Tom Gilmore (born September 25, 1964) is an American

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coach and former player. He was head coach of the Holy Cross Crusaders from 2004 to 2017 and the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks from 2019 to 2022.

Early life and education

Gilmore was born in Philadelphia to Ireland-born parents Jack Gilmore and Sarah "Sadie" (Boyce) Gilmore. He has four siblings, John, Jim (an Ohio State and

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

player), Mike (a Lycoming College Athletic Hall of Fame member), and Mary Ann. Gilmore attended St. Bartholomew Parish grade school and then Northeast Catholic High School for Boys. At Northeast, he was selected to the All-Catholic League teams in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, wrestling, and track and field. He graduated in 1982 from Northeast Catholic with high honors and was awareded the school's Provincial's Medal of Honor. Gilmore played attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an Academic All-American for the Penn Quakers football team. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986, with a bachelor's degree in computer mathematics.

Penn Quakers football

Gilmore was a

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

for the Penn Quakers. He also played one summer for the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League and one summer for the New York Knights of the Arena Football League. As a college football player at the University of Pennsylvania, he was a four-time Ivy League champion and was named team captain in 1985. He was selected three times as an All-Ivy League defensive lineman, a second team All-American in 1984, and a third team All-American in 1985. He received Penn's top male scholar-athlete at graduation and was selected as one of the 12 members of the National Football Foundation and

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

Scholar-Athlete Team in December 1985. He was named to the University of Pennsylvania Football All-Time Team in 2020, to its All-Century Team in 2000, and was inducted into the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.

College football coaching career

Gilmore served as an assistant coach at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, and Lehigh University. His first stint as a

head coach was with the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private, Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Boston. Founded in 1843, Holy Cross is the oldest Catholic college in New England and one of the oldest ...

, where he is second on the program's all-time coaching wins list. At Holy Cross, he won a

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective gr ...

title in 2009. The 2009 team lost to eventual national champion Villanova in the national playoffs and completed the season ranked 14th nationally. From 2019 to 2022, Gilmore was the head coach of Lehigh University, where his cumulative four-year record was 9–27.

Head coaching record

* Fired after 7 games

References

External links

Lehigh profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilmore, Tom 1964 births Living people BC Lions players Columbia Lions football coaches Dartmouth Big Green football coaches Holy Cross Crusaders football coaches Lehigh Mountain Hawks football coaches Penn Quakers football coaches Penn Quakers football players Sportspeople from Philadelphia Players of American football from Philadelphia