Bio

Tom Kolbe is in his 17th year at his alma mater where he serves as the Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications, while also carrying a number of leadership posts within the University of Tampa Athletics Department. The 2001 University of Tampa graduate previously spent one year as the assistant sports information director after serving four years as a student assistant at UT.

At Tampa, Kolbe has covered 15 NCAA Division II national championship teams. In addition to his role leading Athletic Communications, Kolbe also serves as the primary athletics branding manager while overseeing University branding and improvements in that area at each of its athletic facilities. Within his department, he is tasked with leading the creative team, social media team, video productions team and the gameday team. 

He also serves as chairman of the University of Tampa Athletics Hall of Fame committee, a post he has held since 2018. In that role, he organizes a rotating selection committee for the Hall of Fame Ceremony, which occurs in even-numbers years. He also is responsible for complete organization of the ceremony, including the program, ticketing, catering and arrangement of guests and dignitaries at the event.

Among those he has promoted are 100-plus All-Americans, 27 Academic All-Americans, one Academic All-American of the Year and six National Players of the Year. He has also directed several high-profile events, including a 2006 baseball game between UT and the Netherlands National Team and a 2015 game with the Philadelphia Phillies. Tampa won both games, gaining national attention for the Spartans. He also worked then 1998 NCAA Division I men's basketball Final Four and has also staffed events including the McDonald's High School Basketball Game, a WNBA game, and several MLS contests.

Since becoming the athletic communications director, Kolbe has been involved with all UT athletic teams and is also active in CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America), where he has served on the Job Seekers Committee after formerly serving for 10 years on the Committee on Committees. He has attended several workshops for the group, in Nashville, San Diego, Tampa, San Antonio, San Francisco, Marco Island and Orlando.

He was also selected as the vice-chair of the social committee for the 2008 CoSIDA convention in Tampa and the chairman of the local organizing committee. Kolbe also served as a panelist at the 2011 CoSIDA Convention in Marco Island, where he spoke about social media policies. UT was one of the first school's in the nation to implement social networking policies for student-athletes.

Kolbe also attended the 2011 NCAA Regional Rules Workshop in Tampa, participating in several sessions. He also serves on both the Sunshine State Conference and University of Tampa Athletics Hall of Fame Committees.

Also active at the University, Kolbe has served on various committees including the activity, workshop, IT, Emergency Operation Team (EOT) and various coaching search committees. He is also an instructor of a first-year studies class, serving as an academic advisor for 22-26 students. In this role, Kolbe is responsible for helping the students become acclimated to college life, encouraging participation and scheduling classes along with the implementation of a four-year academic plan.

During his time at Tampa, Kolbe has been instrumental in the development and design of a new athletics website, www.tampaspartans.com, while also introducing its viewers to live stats and audio/video webcasts for 11 sports. He also implemented social media pages for UT athletics on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram along with a YouTube channel, which all rank among the top NCAA Division II social media sites. He also started a separate site, TampaSpartans.tv, for live streaming of home athletic events.

Additionally, his 2006 men's soccer media guide ranked third in the nation and he was named the 2005 AVCA South Region Top SID. His department has also been recognized for its graphic design and videos, in addition to being recognized in 2019 by NCSA/USA Today as the top college athletics website in NCAA Division II.

Kolbe also served in the sports information department at the University of Notre Dame from 1998-2002 as a student assistant. While at Notre Dame, he helped write media guides for football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, hockey and baseball. He also assisted with three football media days and a NCAA Baseball Regional.

With a bachelor’s degree in sport management from Tampa, Kolbe also received his MBA from Regis (Colo.) University in 2004. While at UT, he worked four years as a student assistant in the Sports Information office and also wrote for the school paper, The Minaret. In 2001, Kolbe was named the Top Sportswriter for the publication.

Kolbe is a member of CoSIDA, ECACSIDA, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA).

He is married to Antoinette and they reside in Tampa with their sons Donovan and Lennox.