ll provide you one per day over the next 50 days.
Hall of Fames are everywhere in NKY, the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, NKU, Thomas More and local high schools all have something to recognize their past.
We’ll preface this series by saying this, some of you may disagree with who should or shouldn’t be in the top 50 and that’s fine. Plenty are in the Hall of Very Good, but we feel these 50 are the one’s who stuck out to us.
Sports Editor Evan Dennison spoke and conferred with several local NKY sports history buffs to get their opinions and lists of their own and who should be “locks” for the 50 sports icons. We compiled each list and came up with the 50 of our own (maybe cheated a little by putting families in as one) to present over the next 50 days.
Hope you enjoy as summer time rolls on!
The 46th of the 50 sports icons is Bill Aker. The longtime NKU baseball coach who got baseball up off the ground in Highland Heights.
BILL AKER
Bill Aker is a big reason why Northern Kentucky University baseball is where it’s at today. The Holmes grad started the baseball program when the university was then known as Northern Kentucky State College in 1971 and served as head coach for 29 years.
Aker led NKU to two World Series appearances (1979, 1985) during his tenure and finished with 807 career victories. The win total puts him 19th all-time in Division II for wins. He earned Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 1992 and 2000.
In 1977, Aker led the Norse to a program record 49 wins and two years later guided them to their first regional championship in program history. He was named Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year in those two seasons as well as 1981. He was also named NAIA Area IV Coach of the Year in 1985 after leading NKU to the NAIA World Series.
Aker’s teams won at least 30 games 11 times and 40 wins four times.
Aker sent numerous NKU players to the professional level, including pitcher Chris Hook. Hook became the first NKU player to make the Major Leagues when he made his debut in 1995 for the San Francisco Giants.
Aker retired from coaching after the 2000 season, and he was inducted into the David Lee Holt NKU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003. NKU’s current field is named after Aker, the Bill Aker Baseball Complex. Aker died in 2011.
See the 50 sports icons on a day-to-day basis over the next 50 days
— Day 1: Dave Cowens
— Day 2: Shaun Alexander
— Day 3: Homer Rice
— Day 4: Dicky Beal
— Day 5: Jared Lorenzen
— Day 6: Jim Bunning
— Day 7: Tom Ellis
— Day 8: Nate Dusing
— Day 9: Jim Connor
— Day 10: Steve Cauthen
— Day 11: Irv Goode
— Day 12: Stan Steidel
— Day 13: Kenney Shields
— Day 14: David Justice
— Day 15: Morgan Hentz
— Day 16: Eddie Arcaro
— Day 17: Nancy Winstel
— Day 18: Steve Flesch
— Day 19: Donna Murphy
— Day 20: Randy Marsh
— Day 21: Mike Yeagle
— Day 22: Derrick Barnes
— Day 23: Dale Mueller
— Day 24: Dave Faust
— Day 25: Kirsten Allen
— Day 26: The Oldendick family
— Day 27: Martin “Mote” Hils
— Day 28: Nell Fookes
— Day 29: Owen Hauck
— Day 30: Becky Ruehl
— Day 31: Tom Thacker
— Day 32: Sydney Moss
— Day 33: Bob Schneider
— Day 34: The Walz family
— Day 35: John Toebben
— Day 36: Pat Scott
— Day 37: Bob Arnzen
— Day 38: Joan Mazzaro
— Day 39: Frank Jacobs
— Day 40: Adrienne Hundemer
— Day 41: The Draud family
— Day 42: Bill Krumpelbeck
— Day 43: The Molony family
— Day 44: Allen Feldhaus
— Day 45: The Maile family
— Day 46: Maureen Egan Corl
— Day 47: Bill Aker
— Day 48: Maureen Kaiser
— Day 49: John Brannen
— Day 50: Mike Bankemper