Former Bearcat Becker among MIAA HOF class
DAVID MERRILL/DAILY FORUM
Former Northwest Missouri State University football standout Aaron Becker, left, poses with MIAA Commissioner Mike Racy after Becker was voted into the MIAA Hall of Fame on Monday night. Zimmerman was voted the Ken B. Jones Award Winner.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As far as Northwest Missouri State University football is concerned, the past met the present Monday night in Kansas City. On the same night that Kyle Zimmerman was selected as the Ken B Jones Award winner, Aaron Becker, who played defensive tackle for Northwest from 1997-2000, was elected into the MIAA Hall of Fame.
He gave plenty of thanks to his teammates and coaches.
“I’m a product of some great teams and playing with some great players,” Becker said. “Just to be recognized, with this group especially, is pretty special.”
Becker earned All-America honors twice while also earning All-MIAA accolades three times. He was part of the 1998 and 1999 national championship teams under then-coach Mel Tjeerdsma. Becker was part of four MIAA championships and is third on the all-time tackles for loss list and eighth on the all-time sacks list.
While he enjoyed winning, he said the overall experience of just being around his teammates.
“Being a Bearcat is so much more than what happens on the field on Saturdays,” he said. “I remember losing my last game against North Dakota State my (redshirt) senior year in the playoffs after being No. 1 all year. It wasn’t so much the fact that I wasn’t going to play football anymore [that hurt so much]. Guys are moving on and graduating. You live with those guys 24 hours a day and those are the guys you spend all your time with. It was never going to be the same.
“Football always comes to an end sometime, but it’s just realizing that Monday morning, there’s not going to be weight room sessions or practices with those guys.”
Tjeerdsma said it was a good night all around for the Bearcat Athletic program
“It’s a great event, and I’m really honored that we had some Northwest people honored,” he said. “Starting with Kyle and all he’s done at Northwest. I had Aaron his whole career and I enjoyed him so much. He overcame an unbelievable injury (torn ACL) in what would have been his senior year and came back and had a great fifth year. He led us to a national championship in 1998.”
Now, Becker is playing for a different team.
Shortly after graduating from Northwest, he taught first grade for two years in Liberty before becoming a firefighter in Kansas City, where he currently resides.
He said it’s something he just kind of fell into.
“There had been some Northwest guys who had gotten on the fire department before me, and said I should test,” he said. “I tested and I tested out well, and before I knew it I was sitting in the firehouse. It was never a childhood dream, but I just kind of ended up there and it’s been a great career for 14 years now.”
Becker, who attended Millard South in Omaha, joined the Northwest ‘M’ Club Hall of Fame in 2012. He was one of three brothers to play for Northwest under Tjeerdsma. Matt Becker played from 1994-97, while Dan Becker played from 1998-2001.
