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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Brigham Young University promoted Tom Holmoe to athletic director Tuesday, putting the former Cougar football player officially in charge of the department he has helped oversee for the last six months.
Holmoe was a defensive back for BYU from 1978-82 and assistant on former coach LaVell Edwards' staff. He has been an administrator at his alma mater for the past three years.
Holmoe, whose official title has been senior associate athletic director, replaces Val Hale and Elaine Michaelis, who were fired abruptly last fall when the university announced it would be streamlining its men's and women's athletic department into one.
Holmoe has already been working to help improve the Cougars' image and try to return BYU athletics to the prominence it once held in the West.
A committee took over the administrative duties, which included hiring a new football coach to run the school's flagship sport. Holmoe and fellow associate AD Peter Pilling headed the coaching search after Gary Crowton agreed to resign and ended up promoting defensive coordinator Bronco Mendenhall.
The search was far from smooth, though, and the Cougars took a public relations hit when word leaked that they had offered the job to Utah defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham, who turned it down and accepted the Utes' head coaching job.
The Cougars have struggled through three straight losing seasons and are no-longer the perennial contender they were during Holmoe's playing days.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
