Thomas Parrigin

Special Contributor
Inducted 2013

Tom Parrigin first started working for the Tennessee School for the Blind, which is where he got his start coaching athletes who are blind and visually impaired. He later became the director of student life at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind where he formed a swim team. In 1977, Tom took six athletes to the 2nd USABA National Championships where they won bronze medals in swimming and track & field. The following year, Parrigin took eight athletes to the USABA National Championships and won six medals, one of them gold. In 1983, Parrigin officially organized the Florida Association of Blind Athletes, which remains a strong partner with USABA today. Then in 1990, he was selected to go to the IBSA World Youth Championships in France, bringing along four track & field athletes, who all took home a medal. A few years later, in 1992, Parrigin became the U.S. Men’s Goalball Head Coach and took the team to the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games where the men earned bronze; he served as head coach until 2010. Parrigin also served on the USABA Board of Directors for 20 years (1992-2012).