Director of Intercollegiate Athetics &
Chairman of the Department of Physical Education and Athletics

Letter to Parents
Letter to Student-Athletes

Tom Weingartner has served as director of athletics and chairman of the department of physical education and athletics at the University of Chicago since March 1990.

Weingartner was instrumental in the planning and building of the $51 million Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, which opened in the fall of 2003 to provide the University with its first new athletics center since the 1930s and its first new swimming pool in nearly a century.

During Weingartner’s tenure, Chicago has sent teams and individuals to NCAA Division III postseason competition in 16 different sports and has captured University Athletic Association team titles in 11 sports.

Under Weingartner, Chicago Athletics has maintained its adherence to the notion that academic and athletic excellence complement each other. Since 1996, for instance, four Chicago student-athletes have received Rhodes Scholarships. Chicago has also featured an NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship Award winner as well as numerous NCAA Postgraduate Scholars and Academic All-Americans. As a group, Chicago male and female student-athletes have consistently maintained a cumulative grade point average roughly equal to, or higher than, that of the general student body.

Weingartner chaired the NCAA Committee on Amateurism, which passed groundbreaking amateurism reform legislation at the 2001 NCAA convention. The committee offered recommendations regarding professional contracts, entry drafts, seasons of competition rules, competition with professionals, acceptance of prize money, and the acceptance of pay for play.

Weingartner served as athletic director and associate professor of human development at Manhattanville (N.Y.) College from 1985-90. From 1979-85, he was the athletics director and an assistant professor of human development at St. Mary’s (Md.) College.

Weingartner began his college athletics career at Northwestern University, where he served as director of intramural, recreational, and club sports from 1974-79.

In 1970, Weingartner earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, where he was a linebacker on the Cardinal football team. He received a master’s degree and doctorate in educational administration from Northwestern in 1972 and 1977, respectively.

Weingartner and his wife, Susan, reside in Hyde Park. They have a daughter, Jessie, and a son, Clayton.