In late February, Bob Fontana got a text message from one of his longtime coaching friends, Andy Howard, that stopped him in his tracks.
“Andy was telling me, ‘Congratulations. I’m proud of you,'” Fontana recalled. “I go, ‘What are you talking about?’, and he says, ‘You’re going into the Hall of Fame.’ And I told him, ‘Funny joke. Nobody has contacted me.'”
It turns out that Howard’s inside information was correct.
The next morning, Fontana got a call from the Iowa High School Athletic Association confirming the news. The former Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball coach will be inducted into the Iowa Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday night during the state tournament at the Casey’s Center.
“I was kind of stunned,” Fontana said. “I told Chris Cuellar (of the IHSAA) I’m very humbled and honored. I certainly didn’t expect it since it was just a year ago that I got out of coaching.”
Fontana, a 1977 Ankeny graduate, won 474 games in a 34-year coaching career. He coached at CWL (Corwith) and Carlisle before spending 16 years at Cedar Rapids Kennedy, where he went 228-136 to become the winningest coach in school history.
In 2013, Fontana returned to his hometown to begin the Centennial program. He led the Jaguars to a fourth-place finish in Class 4A in 2020, then guided them to state again in 2023.
Fontana guided Centennial to a 173-101 mark over 12 seasons before he retired last year. Overall, his teams won eight conference titles and made five state tournament appearances.
Fontana was named the state’s Coach of the Year by the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association in 2000. In 2025, he was the state of Iowa recipient of the John Wooden Legacy Coach of the Year award.
Fontana played basketball and football at Ankeny under legendary Hall of Fame coaches Larry Ireland and Jerry Pezzetti. He played basketball at Grand View before embarking on his coaching career.
Fontana’s uncle, Ray Fontana, was previously inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player.
“To be an inductee now with my old high school coach in there, and to join my uncle in the Hall of Fame, I just feel very honored and humbled,” Fontana said.
Fontana will be among six coaches and players in this year’s Hall of Fame class. The induction ceremony will take place during halftime of the Class 1A championship game, which begins at 5 p.m.
Fontana will be the guest on this week’s Ankeny Fanatic weekly podcast to discuss his Hall of Fame career.