Don and Deidre Gillis announce the search for an athletic director.

 

Dan Viola, Athletic Director for the Islanders.

Fall 1998

Women's Golf
Men's Tennis
Women's Tennis

Fall 1999

Men's Baseball
Women's Softball
Men's Basketball
Women's Basketball

Fall 2000
Men's Cross County
Women's Cross Country Women's Volleyball

Fall 2001
Men's Indoor Track
Women's Indoor Track
Men's Outdoor Track
Women's Outdoor Track

 

On May 1, 1996, a pep rally heralded the return of Intercollegiate Athletics to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Amid cheers and fight songs provided by local high school bands and cheerleaders, University supporters Don and Deidre Gillis announced that over $100,000 in private donations had been pledged. The search for an athletic director was on.

  • In spring 1996, students and alumni chose a University mascot. A contest solicited 66 entries and a committee of students, alumni, faculty and administrators selected winners and determined how to focus the ideas into a new athletic identity. The result was both fresh and traditional: A&M-Corpus Christi's teams are the Islanders, a name favored by students. The mascot, a tarpon, harkens back to the school's athletic roots as the University of Corpus Christi Tarpons.
  • In May 1997, Dan Viola became A&M-Corpus Christi's first athletic director. He immediately reaffirmed the University's goal of attaining NCAA Division 1 status and quickly began the process of reviving an athletic tradition that had been dormant for 23 years.
  • The Athletics Department has expanded quickly. Mindy DeGroot came on board as assistant AD in October 1997 and Patrick Hairston is the school's NCAA compliance coordinator.
  • Two coaches had been hired as of early 1998. Golf professional Brian Loeffler is the Islander's women's golf coach. Kenneth de Koning, tennis pro and former standout UCC student athlete, is the new coordinator of tennis.
  • When fully implemented, A&M-Corpus Christi Intercollegiate Athletics will have 14 sports, six men's and eight women's.

    The Athletics Department debuted the first annual Tip-Off Party in November 1997 and announced the formation of the Tarpon Foundation to support the school's athletic programs.