A Colorado Springs native, Nathan (Nate) Gibson begins his 20th year with the UCCS Athletic Department and 10th year as the Executive Director of Athletics in 2025-2026. Gibson started his career at UCCS in 2006 as an Assistant Athletic Director and was promoted to Associate Athletic Director in 2008. He was named Senior Associate Athletic Director in 2012, before being named the Executive Director of Athletics in 2016.
Gibson has overseen the development of the UCCS athletic department into one of the top overall programs in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and NCAA Division II. His focus remains on student-athlete development, with the goal of transforming students into well-rounded leaders. This is done by developing championship standards in four pillars of excellence: Academics, Athletics, Community Service and Student Development.
Since taking over as Director of Athletics, UCCS has experienced historic accomplishment and unprecedented success. During his time as AD, the UCCS Athletics Department has won more RMAC Championships than UCCS had won in the entire history of the university. During this time, women’s soccer, women’s basketball, women’s golf, women’s indoor track and field, women’s outdoor track and field, men’s indoor track and field, men’s outdoor track and field and baseball all won their first RMAC Championships in school history. Mountain Lion Athletics has also received National/Regional rankings not previously reached at UCCS, including the highest NCAA rankings and Learfield Director’s Cup standings in school history. Further, since 2016, UCCS has had historic amounts of All-Americans and Academic All Americans, which total more All-Americans than the combined total in UCCS history. Gibson has ushered in a new era of Mountain Lion Athletics highlighted by Athletic and Academic successes not previously seen at UCCS.
Academic excellence has also been a top priority for Gibson during his tenure. Over the past nine years, UCCS student athletes have increased the department GPA to average 3.3 per year. UCCS Academic Success Rate has also increased and has consistently been in the top percentiles of Division II. Further, graduation rates and retention rates have also remained well above the UCCS, RMAC and NCAA averages. Most notably, Mountain Lion student athletes have continued their streak of having a department GPA of 3.0 or better for 40 consecutive semesters (20 years!).
Community service and student development have also excelled in recent years. In 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 the UCCS athletic department was nationally recognized by the NCAA for completing thousands of community service hours which ranked in the Top 10 in the NCAA Division II in each of those years. Mountain Lion athletics has also consistently been recognized by the RMAC as a leader in community service, including winning the RMAC Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Community Service Cup in 2018 and Co-Champions in 2023. UCCS Athletics was also awarded the prestigious NCAA Innovations in Research Grant in 2022 for the nationally recognized Mountain Lion Strong program, geared toward supporting the mental and physical health of UCCS student athletes.
During Gibson’s tenure, the UCCS Athletic Department has nearly doubled the number of student-athletes with the program additions of baseball and women’s lacrosse as well as the expansion of the track and field programs to include all event categories. The program expansion also presented the need for new and upgraded facilities. Gibson led the charge to secure the funding for a $15 million on campus baseball stadium and indoor track and field facility. He also helped secure over $1 million for improvements at Mountain Lion Field for softball and Mountain Lion Stadium for soccer and lacrosse which had included new turf, scoreboards, benches and updating the press box. Most recently, over a half million dollars has been raised to renovate the basketball and volleyball locker rooms in the events center.
Gibson is a member of the Division II Athletic Directors Association (D2ADA), the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), as well as serves on conference, regional and national committees for the RMAC and NCAA. In 2020, Gibson was selected to serve on the prestigious NCAA Division II Championships Committee and in 2023-2024, was elected Chair of the committee. Gibson previously served on the NCAA Division II South Central Region Women’s Soccer and Women’s Softball regional advisory committees.
As an NCAA Division II student-athlete, Gibson was an RMAC Championship quarterback at Chadron State College before transferring to Azusa Pacific University to earn a bachelor's degree in social science. He earned a master's degree in sport and exercise science at the University of Northern Colorado.
A Rampart High School (Colorado Springs) graduate, Gibson was a two-time all-Colorado quarterback. Rampart teams won a state championship and four Colorado Springs Metro League titles.
Gibson is married to Rachel Gibson and they have two daughters.
