Hall of Fame
Tom was a two-sport student-athlete at Western from 1964-1968. He excelled in two of the most physical contact sports college had to offer, football and wrestling. However, his success was widely due to his hard work ethic.
The Denver, Colorado native found success early on in his college career. As a freshman, he was a part of the 1964 football team who helped put the Mountaineers on the national map and set the standard for all other teams to follow.
The 1964 team produced an undefeated season but fell to North Dakota State 14-13 at the Mineral Water Bowl, a small college national championship game. Tom continued to excel on the field, becoming a four-year letter winner. He was a three-time All-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) selection as a defensive tackle and played on a total of three RMAC Championship teams from 1964-1966.
Off the football field and on the wrestling mat, Tom continued to be a dominate force for Western athletics. He was a three-year letter winner in wrestling and a heavyweight National Champion in 1966. He is one of 14 Mountaineers in program history to ever earn a national title.
Tom was also a two-time RMAC Champion (1966, 1968), and earned five All-American honors, three at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) College Division and two at the University Division.
In 1969, Tom graduated from Western, and four years later he started the first-ever wrestling program at Pomona High School (1973). He would remain the head coach until he retired in 2002, but during his coaching tenure, he guided the Panthers to two state championships (2000, 2001) and produced 17 individual state champions.
Since then, Tom transitioned into a volunteer coaching position for the Panthers. He has been inducted into several hall of fames starting with the Western Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. A year later, he was inducted into the NCAA Division II Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 1998, and in 2003 and 2006, he was inducted into the Colorado High School Coaches Association (CHSCA) Hall of Fame and Jefferson County Hall of Fame, respectively. Tom earned the NCAA Division I Lifetime Achievement award in 2004 and a 40-year award for coaching at Pomona High School in 2017. His most recent induction into the Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame also came in 2017 as a member of the 1964 Football Team.