Right before Tom and Laurie Holmoe opened their assignment to find out where they would serve as mission leaders, their daughters made a list of all 55 possible mission assignments.
As Tom Holmoe examined the list, he had one thought on his mind: “We’re going to Oakland-San Francisco.”
“I just knew. That was where we were going,” said Holmoe, who served for 20 years as BYU's athletic director before retiring last year.
But he didn’t say anything to his family until they had all made their guesses. That was when Lori came up to him and said, “I think you’re right.”
And he was. But if he has learned anything throughout his career, it’s this: If you get a call to the Bay Area, you answer it.
“We’re excited to go back,” he said. “We lived in the mission boundaries for 17 years, and it’s been 24 years since we’ve been back.”
His first call to the Bay Area came from the San Francisco 49ers in 1983. After playing defensive back at BYU from 1978 to 1982, Tom, who grew up Lutheran, had a foundational understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He studied books by Neal A. Maxwell and Hugh B. Brown while attending BYU but never really told anyone about his personal efforts to learn about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its doctrine.
“To me, to end up at BYU, that was a miracle — no question,” he said. “God wanted me here.”
After marrying his wife, Lori, and moving to the Bay Area, he started attending church every Sunday, as long as he wasn’t playing. While there, he met many people who tutored and mentored him in his faith. His testimony grew, but he wasn’t baptized until February 1988, the year he began his final season in the NFL.
While he feels he might have received more blessings had he been baptized sooner, he knows his journey was all part of God’s plan.
“The experiences I had not being a member of the church have helped me immensely in all aspects of my life,” Holmoe said. “So I don’t regret it.”
Before his final season with the 49ers, he had an opportunity to play in Los Angeles, where he grew up, with the Rams and compete for a starting job, but he decided to stay in San Francisco. In that decision, he felt he was “listening to the Spirit,” even though he sustained a career-ending knee injury that year.
When Holmoe retired from playing, his plan was to earn a master’s degree in athletic administration from Ohio State. God’s plan was different. He received a call from LaVell Edwards, who wanted him to coach the defensive backs at BYU while defensive backs coach Dick Felt recovered from a heart attack.
Holmoe told him about his plan to get his master’s degree from Ohio State, and LaVell asked why he didn’t just get it from BYU.
“I said BYU doesn’t have an athletic administration degree,” Holmoe said. “Then, after about a five-second pause, he said, ‘Well, we do now.’”
So, while raising three kids as a full-time master’s student, Holmoe coached BYU’s defensive backs for a year. After Felt returned, his second call to the Bay Area came.
Bill Walsh, Holmoe’s former coach with the 49ers, called and offered him a job coaching defensive backs at Stanford. Tom accepted before he even knew what position he would coach or how much he would make. After two years at Stanford, the 49ers called again and wanted him back.
“The hardest decision of my career was to leave Stanford and leave Bill,” he said. “To be with coach Walsh on the road, recruiting, and being able to pick his brain for two years was unreal.”
While Holmoe won the 1994 Super Bowl as a coach with the 49ers, he knew it wasn’t a lifestyle he could sustain. By that point, he and Lori had been sealed in the temple and had their fourth child. He knew he needed to spend more time with his family.
While he was at Stanford working late nights, Lori and the children would bring him dinner on Monday nights so they could have “family home evening.” Tom joked that the wives of the other coaches told her she made them look bad. Despite Lori’s efforts in raising their children, Tom knew he needed to be home more.
He spoke with Pete Carroll, then the 49ers’ defensive coordinator, who told him his trajectory could lead to becoming an NFL head coach. But Holmoe said he didn’t want that. When his contract ended, he told the 49ers he would not return, though he wasn’t sure what would come next.
About 15 minutes later, as he was cleaning out his office, he got another call.
“It was Steve Mariucci. He said, ‘I’m the new coach at Cal. I heard you want to get into college coaching,’” Holmoe said. “I don’t know how he ever heard that.”
Holmoe's office at Cal, where he served as defensive coordinator, is about 10 minutes from where he and Lori will live as mission leaders.
They had always planned to serve a couple’s mission after retirement but didn’t expect the call to come this way. Still, they believe it is a call from God.
“This is what we’re supposed to do,” Holmoe said. “Some days, we’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is a lot to learn and anticipate.’ But our faith is in the call.”
While he knows leading the California Oakland/San Francisco Mission will be much different from leading the BYU athletic department, he has learned that “if you love the people you work with, you’ll be fine.” The kind of love they hope to show missionaries and the people of California, he said, is not just affection but “charity, the pure love of Christ.”
While Holmoe never served a mission as a young adult, he has realized that throughout his life, he has tried to follow the missionary purpose and bring people to Christ. And he believes anyone can make that their purpose in whatever they do.
“It’s just a daily and hourly focus,” he said. “You may have different duties, but the spirit and essence of how you act and serve — it’s the same purpose.”