Iowa City, City High, 2024 IATC Hall of Fame Coach
If you were raised in Eugene, Oregon and were a key part of a state champion Cross Country team at South Eugene High School, saw Pre run at Old Hayward Field, and ran collegiately at D3 powerhouse Luther College, in Decorah, Iowa, did you really have any option but to become a track and field and cross country geek, and now a Hall of Fame coach?
Those things, plus making time for Med School, getting married and having 3 sons, is kinda how it went for Tom Mittman. He went to college with a vague plan to get a degree in teaching and coaching, but after taking a liking to some of the other classes he was taking, Tom ended up in medicine, but never lost the desire to coach.
After graduating from the University of Oregon Science Center, Tom moved back to Iowa and for 9 years commuted to Emergency Rooms in Keokuk, Muscatine and Davenport. Tired of being tired from the long hours and long commutes, Tom was offered an ER position at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City in 1992, about the same time his sons got involved in Cross Country at City High.
After Hall of Fame Coach Bud Williams retired, Tom offered to help new coach Steve Marsh as a volunteer with the JV girls, and he never looked back.
When asked if there were any special or intense rivalries during his coaching career, Coach quickly responded: “That is easy, City High vs West High. I remember KCRG’s Scott Saville remarking in a broadcast piece in the mid 2000’s, that for his money it was a bigger rivalry than “The Boot” (City vs. West football) or “The Spike” (City vs. West volleyball). For a decade, whoever was the best between us won the Cross-Country State meet and most of the Track and Field Championships as well”.
With Coach Mittman at the helm of City High Girls Cross Country, the Little Hawks qualified to state all 18 seasons, finished in the top 4 thirteen times, took home 5 team titles had 4 runners-up team finishes, won 3 individual crowns and consistently had 70 or more girls on the team. In his 5 years as the Girls Head Track and Field Coach, City High won a state team title and was runner-up twice, while crowning 13 state track champions and winning 6 Drake Relays titles.
Overall, Tom was selected by his peers as a State Coach of Year 5 times and a Regional Coach of the Year 7 times.
Tom met his wife Laurie in 1977 while they worked at a nursing home in the skid row area of Portland, Oregon. Laurie asked for Tom’s help in moving a rather large patient from a bed pan, and in Tom’s own words, the rest is history.
Tom and Laurie have 3 sons, Eric, Mike and Scott all of whom ran Cross Country at City High and 5 grandchildren, Jonah who runs at Ames High, Eliza who runs for Ames Junior High, Ruthie, Chirstopher and Finn.
Tom Mittman may be retired, but he is still winning. He is a survivor in a long battle with cancer, recently recovering from a stem cell transplant for recurrent anaplastic large cell lymphoma.