Dick Tomey
In-Memoriam - All-Time Winningest Football Coach, University of Arizona, Former Head Coach at Hawaii & San Jose State
National Advisory Board
Dick is a Career College Football Coach having served as President of the American Football Coaches Association 2009-10, who until recently was one of the only three college Coaches to be the Winningest All-Time Coach at two Division-I Universities. (Along with Bear Bryant and George Welsh). Dick’s assistant coaching stops included Miami (Ohio), Davidson, Kansas, UCLA, The NFL 49ers and Texas. Most recently Tomey was Associate Athletic Director at University of South Florida where he helped the Bulls to the Miami Beach Bowl.
During twenty-nine years as a Head Coach, Dick’s teams at Hawaii, Arizona and San Jose State were known for their toughness and fight, and finding a way to win with less. Tomey led University of Hawaii into Division-I, produced consistent winners, set attendance records and played a schedule that included some of the nation’s best, USC, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin, ASU, and Arizona.
At Arizona Dick brought national prominence to the program with two top ten finishes in five years (94-98). Arizona was the only team to defeat both Miami and Nebraska (who dominated the 90’s) in Bowl games. Dick was honored with the Provost Award as the University of Arizona’s Outstanding Teacher in 1999, voted so by the faculty, a rare honor.
Dick was then brought into SJSU to resurrect a program on life support. Five years later unparalleled academic success, the program quadrupled in attendance and a Bowl Championship Team signaled that Spartan Football was alive and well again.
Dick is a motivational speaker and among his clients are Avaya, Cisco, IBM, The Pebble Beach Company, Wang, Sheraton, Servco, VMWare, The Fiesta Bowl and The Bank of Hawaii. He has also been a college football analyst for ESPN, Fox and CBS.
Dick and his wife Nanci Kincaid (a successful Fiction Writer) have four adult children. Home base for the Tomey’s is Tucson, Arizona.
Personal Development Guru, Tony Robbins, says of Tomey in his National Best Seller Unlimited Power, “Dick Tomey is one of the best motivators I know!”