Army Black Knights Reportedly Promoting from Within for New Athletic Director

More than a month after losing their athletic director to TCU, the Army West Point Black Knights appear set to promote his replacement.

Oct 16, 2021; Madison, Wisconsin, USA; Army Black Knights logo on sideline equipment during warmups prior to the game against the Wisconsin Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

The Army West Point Black Knights, more than a month after losing athletic director Mike Buddie to TCU, appear poised to name his replacement.

Per ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Black Knights will reportedly promote Tom Theodorakis as the school’s new athletic director.

He currently serves as Army’s deputy athletic director for external operations and chief revenue officer. He joined the Black Knights in 2022 when he was hired to be the senior associate athletics director for external operations.

Buddie left for TCU at the start of the new year after he led the program for five years. His most significant accomplishment, outside of the program’s overall athletic success, was securing the initial funding to begin the Michie Stadium Preservation Project.

The project is designed to preserve the 100-year-old facility’s tradition and also improve the fan and gameday experience, including the modernization of the stadium’s east side stands, which run alongside the Hudson River. It is expected to be completed in the summer of 2026.

Assuming he gets the job, it will be up to Theodorakis to ensure the project’s completion. In his current role, he’s led athletics’ external units in development, which includes supporting a $600 million comprehensive campaign for the academy.

He also supervises strategic communication, licensing, branding, business development and revenue generation.

Before he joined Army, he was the senior associate director of development at Harvard for two years, where he served in a management role as a member of the athletics external leadership and revenue generation team.

He worked in a similar role with Arizona for six years as the program’s associate athletics director for development. He led a staff that raised $67 million in a capital campaign. Theodorakis was responsible for strategic planning of revenue generation, focusing on all external facets of athletics and was also a sports administrator for several varsity programs.

He was also the associate athletics director for external affairs at UCLA, where he supervised the day-to-day operations of the development office. He joined the Bruins after an initial stint with Arizona as its assistant athletics director for development.

He started his athletics career with Air Force in its marketing and development office and a volunteer coach with the men’s lacrosse team.

Theodorakis was a four-year letterwinner at Syracuse, where he was a member of the Orange’s 2004 national championship team and earned a degree in communications.

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