Villanova Univeristy Athletics

A walk-on to the Villanova roster as a freshman who would go on to earn a scholarship and develop into a Hall of Fame player, quarterback Tom Colombo ranked second in school history in nearly every career passing category at the time of his graduation. He played for the Wildcats from 1989-92 and was the team’s starting quarterback for his final three seasons. Colombo graduated from Villanova in 1993 and was inducted to the Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2009 in his second year of eligibility.
 
Colombo hoped to attend an Ivy League school after he completed a postgraduate year at Exeter Academy in New Hampshire during the 1987-88 academic year. Those plans changed however, and he wound up enrolling at Villanova with no scholarship or guarantees that he would even play, let alone become one of the top quarterbacks in program history. He redshirted the 1988 season which was only the Wildcats fourth year as an FCS program after Villanova reinstated football beginning in 1985. Colombo was named the scout team player of the year as a freshman and earned a spot on the travel roster the next year. He did appear in one game in 1989 and recorded four carries for 16 yards, but it was his sophomore year in 1990 when he first got the chance to play a meaningful role on the field.
 
When all was said and done, Colombo finished his standout collegiate career with 5,825 passing yards and 42 touchdowns. He was 487-of-827 passing and averaged 176.5 yards per game. At the time of his graduation following the 1992 season, Colombo ranked second in school history in each of the above categories as well as in total offense with 5,673 yards and total touchdowns responsible for (45) with 42 passing scores and three rushing touchdowns. He remained in the top five in the Wildcats record book in each of those categories nearly two decades later when he was inducted to the Varsity Club Hall of Fame.
 
Colombo’s first season on the active roster in 1989 prepared him well for his career to come. In the team’s second year as a member of the Yankee Conference, Villanova won a share of the league title and advanced to the FCS playoffs for the first time in program history. Colombo wound up being part of teams that tallied a 33-14 (.702) record spanning the 1989-92 seasons, including a 24-8 record in conference play. The Wildcats won a share of Yankee Conference titles in 1989 and 1991 while advancing to the playoffs three times in four years. Colombo started playoff games against Youngstown State in his junior and senior seasons.
 
In his first season as a starter in 1990, Colombo shared quarterback duties with Brad Parpan who would again back up Colombo in each of the next two years. Colombo threw for 1,128 yards while going 92-of-168 with five touchdowns in 1990. He was named to the weekly ECAC Honor Roll after a 26-14 win over Liberty in which he was 18-of-30 for 232 yards. It would be the first of three career ECAC weekly awards for Colombo, who was also a nine-time Yankee Conference weekly award winner.
 
Colombo’s true breakout year came as a junior in 1991 when he had one of the best passing seasons in school history and helped lead Villanova to a 10-2 record and a share of the Yankee Conference title. He was named to the Yankee Conference second team offense after the season and earned conference weekly recognition five times during the year, including a pair of Offensive Player of the Week honors to go along with three mentions on the league’s weekly honor roll.
 
The numbers on Colombo’s 1991 season were highlighted by a 62.2 percent completion rate which set a single season school record and would still rank seventh in the Wildcats record book when Colombo was inducted to the Hall of Fame. He went 225-of-362 for 2,679 yards with 21 touchdowns on the year, all figures which were the second-most in a single season at the time and which would still rank in the top 10 more than 15 years later. Colombo had 406 total offense plays (362 passes, 44 rushes) in 1991 which marked only the fifth time in school history that a Villanova player had more than 400 plays in a single year.
 
In a 35-3 win over Richmond in the third game of the 1991 season, Colombo threw for a then-career high 312 yards while going 18-of-27 with three touchdowns. His passing efficiency for the day – 200.4 – was only the third instance in school history of a Wildcats quarterback topping the 200 mark in a single game. Later in the 1991 season, Colombo threw for 389 yards and four touchdowns while going 35-of-61 against Delaware. It was the second-most passing yards in a game in school history at the time, while the 35 completions and 61 attempts were both school records. Colombo also rushed nine times in the Delaware game and his 70 total plays that day remained tied for the single game Villanova mark more than 30 years later.
 
Colombo topped 2,000 passing yards for a second straight year in 1992 when he went 172-of-297 for 2,018 yards and 16 touchdowns. In the final regular season start of his career, he guided the Wildcats to a 28-8 win over Maine while going 31-of-39 for 362 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He was named the ECAC Offensive Player of the Week following that performance and capped off his career a week later with the Wildcats making a second straight playoff appearance.