Krister Eriksson was born in Upplands Vasby, Sweden, on Feb. 11, 1960, was a tennis and soccer star at Barton, where he was twice named (1982 and 1985) the school’s Kiwanis Male Athlete of the Year.
During his four years at Barton, the Bulldogs finished in the top 10 at Nationals each season under the direction of head coach Tom Parham, sharing the NAIA National Championship with Southwest Missouri Baptist in 1984 when Eriksson was captain. They won the Carolinas Conference and NAIA District 26 title all four years as well.
Eriksson earned All-Carolinas Conference honors in 1982, 1983 and 1984 and was All-District 26 in 1985, when he again served as captain. In 1982, ’83 and ’85 he earned Honorable Mention All-America honors.
Eriksson was honored to have played for Parham, who left Barton after Eriksson’s senior year having directed the Bulldogs to an amazing 14 consecutive district championships. His last season, Eriksson was seeded 17th at the NAIA Nationals, having gone 15-13 during his rigorous regular season. But he won two matches on the first day behind a bye, giving him the most singles wins at Nationals in school history at 14. He was the first Barton player to survive opening day and reach the Round of 32 in each of his four seasons.
In doubles, Eriksson teamed with Charles White (who succeeded Parham as coach the next season), as the No. 9 seed at Nationals in 1985, and they were the last to exit in Parham’s tenure, losing 7-6, 7-6 in the round of 32 and earning Honorable Mention All-America acclaim.
Eriksson played soccer in 1981, 1982 and 1984 (took one season off to work on his golf game) for head coach Mike Smith. The Bulldogs seized District 26 titles in 1981 and ’82. Eriksson served as co-captain in 1984. Barton set a school record for soccer wins with 15 (losing six) in 1981. The record was tied by the 1998 Bulldogs.
All total, Eriksson played on 12 Barton teams which won conference, district and national championships.
Eriksson went to high school in his hometown and received a computer science degree from Tekniska Hogkolan in Solna, Sweden. He spent one year doing mandatory military service as an officer before enrolling at Barton in the fall of 1981. Eriksson had an outstanding academic career at Atlantic Christian as well, finishing with a 3.2 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale.
Following graduation, he worked as an assistant tennis professional at Hope Valley Country Club in Durham, then took a job as a computer programmer for DataFlow Companies in Durham. He began working with Northern Telecom (now Nortel Networks) as a software engineer in 1987 and currently serves as its staff manager in Product Marketing.
He entered the prestigious Fuqua School of Business at Duke University as a student in its evening MBA program in 1989, eventually earning his MBA degree in 1991.
He and his wife, Susan Leary Eriksson (Barton Class of 1984), have been married since 1985 and currently reside in Cary. They are the proud parents of three daughters: Molly, Mia and Madeleine.
