Former Falcon standout Tom Bellairs earns doctorate
5/16/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Former Air Force men's basketball standout Tom Bellairs received his Ph.D. in management from the Manderson College of Business at the University of Alabama recently. Bellairs is a 2003 graduate of the Air Force Academy where he lettered four years in basketball.
Bellairs was an assistant coach at the Academy from 2009-10 to 2012-13 before going to Alabama to work on his doctorate degree. Prior to joining the Air Force program in 2009-10, Bellairs spent five years at Los Angeles Air Force Base working in the GPS Wing on the User Equipment Group, primarily building the next generation GPS devices for the modern Warfighter.
Bellairs enjoyed a stellar basketball career with the Falcons. A four-year letterwinner, he is No. 3 on AFA's career rebounding list with 694 and 32nd on the scoring list with 914 points. Bellairs, who started 98 of his 108 career games, is the only Air Force player to lead the team in rebounding in each of his four seasons. He took the Mountain West Conference by storm as a freshman in 1999-00 when he was named co-freshman of the year and a member of the all-newcomer team by the league. He finished second in the conference in rebounding, averaging 9.2 boards per game, the highest single-season average by an Air Force player since the 1980-81 campaign.
Bellairs was the only MWC player to average a double-double in league games that season and set a freshman school record with eight double-doubles. Bellairs, who had 13 double-doubles in his career, scored a career-high 25 points against Arkansas State as a junior and pulled down a career-best 18 rebounds vs. Dartmouth in his first career start as a freshman. His 90.9 percent (10-of-11) shooting from the floor against Arkansas State is tied for the fourth-best single-game percentage in school history.
Bellairs was selected to the All-Air Force and All-Armed Forces basketball teams and represented the United States in the 3rd World Military Games in Cantania, Italy, after graduation. In 2004, he helped the U.S. Armed Forces team to the gold medal at the 41st SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) Basketball Tournament in Mons, Belgium. His international basketball experience includes playing for the AHEPA (American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) team since he was a student at Mullen High school in Denver, Colo. In 2008, the team was invited to play several games in Athens, Greece, and defeated the Greek Junior National Team at Olympic Stadium.
Bellairs will be heading to Los Angeles Air Station for his next assignment this summer where he'll work in the program management career field as an acquisitions officer.
