![]() In his first game as a Cyclone he made a one handed TD catch against Northern Iowa which put Iowa State ahead, although they eventually lost this game. He was still on the roster to start 2016 as Head coach Matt Campbell kept him on the team. He redshirted his freshman year, but Rhodes got fired which threw a specter of doom on his scholarship. He became a two sport star in high school, but his grades dropped since his mom’s death, Paul Rhodes, the head coach of Iowa State, was one of the few to offer him a scholarship. Hakeem is very competitive, and playing against two cousins who were better than him in basketball made him work even harder. Playing basketball with his cousins helped him get coordinated, especially his footwork. You see, Hakeem was always a big kid, but he was awkward and needed to grow into his body. They became like brothers to him and helped him in ways he couldn’t even imagine. Hakeem and his siblings moved to Texas and lived with the family of his cousins Aaron and Andrew Harrison who became Kentucky basketball stars. “Losing my mom,” Hakeem reflected, “that took my heart away from me for a long time.” He was dad, son and brother all rolled into one. He would take her to the doctors, cleaned the house and cooked for the four of them. Hakeem would do the shopping, help his siblings with homework, and even carry his mom up and down the stairs. Then disaster struck when Hakeem’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when he was 13. They soon moved into another house away from the drugs, and everyone had their own room. Things got better when his mom got a job with the Postal Service. My mom kept us on the straight and narrow. For me, growing up, that’s just the way it was. “Every day you’d see something new,” Hakeem said. His mom always put the children first, and the children always had enough food and even toys like other kids. They lived in a one bedroom house for years with bunk beds to sleep on. He barely remembers him and hasn’t spoken to him since he left. ![]() He could play outside as a kid but had to run home as soon as the the streetlights came on. Hakeem grew up in a poor section of Baltimore surrounded by drugs, crime and violence. He is a good kid who grew up fast in a poor neighborhood but not the way you might think. More notably, he averaged 22 yards on his 60 receptions despite having a true freshman QB most of the year. He and David Montgomery were the unquestioned offensive leaders of an upstart Iowa State team in 2018. Hakeem Butler is an impressive looking receiver with an alpha dog mentality. Hakeem Butler 6’ 6” 225 lbs WR Iowa State#18
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