Tom Holmoe somehow worked himself into being the longest-tenured athletic director in BYU history.
And he did it as well as any person could.
On Wednesday, Holmoe will formally announce his retirement at a press conference in Provo. He’ll stay on the job through April before putting his family atop his list full time.
His last act will be going on a cruise ship to the Mexican Riviera with coaches, players and buffet lines full of fans.
Not a bad way to sail away.
Does he belong on the Mount Rushmore of BYU sports? If it’s for administrators with a sprinkle of athletic prowess mixed in, the answer is yes.
Nobody’s done it longer with so many landmark hurdles to manage.
I remember the day Holmoe signed a letter of intent to play football at BYU back in 1978, a time when the Cougars were heading into a unique stretch of WAC championships under LaVell Edwards.
Like it was yesterday, I recall a trip to the Big Five Huddle in Salt Lake City with Holmoe in a van, a weekly press event wherein the state’s media came to listen to coaches and players. It was my first face-to-face conversation with the budding star cornerback, although I talked to him on the phone when he signed a letter of intent out of LaCrescenta Valley High in California.
Holmoe was kind, approachable, articulate, plugged in, responsive and extremely friendly.
He hasn’t changed a bit in all the 47 years I’ve known him. But I had no idea he’d one day earn four Super Bowl rings, three as a player with the San Francisco 49ers and one as a coach with legendary Bill Walsh.
I had no idea he’d someday be BYU’s athletic director following Val Hale, Rondo Fehlberg and the legendary Glen Tuckett.
None of them had a 20-year run as AD.
And, as mentioned, none of those guys had the kind of obstacles Holmoe had to maneuver.
Holmoe’s highlights as the leader of BYU’s athletic program include piloting BYU out of the Mountain West Conference into the challenging and uncharted territory of independence. Then, during that stretch, he was tasked with preparing BYU to become attractive for Power Five membership.
That wasn’t easy.
The challenges to make that happen ranged from “no way” to “maybe” and then reality.
It involved not only financial rungs to climb, but academic, social and cultural hurdles in a liberal universe that is not exactly accepting of candidates with conservative religious leanings.
Holmoe proved a worthy leader, one who could speak multiple academic and sports dialects to the right people, and as a former head football coach at far left Cal-Berkeley, he knew which battle lines to cross.
Holmoe was tasked with hiring a replacement for football coach Gary Crowton during a tumultuous time for the program.
He hired Bronco Mendenhall, then Kalani Sitake. In half a century, he was the only BYU AD to work with two football coaches who stayed for nearly two decades — 18 years. Other BYU ADs had the luxury of having Edwards for almost three decades, then Crowton for a mere five.
Hiring a football coach is a life-and-death decision for an athletic director.
He hired Dave Rose as the replacement for head basketball coach Steve Cleveland, then ushered in the hire of Mark Pope. After Pope went to Kentucky, Holmoe hired current coach Kevin Young.
That’s a lot of decisions.
A lot of strong personalities.
He had to get those hires right or he’d be buried politically on campus and hammered by his administrators and fans.
But, he hit home runs.
Over and over again.
He did it with a 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.
He oversaw the building of the Marriott Center basketball annex, major renovations of the Marriott Center and tweaks with the Student-Athlete Building and LaVell Edwards Stadium.
He never got the department in the red. When he fired someone, it was done with respect, hidden from the world to preserve the dignity of those released.
Yes, from that very first face-to-face until today, Holmoe has been as consistent as taxes and the changing of seasons in Provo.
Nationally, other administrators and coaches respected him. He was welcomed as a peer, a guy they could relate to.
Holmoe was an unabashed ambassador, not only for BYU, but his faith, his family and friends.
He wasn’t a duplicitous jerk. He wasn’t fake.
He was true blue.
Holmoe will go down as a player who delivered, an administrator who succeeded.
From that day in the van when I met him for the first time until today, he is amazingly unchanged.
And that’s his strength.
Carve his face in the mountain.
Good luck, coach.
Work on that driver and wedge.
It’s time.
