(August 4, 2004) - Two former Fordham athletes, Bobby Kingsbury and Mobolaji Akiode, will be competing in the 2004 Summer Olympics Games held in Athens, Greece. Kingsbury will be playing for the Greece Olympic Baseball team, while Mobolaji Akiode will be playing for the Nigerian Olympic Women??s Basketball team.
Kingsbury, who currently plays for the Hickory Crawdads (NC), the Single A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was the first baseball player to earn back-to-back Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Awards in 2001 and 2002. He was named First Team All-Atlantic 10 in each of the seasons, while garner All-Northeast Region honor in 2002. Following his junior season, he was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the eighth round (223rd overall) of Major League Baseball Draft. Kingsbury finished his Fordham career ranked in the top ten in eight different offensive categories, including home runs (3rd - 27), doubles (3rd - 45), triples (T3rd - 12), total bases (5th - 340), stolen bases (6th -67), RBI (7th - 120), hits (T8th - 190), and batting average (8th - .352).
Akiode joins fellow Atlantic 10 player and former George Washington standout Ugo Oha on the Nigerian Women??s Basketball team. Akiode had an outstanding Fordham career, which was capped off by receiving the Atlantic 10 Most Improved Player Award, following the 2002-03 season, where she was a Second Team All-Atlantic 10 selection. She also earned First Team All-Metropolitan honors in 2002-03, after leading the Rams in scoring at 16.5 ppg and scoring 495 points, which stands as the ninth best single season point total in Fordham history. She also became just the eighth Fordham player to record 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in her career. Akiode ranks among the top ten all-time scorers and rebounders in the program??s history with 1,167 points and 554 rebounds.
Fordham has sent a number of athletes to the Olympics. Most notable was Tom Courtney, a track star for Fordham in the 1950??s, who won Olympic Gold in the 800 meters at the 1956 Olympic Games, setting a new Olympic record at the time.
Kingsbury and Akoide join three Fordham alumni who will be announcing the games for NBC. Bob Papa, Mike Breen and Spero Dedes will also be calling the action at the Summer Games. Papa, a 1986 Fordham graduate, will handle boxing, Breen, a 1983 graduate, will cover men??s basketball and Dedes, who graduated in 2001, will call the play-by-play for field hockey in Athens. All three received their start in the announcing profession at Fordham??s radio station, WFUV.
