Gilbert “Griz” Zimmermann officially joined the TAMIU athletics department in July of 2013 as the program’s fourth Athletics Director. Griz comes to TAMIU after serving as Athletics Director at Lake Eerie College in Painesville, OH for the past six years. Under his leadership, the Storm Athletics Department has grown from 10 NCAA Division III varsity teams to 23 teams, all competing at NCAA Division II level. He has also increased the number of student athletes from the mid-100’s to over 500.
With nearly 30 years of athletic administrative experience, Zimmermann has performed every task from designing and implementing workout programs to supervising and managing the construction of a $60 million, 35,000-seat stadium. His knowledge was instrumental in leading the Lake Erie Department of Athletics through the lengthy and complex reclassification process to Division II status and into membership in the prestigious Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). His first priority for Storm athletics is the welfare of student-athletes, both for the immediate as well as the long term. He has utilized his experience in coordinating fundraising events and drawing alumni support to increase awareness for Storm athletics.
In addition to increasing to 23 varsity sports, the size of Department of Athletics staff has quintupled during Zimmermann’s tenure and the number of student athletes in the last five years has increased from the mid 100’s to over 500. With the directive to grow the enrollment of the College through athletics, Zimmermann has captained the Storm coaches and staff to regularly achieve record recruiting classes and build the College’s student base for new academic programs.
Athletically, Lake Erie has garnered over 100 all-conference honors and four individual league championships since moving to the GLIAC along with more than 30 national championship qualifiers and 21 All-Americans. In 2012 the Storm had its first NCAA Division II national champion and the previous year saw a student-athlete drafted in the 17th round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. The success continued in 2013 when three Storm teams posted top-20 national finishes and Lake Erie ranked as high as 83rd in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Division II standings. Plus, almost 300 student-athletes have received Academic All-GLIAC accolades in just the first three years in the league alone.
Additionally, Zimmermann currently serves on the Division II Athletic Directors Association Football Task Force and was previously a member of the NCAA Regional Championship Selection committee.
Before coming to Lake Erie, Zimmermann directed the athletic department at Gannon University from 2003-2006. Prior to working at Gannon, he served as the director of athletics at Saginaw Valley State University from 2000-03 and was the assistant A.D. at Southern Methodist University from 1993-2000. While at SMU, he served as the project manager for construction of the $42 million dollar Gerald J. Ford Stadium complex.
He was the Baylor Fitness Center director in Dallas, Texas, for two years, where he was responsible for the management and operation of 105,000 square foot health and fitness facility; marketing, programming, continuing education, and revenue generating activities of the facility.
He had a previous stint at SMU, where was as the strength and conditioning coach for three years prior to going to the Baylor Fitness Center. He was hired by and worked for NFL Hall of Famer Forest Gregg and was a member of the Mustang staff that returned football to the school in 1989. He was also the strength and conditioning coach for the two-time Big Ten champion men’s basketball team at the University of Michigan as a graduate student.
Zimmermann is a dual graduate of the University of Michigan with a bachelor of science degree in physical education and a master of science degree in exercise physiology. As an undergraduate at Michigan, he was a member of the football team under legendary Hall of Fame coach Bo Schembechler. The St. Louis, Mo., native previously served in the United States Navy and has four children, Sydney, Matthew, Harper and Paden.
