Terry Tumey - Director of Athletics - General Support Staff

Terry Tumey

Title:
Director of Athletics

Last Updated: November 28, 2023

Terrance J. "Terry" Tumey was appointed Fresno State’s Director of Athletics on June 21, 2018 and officially started in his position on Aug. 1, 2018.

During his tenure at Fresno State, the department has been committed to supporting and holistically preparing every Bulldog student-athlete for long-term success, while also launching a comprehensive Pride of the Valley campaign, which encompassed all sports in an effort to encapsulate and enhance the pride the community has for its Valley team.

The Bulldogs have won 15 team conference championships since 2018 with conference titles in football (2018 and 2022), men’s tennis (2019 - tournament), baseball (2019 - regular season and tournament), women’s basketball (2019-20 - regular season), softball (2021 - regular season), women's water polo (2021, 2022 and 2023 - regular season and tournament), women's tennis (2022 - regular season) and volleyball (2023 - tournament)

The competitive success for Fresno State's athletic programs also resulted in a rise in the Learfield Directors' Cup Standings, including finishing 95th nationally in 2020-21, the department's best finish since 2010-11.

With 18 sports and approximately 350 students receiving athletic aid, and the increasing annual cost of attendance, the Bulldog Foundation, under the leadership of Tumey, reported the second-highest fiscal year total in Fresno State Athletics history recently – $7,894,795 in 2019-20 – climbing 15 percent from the previous fiscal year. The fundraising growth comes on the heels of the Bulldog Foundation's record 2019 membership campaign, which included a 12 percent growth from the previous year to $4.48 million for the annual scholarship fund and a 21 percent growth in membership, which now exceeds greater than 3,100 members, while entering into a 10-year, $10M naming rights agreement with Valley Children’s Healthcare to name Bulldog Stadium.

While in the San Joaquin Valley, Tumey negotiated and secured a six-year partnership with adidas, which more than doubled the department’s previous apparel partnership. Tumey has proactively worked to address the needs of student-athletes by spearheading efforts in area of comprehensive student-athlete development, including partnerships with The Athlete Network, INFLCR, Jeremy Darlow and Opendorse.

Additionally, Tumey has hired nine Fresno State head coaches, including the hiring of Kalen DeBoer and Jeff Tedford as head football coaches during his tenure. Tumey also hired volleyball head coach Leisa Rosen, who, in her first season as head coach, led the Bulldogs to their first-ever Mountain West tournament title and first appearance at the NCAA Tournament since 2002.

Fresno State Athletics has experienced unprecedented academic success in the last four years including Bulldog student-athletes achieving a combined 3.0 grade point average (GPA) in every semester since the fall of 2018 and setting school records in the total number of Mountain West Scholar-Athlete award recipients. Additionally, the department achieved its highest ever department Academic Progress Rate, an NCAA metric which tracks eligibility and retention of student athletes, and posted an 85 percent Graduation Success Rate.

In 2020, Tumey joined the Black Athletic Director Alliance whose mission is to promote the growth, development, and elevation of Black athletics administrators at the Division I level by engaging industry decision-makers, providing exposure for these aspiring athletics professionals through purposeful mentoring, and fostering connections with those who will aid in positioning leaders in intercollegiate athletics.

Fresno State Athletics has also significantly improved community engagement through a variety of efforts, including creating strategic partnerships with ABC30, Univision, and iHeartMedia – the three highest rated media outlets in the Fresno-Visalia Market – and celebrating the Valley’s diverse population segments via the creation of The Game Changers series, honoring Hispanic Heritage month, and paying tribute to local heroes including veterans, active duty military, and first responders. These efforts, and others, have led to increased attendance at home events, highlighted by averaging over 31,000 fans in football in 2018 and 2019 and over 33,000 in 2021; which was the highest average since 2014 and ranked sixth nationally among Group of Five Institutions. Fresno State student attendance also increased to 4,000 students per game in 2021, the highest average since 2013. These efforts also contributed to leading the Mountain West in composite average attendance across all ticketed sports.

With Tumey's leadership, Fresno State Athletics' Pride of the Valley marketing campaign, which won multiple industry awards, generated school record engagement numbers on social media, led to a school record retail royalty year, and unified and inspired Fresno State alumni and Bulldog fans everywhere. Improvements in communication methods have led to being consistently ranked in the top 10 nationally in social media metrics among peer and aspirant institutions, including leading the Mountain West in social media follower growth and engagement metrics and winning the 2020 Mountain West Social Media Challenge.

Prior to his time at Fresno State, Tumey was the Director of Athletics at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a unified Division III athletics program in Southern California. The schools that make up the singular athletic program under his watch since 2016 are Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College. In addition to CMS, Tumey held the director of athletics title at two other institutions, one at the Division I level, UC Davis (2012-15), as well as one that he oversaw transition to the Division II level from NAIA, Dominican University of California (2009-12).

While Tumey was director of athletics at UC Davis, he helped expand the profile of the university regionally and nationally, and secured funding in excess of $11 million to support student achievements. In his time at Dominican, Tumey led a $4.5 million capital campaign for DUC's facilities in its transition to Division II, while in academia the athletics department received the Pacific West Conference's (PWC) Academic Achievement Award for highest student-athlete grade-point average for three-straight years.

Tumey has a rich history in football, having turned a playing career at UCLA (1984-87), where he was a three-time All-Pacific-10 Conference defensive lineman, into a coaching career. He was a graduate assistant and full-time assistant coach at UCLA, working with the Bruins from 1992-98 and then moved to the NFL ranks for two years with the Denver Broncos (1999-2000). With the Broncos, Tumey was a defensive assistant coach under head coach Mike Shanahan and helped Denver reach the 2000 NFL playoffs where they fell to the eventual Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens led by former Fresno State great Trent Dilfer.

After coaching, Tumey joined the San Francisco 49ers staff in 2001 and served in various roles until departing for his first AD job in 2009. As the director of football administration he supervised all fiscal responsibilities of the 49ers' football operations, which carried a budget of more than $35 million. He also managed administrative issues for team employees including the coaching staff, oversaw contract negotiations and dispute resolution, worked with the NFL on game scheduling, and led the team's training camp relocation.

Tumey earned a B.A. in political science from UCLA with a concentration in business economics in 1988 and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management with a focus on entrepreneurship and strategy in 1993. Those two degrees have fueled more than two decades of coaching and administrative excellence in collegiate and professional athletics.

Tumey is originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is married to Dr. Candace Gonzales Tumey and has two daughters, Cameron & Simone.