As the 2026-27 academic year begins, four-time Athletic Director of the Year Bob King enters his 34th season leading Trinity University Athletics. Overseeing intercollegiate athletics, intramurals, club sports, outdoor recreation, spirit groups, aquatics, and facilities, King has shaped the department into a Division III powerhouse. Honored by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics in 2000, 2004, 2015, and 2024, he remains one of only four NCAA Division III administrators ever to win the award four times.
In their first year with the conference, Trinity has captured the Southern Athletic Association Commissioner’s Cup all-sports trophy. SAA Commissioner Stacey LaDew presented Trinity Associate Vice President-Athletics/Director of Athletics Bob King with The Cup at the conference’s spring administrators meeting, hosted by Oglethorpe. The Tigers captured 13 Southern Athletic Association regular season championships, finishing with 140 points in the standings. Trinity set the tone early, leading after the fall season with championships in volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, and men’s and women’s soccer. The Tigers maintained their momentum through the winter, earning a share of the men’s basketball title, securing the outright women’s basketball championship, and adding titles in women’s indoor track and field as well as both men’s and women’s swimming and diving.Their dominance continued into the spring, where they claimed the women's tennis title, a share of the softball title and won the baseball championship, further adding to their point total and sealing an impressive all-around season.
Since taking the reins in 1993, King has led Trinity teams to five NCAA Division III Championships and nine additional national runner-up finishes across tennis, basketball, soccer, football, volleyball, and baseball. Under his leadership, Tiger teams have won more than 270 SCAC titles, and nearly 400 student-athletes have earned All-American honors. Trinity athletes have combined for 11 NCAA individual championships in high jump, diving, swimming, and track. Most notably, Trinity has won the SCAC Presidents’ Trophy 24 times—including 13 straight—more than any other school in the award’s 59-year history. The 300-pound railroad bell, displayed in the Bell Athletic Center lobby, symbolizes the conference’s top overall athletic program.
Off the field, King launched the Trinity Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), empowering student-athletes to influence University policy and lead community service initiatives. He also founded the Trinity Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999 and chairs its selection committee. In October 2024, the 13th Hall of Fame class will be inducted during Alumni Weekend.
King’s leadership has extended nationally. He served on the NCAA Division III Championships Committee, chaired the SCAC Athletic Directors Council four times, and contributed to organizing committees for five NCAA Final Fours and other national championships. Locally, he helped promote San Antonio sports through his work with San Antonio Sports’ board of directors.
Facility upgrades during King’s tenure have been monumental. He led the $15 million+ renovation of the William H. Bell Athletic Center, highlighted by a glass-walled 8,000-square-foot fitness center, a sports performance complex, modern training facilities, and revamped locker rooms. Calgaard Gymnasium seats 1,100 fans in Trinity maroon, enhanced by Daktronics videoboards. Outdoors, Trinity’s Football/Track & Field Stadium now holds 3,700 fans and features an enormous 48-by-50-foot scoreboard, a FieldTurf surface (installed in 2019), and an eight-lane track. Additional updates include a new press box, game operations space, and a competition area west of campus. Other major upgrades include the Paul McGinlay Soccer Field expansion (1,500 seats), the Isom Memorial team facilities, the Butch Newman Tennis Center, the Al G. Hill Jr. Tennis Stadium, and Mabry Pavilion, which supports both tennis and softball. In 2021, King oversaw renovations to the Trinity baseball and softball fields. Most recently, the Lower Campus Athletics Master Plan broke ground in summer 2023 with new renovations to the football field and tennis complex.
Before arriving at Trinity, King served as Athletics Director at his alma mater, Millsaps College in Mississippi, where he led the Majors to seven SCAC titles in four years. A native of Abingdon, Virginia, King earned his bachelor’s in education from Millsaps in 1977. A standout student-athlete, he was a four-year letterwinner in baseball and football, starting at cornerback for the 1975 team that reached the NCAA Division III semifinals. He set a school record with 17 career interceptions and was inducted into the Millsaps Sports Hall of Fame in 1991.
King earned a master’s in athletic administration from Idaho State in 1983 and completed a postgraduate certificate from The Sports Management Institute in 1992, with coursework at UNC-Chapel Hill and USC. He also interned at the University of Virginia Athletics Department in 1984. He is married to San Antonio physician Dr. Susan Marenda King and is the proud father of two daughters, Tenni and C.C.
