On Monday former Texas Longhorns head football coach Fred Akers passed away at the age of 82. Akers was the first head coach to follow in the footsteps of legendary coach Darrell K. Royal in 1977. His first year he helped lead the team that led to Earl Campbell winning the Heisman Trophy. The Longhorns finished 11-0 in the regular season that year and were the No. 1 ranked team but fell to No. 5 Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl.
He would lead the team to another 11-0 regular season in 1983 where once again they entered the Cotton Bowl. This time as the No. 2 ranked team in the country but would lose to Georgia by one point. Overall, Akers is the third-winningest coach in school history behind Royal and Mack Brown. He was never able to win that National Championship like the other two top coaches.
Akers played at Arkansas in 1958-59 along with a coach he would face every season in Barry Switzer. After coaching a year at Lubbock High School, Akers joined the Longhorns staff as the co-offensive coordinator and would take the head coaching job at Wyoming before returning as the head coach in 1977. At Texas, Akers record finished at 86-31-2.
Under his watch, Akers produced a record 18 NFL Draft selections from that 1983 team. He was inducted into the Hall of Honor in 2015, as well as the Texas Sports and Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame in 2016.
“It’s a very sad day with the news of the passing of one of our Longhorn Legends in Coach Akers,” head coach Tom Herman said. “In the opportunities I had to spend time with Coach, he was always so warm and gracious. The many, many great players he had at Texas have always shared such fond memories, too. He had tremendous success here and was a highly respected, all-time great in our coaching fraternity and beyond. On behalf of the Texas Football program, we send our sincere condolences to his family, friends, the numerous Longhorns he coached and worked with, as well as the many people whose lives he impacted.” – Herman on Akers
It is a sad time for all of the Texas Longhorns family and fan base. Rest in peace coach Fred Akers.