Tom Shirley enters his 32nd year in 2020-21 with the Rams after joining the athletic department in 1989. He currently holds the role of Vice President of Athletics and Head Women's Basketball Coach.
Shirley started at the school in 1989 as the associate director of athletics and head women’s basketball coach after an eight-year stint as the director of athletics and head women’s basketball coach at DeSales University, his alma mater. In January 1992, Shirley was promoted to director of athletics, succeeding H.R. Ted Taylor.
On July 1, 2017, Philadelphia University integrated with Thomas Jefferson University to become Jefferson, which Shirley will be in charge of navigating the athletic department through.
Coupled with the transition to Jefferson, Shirley created the current landscape of Jefferson Athletics with the addition of women’s volleyball in 1997, men’s and women’s cross country in 2005, women’s rowing in 2006, men’s and women’s track and field in 2012 and women’s golf in 2016.
In 2019-20, Shirley helped elevate the head coaching positions of men's and women's cross country/track and men's and women's tennis to full-time status, giving 11 of the Rams' 17 sports full-time coverage and increasing the number of full-time staff to 16.
The Rams left the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference—now called the East Coast Conference (ECC)—in 2005 and joined the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC). The Division I men’s soccer program made the transition to Division II and joined the CACC in 2008 in a move that was called “good for the University and the team” by University officials.
Since joining the CACC, the Rams have won 35 conference titles, including an unprecedented six during the 2008-09 season. The department earned the Restaino Cup—the men’s and women’s cups are given annually to the institutions that perform the best across the board in CACC-sponsored sports—on the women’s side eight times (2006-07, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2019-20).
Since its inception in 2011-12, the Rams have achieved a four-year academic success rate of 90 percent or higher to earn the NCAA Division II President’s Award for Academic Excellence in eight of nine years to date. The athletic department garnered the honor in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, which means that the student-athletes graduated within six years of original enrollment before receiving the award.
Construction of the multi-million dollar Gallagher Athletic, Recreation and Convocation Center was completed in 2007, and serves as the home of the Rams athletics department, the men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams and the fitness center.
In conjunction with Reebok’s director of international marketing Brian Lee—a 1994 graduate of Philadelphia University—Shirley brought the Reebok Breakout Challenge and the Reebok Showdown Series to the Gallagher Center, where it was held from 2007 through 2014. In the summer of 2017, Shirley added Under Armour as the apparel and footwear partner of the Rams.
Shirley established the Kathleen & Thomas R. Shirley, Sr. Scholarship—which is need-based and earmarked for a resident of Roxborough, Manayunk, or East Falls as the first-choice recipient—in memory of his parents in 2008. The Scholarship has raised more than $314,000.
Aside from his duties at the school, Shirley served two four-year terms on the NCAA Division II Championships Committee from 2005-09 and again from 2015-19.
In 2007, Shirley was honored by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics as he received the AstroTurf Division II Northeast Region Athletic Director of the Year award during its annual convention in Orlando, Fla. A two-time conference honoree, Shirley was selected by his peers as the CACC Athletic Director of the Year for both the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years.
The school received an NCAA Strategic Alliance Grant in 2004, which created the Senior Woman Administrator and compliance coordinator position—a position championed for by Shirley and the administration.
In the past, Shirley has held numerous positions with the NCAA including: NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Regional Selection Committee (2011-15), a mentor for the NCAA Division II Women’s and Minorities Mentoring Program (2014-15), NCAA Women’s Basketball Rules Committee (2011-15), NCAA Division II Championships Committee (2005-09, 2015-19), NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Regional Selection Committee (2002-05), NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Regional Selection Committee (2001-05), NCAA Division II Membership Committee (2000-04), NCAA Division II Baseball Regional Selection Committee (1999-02), NCAA National Postgraduate Scholarship Committee (1997-01) and the NCAA Division II Management Council (1996-01).
Shirley has also served as the president of the CACC (2006-10), the ECC (2002-04) and the president and founder of the Atlantic Soccer Conference (2000-07).
Outside of the school, Shirley serves on the Board of Trustees for the New Foundations Charter School in Philadelphia.
Shirley earned a B.A. in economics from DeSales University, where he was a men’s basketball player, in 1976, and a master’s degree in education from Temple University in 1984.
He resides in Harleysville, Pa. with his wife Monica. They have two daughters—Kristen, who earned a B.A. in 2006 and a MBA in 2007 from Philadelphia University, and Caitlin, a Saint Joseph’s University graduate.
