North Dakota State University senior associate athletic director Pat Simmers served as the executive director of Team Makers from March 1998 until his retirement in May 2019.
Simmers worked with the Team Makers executive board and board of directors on strategic planning, membership, volunteer training, special events, and hospitality and transportation partnerships.
Team Makers, established in 1950, is a 501C3 foundation committed to raising scholarship money. The organization contributed $5.3 million for Bison Athletics in 2018.
Simmers competed in football and wrestling for NDSU from 1970-74 before a long coaching career at the college and high school level. He was inducted into the Bison Athletic Hall of Fame in September 2017.
He was an assistant football coach at NDSU for six seasons under Don Morton from 1979-84 before joining Morton's staff as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Tulsa from 1985-86 and Wisconsin from 1987-89.
Simmers was the athletic director and head football coach at Oak Ridge High School in the Houston area from 1990-96. He was CEO for Brittonya Industries, an ag manufacturer for high-pressure sprayers, and Simmers Fabrication, a metal fabrication firm, from 1996-98 before returning to NDSU.
Simmers graduated from NDSU in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in physical education. He and his wife, Susie, a former Bison football cheerleader, have three children and eight grandchildren. Their sons, Chris, Chad and Ryan, all played football for the Bison.
