BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe will retire this summer after two decades in charge of Cougar sports.
Holmoe’s retirement will be effective at the end of the 2024-25 athletic season, the university announced Tuesday.
“It takes a lot of energy to do what we do in athletic administration as ADs,” the 64-year-old Holmoe said last July when considering how much longer he’d serve as the head of Cougar athletics. “It is full tilt trying to get things done, trying to be good and present the brand. I think that is my measuring stick [for retirement] is if I can go hard and fast and bring a ton of energy. If I’m feeling like I’m responsive to student athletes, then I can do it.”
Holmoe took charge of BYU’s athletics department in 2005.
Among the hallmarks of his 20-year tenure, he guided the university’s football program through a decade of independence and into the Big 12 Conference.
In recent years, Holmoe presided over the Cougars’ move into college sports’ name, image and likeness era.
He also hired cross-country coach Diljeet Taylor, the school’s first non-Latter-day Saint head coach in at least 50 years.
Holmoe also oversaw changes in both men’s and women’s basketball, hiring Amber Whiting and Kevin Young to lead the Cougars on the hardwood.
“When the BYU job opened up … Tom wanted to go and find the best candidates, and I think they did that. Finding Kevin Young and luring him in, to be able to come to BYU, was a pretty great effort,” former BYU basketball star Jimmer Fredette said of Holmoe’s ambitious move to bring Young from the NBA to Provo.
The university’s athletics program has won four national championships and 133 conference regular-season and postseason championships to date under Holmoe.
During Holmoe’s tenure, BYU completed a number of facility upgrades, including multiple upgrades to LaVell Edwards Stadium. In 2016, the university added the Marriott Center Annex, a 38,000-square-foot practice facility for the basketball teams.
“We’re walking into the Big 12 with the biggest arena and with some of the finest facilities,” former BYU basketball coach Mark Pope said last year.
Just this month, the school announced plans for a new hitting facility for the baseball and softball teams at Miller Park.
Holmoe was a star defensive back at BYU from 1978-82. He went on to win three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers during his NFL career.
After his playing career ended, Holmoe began a transition into coaching in 1990, working as a graduate assistant for the Cougars. He coached at Stanford, in the NFL, and at the University of California, Berkeley, before returning to his alma mater as the associate athletics director in 2001.
