It was like any other day — until the phone rang.
When Akil Mills answered, he wasn't expecting news that would honor years of sacrifice, grit and perseverance. He thought something was wrong, or that Illinois State Athletics Director Dr. Jeri Beggs was reaching out to ask him for help with something.
"No," Mills remembers her saying. "I just wanted to welcome you into the Percy Family Hall of Fame."
Equally grateful and surprised by the news, Mills hung up the phone and immediately told his wife, Sammi, whom he met through the track & field team at ISU over a decade ago. Then, Mills called his parents and sister, who still reside in his home state of Georgia.
"It was a very emotional call," said Mills. "With the challenges that I went through in high school and being underdeveloped, they were really proud of this moment."
Mills is one of four athletes to be inducted Saturday into the Illinois State Athletics Percy Family Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class.
A two-time Missouri Valley Conference Champion and three-time NCAA All-American with the Redbirds, Mills is etched into ISU's record books. He holds the second-farthest weight throw and hammer throw in program history.
Mills' path to the Hall of Fame was far from perfect, though.
Growing up, football and basketball didn't quite fit. In his junior year at Grayson High School in Logansville, Ga., a friend named Nabil Muburak invited him to a throwing practice. Mills said his first shot put throw went about 40 feet. It was raw, unrefined — but it sparked something inside of him.
"It was the first time I felt like I had found something that was mine," he recalls. "It was somewhere I could test myself, somewhere I could grow. As soon as I picked up the shot put or the hammer or the weight, it felt like something I was naturally born to do."
He kept practicing, and by his senior year, Mills began to show real potential to compete at a higher level. Still, his lack of experience made some college coaches hesitant to take a chance on him.
Academics were another hurdle. Because of a learning disability, Mills said he was on an individualized education plan, and standardized testing was especially challenging. It took six attempts before he finally earned the ACT score he needed to qualify for college athletics.
"At that point, I felt overlooked — not just by schools but by the system itself," Mills said. "That's really where the chip on my shoulder came from. I wanted to prove that I belonged, that I could take every 'no' and turn it into a reason to work harder."
He just needed someone to believe in him, and former Illinois State throws coach Erik Whitsitt did. Whitsitt gave Mills the opportunity to come on a visit. Mills hopped on a plane in Georgia, landed at the Central Illinois Regional Airport, took the 15-minute drive to ISU's campus and "the rest was history."
"Looking back, I think having to take the ACT six times was a blessing in disguise," said Mills. "It gave me a lot of grit and gave me that chip on my shoulder that I think I needed at the time. It sort of laid the foundation for how I approached everything in my life."
Adjusting to the quiet, slow pace of Bloomington-Normal took time. But it also gave him room to focus, and it didn't take long before the town started to feel like home.
A couple of years after Mills arrived on campus, Whittsitt took a job with the Oregon Ducks. When the newly appointed throws coach, Scott Bennett, arrived, Mills developed from a talented but unpolished thrower into a disciplined, strategic competitor. He immersed himself in every aspect of his craft. What began as a pursuit to prove doubters wrong evolved into a drive to outdo his own limits.
"Scott helped me mature psychologically and think of my sport through a different lens," he said. "I actually started studying different things and focusing on my mechanics, agility, weightlifting and what was going into my body."
Outside of competition, Mills found a sense of belonging among his teammates, who he said became like family to him. Through grueling practices, long bus rides and grocery shopping, they built a culture of accountability, laughter and shared ambition.
Several of those former teammates will be back on campus on Oct. 18 to celebrate his HOF induction, including sprinter Antonio Farley and throwers Jamaal Bearden and Luke Wielgopolan. Mills' wife and his family from Georgia will also make the trip to Normal.
"These are the people who have been with me through the toughest times of my life," Mills said. "They know exactly what this means to me because they've heard my story and seen it in real time."
After graduating from ISU in 2014, Mills had to rediscover who he was outside of athletics, but his competitive mindset never left. He returned home to Georgia, spending more than seven years in law enforcement, including three as a Deputy Marshal.
When he and his wife, Sammi, relocated to the Indianapolis area, Mills served four years as an investigator and detective where he led complex criminal fraud investigations.
"That experience shaped how I think," Mills said. "It taught me how to stay calm under pressure, how to read people and how to connect dots others might miss."
Mills then transitioned to the corporate world — first investigating fraud for major organizations and now serving as a Senior Privacy Consultant. In that role, he helps companies navigate data protection, regulatory compliance and incident response investigations.
"I still approach every organizational situation like I'm in competition," he said. "I study tape — just like I used to — only now it's data, risk and behavior patterns. The goal's the same: stay disciplined, stay prepared and perform when it matters most."
While Mills said he's nearing the top of his career, his "most important role yet" will begin in November, when he and Sammi are set to welcome their first child.
"I think my priorities are somewhat shifting for the better, and that perspective makes this Hall of Fame moment even more meaningful," said Mills. "It's not just about what I did at Illinois State, but it's about the values I get to pass down, whether it be discipline, perseverance or the belief that you don't need a perfect path to achieve success."
