VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

(Courtesy: Dunkley Family)

South Burlington

Gymnastics

Inducted 2023

David Hakins Inductee

Dubbed the 'Father of Vermont Gymnastics,' Thomas ‘Tom’ Dunkley's passion for the sport gave it strong roots in the Green Mountain State starting the 60s. For his effforts, Dunkley is the 2023 David Hakins Inductee for exceptional promotion and development of sports and athletics in the Green Mountain State.

For over five decades Dunkley had a passion for physical activity, conservation and the environment, and a love for the sport of gymnastics, establishing the sport in the state at the youth, high school and collegiate level. His legacy lives on with the family’s Dunkley Gymnastics Camp, started with his daughters Ruth and Debbie in 1973. The summer camp, now in South Hero, is the longest running of its kind in the state. 

A longtime member of the University of Vermont physical education faculty, Dunkley not only started the varsity gymnastics program at UVM in 1966, he also established gymnastics as a sport at the Vermont high school level, with the first sanctioned state championships in 1967. He also organized and coached the gymnastics teams for the Burlington International Games during this era while serving on the BIG board of directors.

Also at UVM in 1977, Dunkley created the successful UVM Summer Adventure Day Camp and with Ruth and her husband, Dan, established in 1977 the state’s first full-time gymnastics club, Dunkley’s Gymnastics, in Chittenden County.

Dunkley received many honors throughout his career. In 1969, he received the Gymnastic Research Award form the National Association of College Gymnastic Coaches and in 1990, he was honored as the ‘Father of Vermont Gymnastics’ by the state’s chapter of USA Gymnastics. In 2010, he was inducted into the Springfield College Athletic Hall of Fame. He joins his daughter Debbie, the first gymnast inducted in 2020, in the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.