mfreter@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

The search for the newest Athletic Director for CMU spanned three months, involved over 40 applicants from colleges across the country and had even been narrowed down to five potential candidates.

However, President Foster and the search committee still did not believe that they had the right man for the job. The search team chose to wait one more week to review another candidate.

The decision was made this past weekend to appoint former Colorado School of Mines A.D. Tom Spicer as the newest head of the athletic department. He was introduced to the University on Monday at the NCAA Southwest Regional Championship game hosted in Brownson Arena.

“I thought it was a great situation and there was a lot of energy in the arena,” Spicer said. “I think that we need to draw from that energy and make sure we maintain it.”

Spicer brings an extensive background of both coaching and administrating at the collegiate and high school level. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, where he was also a member of the football program during his undergraduate studies.

His career in NCAA administration began when he took the Athletic Director job at his alma mater. During his 15-year tenure at Fort Hayes, Spicer headed a department that competed in three national championships and won two of them. His improvements to the turf and press boxes at the school’s football stadium were another major accomplishment, which helped him become inducted into the Fort Hays State athletic Hall of Fame.

His success at Fort Hays State drew the attention of Colorado School of Mines, who hired him as the athletic director in 2003. In a short amount of time, Mines became one of the most successful athletic programs in the entire RMAC conference. Under Spicer’s leadership, the football, men’s basketball, volleyball, softball, and women’s soccer teams all made consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. Mines was even awarded the RMAC All-Sports Cup in the 2010-11 athletic season for having the most success among all of their sports.

Now that he has taken the job at CMU, Spicer hopes to find what areas have the highest level of interest and act to meet those concerns.

“I need to get on campus and meet with as many constituents as I can to find out what their interests are,” Spicer said. “Then I need to develop a plan that would help those interests grow and expand.”