Tom Migdalski, Director of Club Sports, Intramurals & Outdoor Education Center, has served Yale since 1984.
Migdalski has worked in college recreational sports since his undergraduate days at nearby Southern Connecticut State University. He currently manages Yale’s 52 club sport teams, the large undergrad intramural program offering more than 30 sports, and the nearly 2,000-acre Yale Outdoor Center located in East Lyme, Conn.
Migdalski also oversees the fishing club and has instructed physical education classes in saltwater fishing, fly tying, basics of clay-target shooting and weight training. He took on the Intramural program in 2009. Migdalski is a certified Level-II Shotgun Coach and Instructor, and is the head coach of the Yale trap and skeet team. He is a recipient of the Outstanding Service to Collegiate Shooting Sports award, and is also a U.S. Coast Guard-certified captain. He holds a Master of Science degree in outdoor recreation, leisure studies and college teaching, which he earned from SCSU in 1983.
Migdalski began his Yale work in a seasonal capacity in the late 1970s as a lifeguard, boating instructor and assistant director at the Outdoor Education Center, where he was also the assistant trap and skeet team coach. He was a member of the SCSU trap and skeet team through his undergraduate days, captain his senior year, and was the Northeast Intercollegiate Skeet Champion his last three years.
As a freelance outdoor writer and photographer, Migdalski’s photos and/or articles have appeared in numerous outdoor recreation publications, including: Northeast Boating, New England Fishing, Sport Fishing, Salt Water Sportsman, Outdoor Life, Saltwater Fly Fishing, Fly Fishing in Salt Waters, Eastern Fly Fishing, Big Game Fishing Journal, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Florida Sportsman, On The Water, Women in the Outdoors, The Fisherman, Game & Fish, Wildfowl, Center Console Angler, Shallow Water Angler, Sportsman’s Atlas, Wheelin’ Sportsmen, Angler’s Journal, NBS Outdoor, Edible Rhody, Shooting Sports USA, Le magazine des Voyages de Peche, Connecticut Fisherman’s Review, Shotgun Sports, and PEW U.S. Fish Conservation Booklet. He has published over 250 articles and over 900 photographs, many of which included Yale club sport students, and numerous regional and national magazine covers. He is a professional member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA).
Migdalski has also published three books: The Complete Book of Shotgunning Games, Fishing Diamond Jigs and Bucktails, and Fishing Long Island Sound: A Guide for Beach and Boat Anglers. He has been a lecturer with George Poveromo’s Salt Water Sportsman National Seminar Series, and was a featured expert in episodes of the Outdoor Life Network’s (forerunner of Versus) popular cable TV show Gear Guide, and the TV show George Poveromo’s World of Saltwater Fishing. Migdalski is also a member of the East Lyme Land Trust Committee.
The 1976 Hopkins School graduate was a three-season athlete in high school and captain of its 9-1 track and field team his senior year, where he was also a member of the 4x200 relay team, which broke the school record. As a current adjunct faculty member, he teaches night classes in Nutrition at SCSU, which he has done since 1983.
