Tim Gleason, in his 30th year as commissioner of the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), is set to retire at the end of June this year. Gleason will join only a handful of full-time commissioners in NCAA history to reach the 30-year milestone of serving a single multi-sport conference.
Gleason has served on 17 NCAA and other national committees, including the Division III Management Council (2005-2009). He was a founding officer (secretary) of the National Association of Division III Athletics Administrators (NADIIIAA). He was chair of the NCAA Honors Committee for three years and also served on the Division III Championships, Interpretations and Legislation, Infractions Appeals, Convention Planning (chair) and Football Committees.
Gleason was president of the Division III Commissioners Association (D3CA) in 2005-07 and is known as the father of the NCAA Conference Grant Program, which was created under his leadership. Today the program distributes $3.2 million in grants through conferences to the NCAA’s Division III membership. He received the D3CA Dan Dutcher Meritorious Service Award in 2008 and the Dennis Collins Lifetime Achievement Award during the January 2021 NCAA Convention – Gleason’s 40th NCAA Convention in his 42-year career.
In 1992 Gleason orchestrated the first collegiate football game ever played in Germany when he established the Rhine River Cup, a game between the Heidelberg Student Princes and the Otterbein Cardinals, played to a 7-7 tie in Frankfurt. Each year since those two OAC friendly rivals compete for the annual Rhine River Cup in honor of that historic milestone.
Prior to joining the OAC in 1991, Gleason was assistant executive director of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) for eight years. He later served the organization as parliamentarian, secretary and Executive Committee member, the only individual ever to serve in all four of those capacities.
In 1988 Gleason was the founder and president of the Northeastern Ohio Chapter of the National Football Foundation (NFF). He served as the first president of the organization for 21 years. Over the years the organization raised more than $200,000 for postgraduate scholarships for high school scholar-athletes in Northeastern Ohio. Gleason received the NFF Outstanding Leadership Award in 1998 and the Asa Bushnell Commissioners Award in 2001.
Gleason graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree is Sports Management from Biscayne College (now St. Thomas University) in 1979 before spending a year at Nicholls State University (LA) as a graduate assistant athletics business manager. He joined the NCAA national office staff in 1980 and worked for three years in the promotions and marketing department. Gleason earned a Master of Education Degree from Cleveland State University in 1986.
A native of Pittsburgh, Gleason moved to Youngstown (OH) in 1959 and graduated from Chaney High School in 1973. He is currently a resident of Mineral Ridge and serves on the Weathersfield Local Board of Education. He and his wife Sherry have three children, Shannon, Bethany and Mary Rose and three grandchildren.
