Tom Ryan grew up in New York and became involved in wrestling in grade school. To short for first love basketball he went out for wrestling and instantly loved the sport. In High School he was on course to win the state title before he tore the ligaments in his foot his senior year. Falling off the radar of the bigger schools he followed his brother to Syracuse where he won a EIWA conference title his sophomore year, but Tom wanted more.
Tom had always wanted to wrestle for Iowa and Dan Gable so he got in his car and drove down to Iowa City enrolled at the University of Iowa and walked on to the wrestling team. Success was fast coming for Tom and he soon made his mark at Iowa. In his junior year Tom was the national runner up and in his senior year he took 3rd.
After college Tom was offered the head coaching position at Hofstra at 24 years of age. He turned their program around in two years and before taking the head coaching position at Ohio State he had one Hofstra?s conference Tournament for the past 6 straight years.
