As the Ohio Valley Conference celebrates its 75th anniversary this academic year, we look back at Eastern Illinois part in that history each Tuesday
Two former legendary EIU coaches are both members of the OVC Hall of Fame 🏆 with 🏈 EIU football coach Bob Spoo and 👟 EIU track & field coach Tom Akers.
BOB SPOO - OVC HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2012
Spoo wrapped up 25 years (1987-2011) as head football coach at Eastern Illinois in 2011, finishing his career with 144 career victories, nine Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) Playoff appearances (the fifth-most in FCS/I-AA history), five OVC Championships (2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2009) and three OVC Coach of the Year awards (2001, 2005, 2009).
After EIU joined the OVC in 1996, Spoo recorded 92 total victories (fifth-most in league history) and 68 total OVC wins (fourth-most in league history).
In 2000 Spoo was the national runner-up for the Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year and in 2009 he was named a finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award. He was awarded the Football Gazette I-AA Coach of the Year award in 1995.
Overall Spoo was a coach for 50 years, making stops at several high schools, Wisconsin and Purdue before coming to Eastern Illinois. At EIU he coached seven players named either OVC Offensive or Defensive Player of the Year, including quarterback Tony Romo who won the Walter Payton Award as the FCS's National Player of the Year in 2002.
Spoo played collegiate football at Purdue, earning three letters and following NFL Hall of Famer Len Dawson at quarterback in 1957; he led the Boilermakers to a two-year record of 11-5 and co-captained the 1958 Blue team in the Blue-Gray All-Star Game.
TOM AKERS - OVC HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2020
In 23 years with the Eastern Illinois track and field program, Akers built the Panthers program into one of the most successful in OVC history, helping the program win a combined 45 indoor and outdoor men's and women's championships. Akers took over as the men's track and field coach in 1995 and in 2009 also took over the reigns of the women's program; he retired from coaching following the 2018 season.
Akers led Eastern Illinois to 32 men's and 13 women's championships and was named OVC Coach of the Year 45 times. That included winning eight-straight men's outdoor crowns (1997-2004) and seven-straight men's indoor crowns (2001-07). Along the way he coached 200 individual OVC champions, 26 OVC Athletes of the Year, seven OVC Championship Meet MVP's and eight OVC Freshmen of the Year recipients.
Twenty of his athletes would go on to earn All-American status, including nine being first-team honorees. In addition seven would go on to compete in the Olympic Trials. Akers was inducted into the Illinois Track & Field Hall of Fame in December 2015.
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