POSITION: Director of Men's and Women's Track & Field
ALMA MATER: Northern Iowa, 1979
YEARS AT EIU: 24th year
Tom Akers was inducted into the Illinois Track and Field Hall of Fame in December of 2015, one of the many highlights he has had in his 20-plus years as the director of Eastern Illinois Track and Field. Akers created one of the most dominant programs in the Ohio Valley Conference across any sport serving as the head coach for 24 seasons prior to his retirement from EIU following the 2017-18 season.
Since Eastern Illinois joined the Ohio Valley Conference in 1996-97, the Panthers men’s track and field programs have won an unprecedented 32 OVC titles. The Panthers have 17 indoor track titles (1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017) and 15 outdoor titles (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015). In 2009 he took over duties as the women’s track head coach leading the Panthers to four straight OVC Women’s Indoor and Outdoor titles from 2009-12. The women have added three additional outdoor titles in 2013, 2016 and 2017 and returned to the top of the podium with indoor championships in 2015 and 2017. Akers has been named the OVC Coach of the Year a total of 42 times.
Akers is the director of the Panthers track and field/cross country programs while serving as the head coach for both the men’s and women’s track and field programs. He currently coaches middle distance, hurdles, jumps, pole vault and sprints as his specialty area but has coached every event area during his long coaching career. He served as the interim head coach in spring of 1995 before being named head coach for the 1996 season. During his first two seasons EIU competed in the Mid-Continent Conference sweeping the indoor and outdoor championships both seasons. He was promoted to Director of Track/Field and Cross Country in 2002. During his tenure as head coach, EIU has had nine Division I first team All-Americans and a total of 20 All-Americans (first, second and honorable mention honors). At the OVC level EIU has won more than 200 individual OVC conference champions with 26 OVC Athletes of the Year, eight OVC Freshmen of the Year and seven OVC Championship MVP’s.
One of the 24 OVC Athletes of the Year was Zye Boey who posted one of the most decorated seasons in school history under Akers tutelage. Boey earned first team All-American honors in the 200m dash at the NCAA Indoor National Championships. He would later earn All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor National Championships in 100m and 200m sprints. In the summer of 2012 Boey competed at the US Olympic Trials in both events. Boey finished his career with a grand total of five All-American honors, five OVC Track Athlete of the Year honors, five OVC Championship MVP awards and OVC Freshman of the Year honors.
From 1983-90, Akers was an EIU assistant coach when the Panthers won six indoor/outdoor Mid-Continent Conference championships. He was responsible for recruiting and coaching EIU’s first NCAA Division I National Champion, Jim Maton from Shelbyville, who was a four time NCAA All-American in 1987-88. Maton won the 800 meter run (1:49.3) at the 1988 NCAA indoor championship. A multiple Mid-Continent Conference champion and league ‘Athlete of the Year’, Maton holds most school records in the middle distance events.
Akers also recruited Dan Steele from Sherrard High School. He was a two time Division I All-American and national champion in the 400 hurdles in 1992. His twin brother, Darrin, was an All-American decathlete in 1992. Both were members of the USA Olympic Bobsled Team that competed in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, and then Dan was a member of the Bronze Medal winning bobsled team at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
As the program director, EIU has added nine first team All-American honors with the most recent coming by Peter Geraghty in the outdoor pole vault in 2014. Jade Riebold earned All-American honors in the women’s pole vault placed second in the nation at the 2013 indoor national championships and third at the 2014 outdoor national championships. Mick Viken earned first team All-American honors in the 2013 indoor pole vault. Boey was a first team All-American in the 200m indoor meet in 2011. Ron White posted outdoor All-American honors in the javelin in 2000 and 2002. Gabe Spezia was a two-time All-American in the indoor hurdles in 1999 and 2000. In his final year as the Panthers head coach Akers overaw the development of high jumper Haleigh Knapp as she finished 12th at the NCAA Indoor National Championships in 2018 becoming only the second EIU female athlete to earn Indoor All-America honors.
In 2009 EIU climbed as high as No. 33 in the Indoor National rankings as senior David Holm and freshman Zye Boey both advanced to the NCAA Indoor National Championships. In terms of records EIU athletes have set 19 men's and 22 women's school records during Akers tenure as head coach.
From 1990-94, Akers was a member of the department of Exercise and Sport Sciences at the University of Arizona. During his tenure there, he served as the assistant track coach at Palo Verde High School in 1992, and then started the boys/girls track program at Catalina Foothills High School in Tucson.
Akers received his undergraduate degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 1979. While there he was a two-time co-captain and set school and conference records in the 110 and 400 meter hurdles. His conference record in the 110 stood for 17 years until broken in 1996. An eight-time national qualifier, he earned 1979 All-American honors in the 400 hurdles.
He and his wife, Joelyn, have two sons, Clayton and Blake.