Tom Reynolds’ career has channeled Knute Rockne’s in the sense that both advanced their respective fields, always looking for better ways to accomplish goals and benefit those involved.

In Tom’s case, he earned a Notre Dame degree in philosophy while toiling as a reserve linebacker for the Irish in 1966-68. From there, he earned a doctorate in mathematical psychology, and it seemed there would be no limits. Included in his many accomplishments are the patents he’s been granted in decision-making research on topics such as Decision Research Methodology and Decision Analysis Program and Algorithms.

Yet, in typical fashion, he can laugh at a decision he made as a backup for the Irish.

“I played in a couple of games my junior year, but I missed playing in one more because, when called upon, I was afraid I would hurt the team because my feet were frozen,” he recalled. “I dumbly responded to Ara, saying “‘It’s too cold.’ Same thing second half. Monday we broke our standard non-hitting routine on special teams. I think I returned 13 punts with no blocking allowed. Great fun.”

Prof. Reynolds has taught at several institutions, including Cal-Berkeley and Notre Dame, and has consulted for major companies around the globe.

His current work involves the validation of neural network models that underlie the decision-making process and, most recently, developing a curriculum to teach leadership grounded in decision-making, which he says was motivated by the two core principles he learned from Coach Parseghian: namely, focusing on your goals every day and, most critical to long-term success, to have the discipline to totally commit to execute a game plan, every day, to achieve your goals.

“I should note it took me a few decades to figure this out,” Tom says. “I do believe it is the key to success, certainly in what I have achieved.”

Most recently, Tom has applied his knowledge of decision-making to three distinct areas: teaching a basic decision model to children as early as elementary school; teaching student-athletes at ND how to understand the implications of their decisions; and extending his patented decision model to teaching business ethics.

Looking back at his Notre Dame experience from a distance of nearly 50 years, Tom reflects: “I learned how to play football both by playing against and with the best of the best college footballers. I had to play behind two All-Americans who were both better and who were both great guys.”

The lessons learned on the football field have stood the test of time.