Even before he became commissioner of the Great Midwestern Athletic Conference in 2011, Tom Daeger had a long history in sports, making him a natural fit for the role.
Experience alone, however, wasn’t enough to build the Hillsdale’s new conference from the ground up. According to those who work with Daeger, it’s his strong character and principles that set him apart.
Don Brubacher, athletic director at Hillsdale College, described Daeger as “conscientious.”
“My goodness, that describes him,” Brubacher said. “He’s the definition of the word.”
Alan Geist, athletic director of Cedarville University, helped form the fledgling conference at its inception but credits Daeger with the conference’s growth and success.
“He is dedicated, he is phenomenal in his organization, and he is very — and was immediately — very passionate about the Great Midwestern Athletic Conference,” he said.
Sports have always been a part of Daeger’s adult life. When he studied journalism at the University of Indianapolis, he also played baseball for the university. Even on entering the IT field and then working as a business analyst, he couldn’t keep sports out of his life He coached high school teams and broadcast and wrote about local and collegiate sports.
“Although I was working full time, I still maintained a love for athletics and a desire to work in college athletics at some point,” Daeger said.
In 2001, Daeger took the opportunity to work in the field he loved — assisting a Division III conference, and he has been working tirelessly to build college sports since. Since serving as the first ever full-time sports information director at the Great Lakes Valley Conference in 2006, Daeger has become used to trailblazing. But Daeger’s creativity and innovation would be put to the test when it came to “starting an athletic conference from scratch.”
The G-MAC, which started with six members in 2011, has since expanded to 14 members — Hillsdale joined this July. The organizing athletic directors talked with a number of potential candidates for the position, but they quickly decided who was the man for the job.
“Hands down, Tom Daeger was the best candidate,” Geist said. “ I mean, it wasn’t even a decision…just from his background, from his demeanor…he was hungry to be a commissioner and to lead a fledgling group of institutions that were starting a brand new conference.”
Daeger said during his time at University of Indianapolis, his coaches pushed him and his teammates to invest in the community, value interactions and relationships, and strive for academic excellence.
“I saw in my time as a student athlete…a very early effort to ensure that programs are visiting local hospitals, are taking steps to raise money for those who may not have been fortunate enough to experience that same experiences we were having as a student athlete,” he said.
Daeger considered that selflessness a unique opportunity in Division II sports.
“The fortunate part of my experience as a student athlete…has been the focus on community engagement and noting that competition is certainly important and the wins and loses on the field are something that are recorded and certainly valued as programs are developed,” Daeger said.
As a commissioner with years of hard work before him, Daeger brought together a group of people as passionate as himself. While building a conference from the ground up was an enormous challenge, it was one which Daeger approached with his regular zest.
“It was fun to start something from scratch, certainly,” he said.