March 14, 2001
Go to the Chat
WACO, Texas - On Wednesday, March 21 at 2 p.m. CT, Baylor Director of Athletics Tom Stanton will make a special visit to the ESPN.com moderated chat room to talk about the state of the Baylor athletic department, the progress of various athletic facilities under construction, and more.
Now in his fifth year as director of athletics is Tom Stanton, a former Bear basketball standout and business leader whose enthusiasm, vision and leadership skills have helped Baylor hold a strong position in America's premier conference.
Baylor president Dr. Robert B. Sloan Jr. named Stanton Baylor athletic director Feb. 23, 1996. The 49-year-old Stanton came to Baylor in July 1995 as the director of athletic marketing and promotions following a 22-year career with Word Inc., an international Christian communications company.
Stanton holds bachelor's and master's degrees in business from Baylor. He lettered three years in basketball and two in baseball. He finished his basketball career at Baylor in 1972 with 954 points. He won the team's Hustle Award three consecutive years, and as a junior he was second on the team in scoring behind all-America William Chatmon.
Since coming to Baylor, Stanton has guided the athletics deparment through an unprecendented period capital improvements. Baylor has spent $28 million on new and renovated construction under his leadership.
Recent projects include the state-of-the-art facilities for baseball, softball, soccer, and tennis, as well as a Floyd Casey Stadium press box with luxury suites. Previous renovations have included upgrading of the Hart-Patterson Track Complex to among the best on-campus track facilities in the nation, switching to SportGrass inside Floyd Casey Stadium and the addition of a turf practice field for the football team.
While putting Baylor on par with the nation's finest from a facilities standpoint, Stanton has also gone to great lengths to make the Bears competitive from a coaching perspective. He has hired such nationally-renowned individuals as football coach Kevin Steele, men's basketball coach Dave Bliss and women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson.
Stanton won't be stopping by until 2 p.m. CT Wednesday, but feel free to fire off your questions here. We'll save them until he gets here.
