Name: Tom Tontimonia Sr.
Position/Institution: Associate Director of Athletics — Internal Operations, Cleveland State University
Number of years in your position: Current position - 23 years; Total at CSU - 37 years
Alma Mater(s): BS The Ohio State University, '75; MA Kent State University, '83
Hometown: Ravenna, Ohio

1. Why did you become involved in ICLA?
Ryan Virtue from the NACDA office twisted my arm at a CSU basketball game. Seriously, professional growth, the ability to exchange and more importantly borrow ideas to grow the CSU brand.

2. What is your favorite part about being a member of ICLA?
I would say the ICLA Community since it gives me the ability to see that there are a lot of us facing the same issues and challenges. And, seeing how others address those challenges.

3. What is the biggest challenge to working in a university environment?
Dealing with people that don’t understand the idea of maintaining the integrity of the brand. Marks, colors, etc. I have not even gotten to student groups!

4. What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment to date?
Wow, a tie between being the tournament director for the 1998 NCAA Division I Wrestling National Championship and the tournament director for men’s basketball 1st and 2nd rounds in 2000, 2005 and 2011.

5. What is the most important skill you have developed in your career?
Dealing with diverse personalities from HIGH maintenance type A coaches to people who needed to be encouraged to act.

6. Who has been the most influential person in your career?
Tom Phillips, associate AD at Kent State, was my mentor as a GA. We talked weekly for years. I could dial his number on a rotary phone with my eyes closed.

7. What is one item you cannot live without?
My golf clubs.

8. Who would you choose to switch places with for a day?
I would love to drive an Indy racer.

9. What is your favorite sporting event that you have ever attended?
Cleveland State men’s basketball beating Indiana in 1986 in the Carrier Dome.

10. Why/when did you decide to pursue a career in collegiate licensing?
It pursued me. I was pushing to start a licensing program at Cleveland State and met resistance from legal. After Pitt vs Champion legal agreed we needed a program and since it was my idea I became the licensing director.

11. In your mind, who in this industry can serve as a good role model?
ICLA 3rd Vice President Samantha Stevens (Michigan State), I really like her diverse professional background. ICLA Past President Marty Ludwig (University of Cincinnati) because he has grown a tremendous brand in a market dominated by pro sports and Ohio State.

12. How has your involvement with ICLA influenced your career?
It has given me a different perspective on branding. I’m always looking for a place to stick one of our marks to say "CSU is here."

13. What educational or business experiences best prepared you for a career in licensing?
Like I mentioned earlier, I suggested we start a licensing program and they appointed me licensing director. I learned on the job.

14. What challenges do you face when working with students or vendors?
The biggest challenge with students is getting them to get prior approval. They don’t want to hear that they cannot alter the marks, change the colors, etc. As far as vendors, getting them to stock our mark. Cleveland is a pro/Ohio State town.

15. Explain a professional success and how you implemented it. 
In the early 1980s the CSU bookstore only stacked a couple of t-shirts and a coffee mug which were very plain and uninspiring. I convinced the athletics director that we should start a retail and mail order business. I worked with the university’s marketing director and a business professor to develop a plan and get the shop off the ground. It was fairly successful for about 25 years. We shut it down a few years ago when the book store basically bought us out.

16. In your opinion, where is collegiate licensing headed in the future?
I think it is going to continue to grow. When I started logoed merchandise was basically casual wear, coffee mugs, shot glasses etc. Now stores carry everything from student affordable t-shirts to fine crystal.

17. What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? What advice would you give to someone looking to enter the field of collegiate licensing? 
Be organized, have a plan. Be open minded. Look for opportunities to grow the brand.

18. What was your biggest professional failure/mistake and how did you learn from it?
We partnered with Major League Baseball’s RBI program to propose rehabbing three run-down, under-used baseball fields that are close to campus. There would have been a little league field, high school field and a collegiate field. We had the ward councilman and others on board but the higher ups wanted us to do the project in another neighborhood on a field that isn’t close to high school dimensions let alone collegiate. We abandoned the project and eventually discontinued baseball. Not having a field on campus was a contributing factor. I learned that no matter how well thought out and developed a plan is, one person with an agenda can ruin it. Actually I already knew that to be, but this reinforced it.

19. What percentage of your work week is spent in your office?
75-80%

20. What are you most looking forward to at the next ICLA Convention or Winter Symposium?
You can always learn something new, but at my age the thing I look forward to most is reconnecting with friends and meeting new people.