Texas Monthly article by Richard Justice
Fred Akers, 1938–2020: A Remembrance
" .... Akers, however, didn’t try to emulate his predecessor’s charm. In ten seasons at Texas, Akers appears never to have uttered a memorable or controversial quote. His former defensive coordinator, Phil Bennett, told the Austin American-Statesman that Akers “was absolutely one of the finest and most balanced human beings I’ve ever been around, besides being a Hall of Fame coach.” Once, when Southern Methodist University coach Ron Meyer lost his place during a speech and quipped, “Excuse me a Fred Akers moment,” we reporters ran to Akers for reaction and got nothing. Well, we got one thing: Texas 30, SMU 6.
Months later, when someone brought up Meyer’s quote, Akers may have smiled. Years later I asked him about that game, and he still wouldn’t bite. He may have smiled at the memory, but maybe that’s just how I choose to remember it.
His strength was not in Xs and Os, although he was plenty good at both. His strength was not in hiring good coaches, although he did a good job there too. More than anything else, Akers understood how to build a winning culture. He did that with a singular, steely, and unwavering focus: all that mattered was winning that day, that week, that game. “He was one of those guys who, over the years, you realize that part of your lifestyle is based on things you learned from him,” Doug Dawson, an All-America offensive lineman, told the Houston Chronicle. “I call it ‘delusional optimism’—the ability to visualize success at every level.”
Donnie Little, who became the first Black quarterback to start for the Longhorns, told the Chronicle: “You could feel his honesty when he was sitting [in] our living room with my parents. He was preaching how he wanted to make change and make history at UT, and he was a man of his word.”
One Friday afternoon before a game against Rice, I sat in Akers’s office and began asking questions about the following week’s game against Oklahoma. These questions did not anger him. He simply could not comprehend thinking about Oklahoma when he was only thinking about Rice. I pestered for a bit, promised not to use any of the quotes until the following week, did everything I could to persuade the coach to look past lowly Rice and ahead to the next week’s opponent. He wouldn’t do it. Akers believed that if he allowed his focus to veer from Rice for even a second, his players might pick up on it.
Finally, grudgingly, he walked over to a photograph of the Longhorns coming down the tunnel for an OU game and pointed. “Look at their eyes,” he said. “Tells you everything.” In the photograph, the players’ eyes—open wide, nervous, thrilled—made it clear that the Longhorns needed no extra motivation against the Sooners...."
This is the referenced picture
The sig on the rt is Terry Tausch who passed this past March
#28 is Bobby Johnson
