Tom Holmoe

Thomas Allen Holmoe is a former professional football player and coach. He was the Director of Athletics at Brigham Young University, the first to direct both men’s and women’s athletics. On February 12, he announced his retirement effective the following August. With 20 years, he was the longest-tenured athletic director in BYU history.[1]

Among his accomplishments include steering BYU’s football program out of the Mountain West Conference and through 12 years as an independent, while other sports excluding men’s volleyball, competed in the West Coast Conference. Three years ago, on Sept. 10, 2021, BYU was invited to join the Big 12 in all sports, but men’s volleyball, and become a longed-for member of the lucrative Power Four fraternities. . . .

“A spirit pervaded the whole (athletic) department that felt fair and kind, demanded excellence and it got the most out of you,” Steve Young said. “In the end, for 20 years he developed athletes and Saints. He was the perfect AD for BYU, and I can’t thank him enough.”[2]

Holmoe was born March 7, 1960, in Los Angeles and reared in La Crescenta, California. He played both basketball and football in high school and went to BYU on a football scholarship. He was a defensive back from 1978 to 1982. He led the Western Athletic Conference in 1980 with seven interceptions and earned all-WAC honors as a senior in 1982. The team won the conference championship during each of his four years at BYU. While at BYU, Holmoe met his wife, Lori Wright, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He later joined the Church. Holmoe earned a bachelor’s degree in Zoology in 1983 and received his master’s degree in Athletic Administration in 1995.

During the 1983 NFL Draft, Holmoe was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth round. He played with the 49ers for seven years and won three Super Bowl rings (1984, 1988, and 1989). He retired in 1989 due to a knee injury. He later acquired a fourth Super Bowl ring with the 49ers when he was defensive backfield coach.

He was a graduate assistant under LaVell Edwards from 1990 to 1991, then went to Stanford as secondary coach in 1992 and stayed for two seasons. While there, the team became the Pac-10 co-conference champions.

Holmoe went to the 49ers as defensive backfield coach for two seasons. He then joined the University of California staff as defensive coordinator and became the head coach from 1997 till 2001. He resigned after a disappointing season for the team. In 2001, he became Associate Athletics Director for Development at BYU and then was appointed Director of Athletics at BYU on March 1, 2005. He hired both football coach Bronco Mendenhall and basketball coach Dave Rose. Both coaches led their teams to national prominence. He also hired coaches Kalani Sitake, Mark Pope, and Kevin Young. Not to mention BYU's "nationally-ranked men’s and women’s track and field program and cross-country program with Ed Eyestone and Diljeet Taylor and he certainly pushed women’s soccer and men’s and women’s volleyball to the highest level of play in the country."[3]

In June 2014, Holmoe was appointed to the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. He served for two years, finishing Jamie Zaninovich’s term.

Holmoe and his wife, Lori, have four children and live in Provo, Utah.

• Deseret News, "Steve Young tips his hat to Tom Holmoe, the ‘right man for the job’"
• Tom Holmoe on Legends
• Deseret News, "Tom Holmoe leaves a BYU legacy of class, monumental milestones and big moves"
• Deseret News, "Tom Holmoe wasn’t just BYU’s AD. He was the Halloween king. Here are his costumes from the past 10 years"
• Deseret News, "Tom Holmoe reflects on faith, experiences after two decades as BYU’s athletic director"