MIAC Release

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Saint John's University's Bob Alpers '82 and Jerry Haugen '76 were honored with the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's (MIAC) Distinguished Service Award last week.
 
Alpers was presented with the award at the MIAC Athletic Director Council meetings at St. Olaf and Haugen was honored at the MIAC Baseball Tournament in Collegeville.

The duo now brings the total of SJU's awardees to six: John Gagliardi (2013), Jim Smith (2015), Dr. Ken Jones (2022) and Tim Miles '76 (2024).

Alpers is retiring after 47 years in Collegeville. He spent 29 seasons as the Johnnies' golf coach, leading the program to 13 MIAC titles, 20 NCAA Tournament appearances and a pair of Division III national championships. He also spent 20 years as an assistant basketball coach and served as an assistant for the Johnnies' baseball and soccer teams. 

He has overseen Johnnie athletics since 2016, leading a department that has accounted for 19 regular-season conference titles, five playoff championships, and 20 NCAA appearances in that time. He has also served as the Chair of the MIAC AD Council, AD Liaison for men's and women's golf and participated in several MIAC subcommittees.

A fixture at SJU for the past 52 years, Haugen spent 48 of those years as the Johnnies' head baseball coach in the spring and football defensive coordinator in the fall. He collected a 916-736-5 (.554) record as head baseball coach and a 421-99-5 (.807) mark in football. The 29 postseason trips in football consisted of 70 games – a 44-26 record – which accounts for nearly seven additional seasons in playoff contests alone.

He also spent four years as SJU's head ice hockey coach and eight seasons as an assistant basketball coach for the school. Haugen has been part of 37 MIAC championship squads and made 43 national tournament appearances in his more than half a century in Collegeville.