My guest today is Tom Hanley, and he's a Marian University alum and a four-time track cycling national champion. He founded Nine13sports right here in Indianapolis to get kids active and teach life skills through cycling. After surviving a serious accident, Hanley directed his competitive drive toward community impact, building a nonprofit that has reached tens of thousands of Indiana students with bike safety education and youth development programs.
Today we're gonna be talking about the thing that brought him to Indianapolis. what we say is the Alabama of the cycling world, Marian University, uh, and all the crazy cool things happening down at the Velodrome. We're gonna talk about social entrepreneurship the way that really interesting. Uh.
Innovative entrepreneurs are building these great organizations that not only, uh, impact and, and scratch that entrepreneurial itch, but also impact tons of lives across our state. And we'll be talking about all the cool, fun things that Nine13sports is doing in the cycling world and beyond. Tom, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me. You are the best hype man possible, and I need that intro every time I walk into my office.
There we go. It's like, and today, it's Friday. The four-time national champion. The crowd goes wild. Let's go. Well, I do wanna talk about that. Let's dive right in. Cycling is one of the most, one of the most uncommon high school sports, I would say not that many kids grow up.
You don't want to be the quarterback of the football team, the point guard. You wanna be the wide receiver. You know, star pitcher, how do you get into cycling as a high schooler to end up going to college? To get into cycling?
Yeah. Like so many stories like this, it's a wild journey, right? So I grew up playing traditional ball sports.
I was a, a big, tall kid. Um, haven't grown an inch in sixth grade. So, uh, basketball, uh, hockey, baseball. I mean, those were all things in my orbit in my world. But we had just moved to Columbus, Ohio, uh, right before fourth grade. And. I was trying to get to know people, uh, and picked up a flyer for the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure in Columbus, Ohio in 1994.
And, uh, my grandfather was, uh, battling diabetes at that point, and so I said, Hey, this seems like something different and fun. Had no idea what I was doing. My parents had no idea what they were doing. Most kids that wind up in bike racing have parents that are part of the sport. I was a total anomaly and so.
Uh, did this, 15 mile fundraising ride, uh, at the end of my fourth grade year. Uh, raised a a few thousand dollars for it and did it on my 40 pound Huffy, right. And, just kind of fell in love with the sport. And one thing led to another and led to another. And I walked into a bike shop, uh, when I was in fifth grade.
Uh, got my first road bike wound up meeting a guy who became my longtime cycling coach, and, uh, just kind of continued to evolve from there.
No way. Wait, so you do a 15 mile bike ride. Uh, as a fourth grader. As a fourth grader, like that's a pretty big feat. I would say
it, it certainly seemed like it at the time.
And then, you know, fast forward a few years, I'm going out for a 100 120 and 140 mile rides when I'm 13, 14, 15. So,
no way.
Yeah. So, you know, the other crazy thing was this was before what we call the Lance Armstrong effect. So, uh, Lance had. Uh, been diagnosed with cancer at that point, had not come back to professional cycling.
And post Lance Armstrong, you have this massive increase in the sport. You have this massive increase in junior athletes and competitive athletes. But in that era, I was one of the only kids under the age of 18 racing my bike in Columbus, Ohio and in Ohio. And so I was racing against guys who were 20, 30, 40, 50, uh, and that's how I cut my teeth.
Um, again, I mean just kinda this Midwest root, mid Midwest mentality. Um, suddenly I was out there battling with guys that were two and three times my age and, and they took me under their wing and it just continued to evolve. And I can honestly say that here I am 39. So 30 years ago this started. Uh, I had no idea where it would take me in life, but the bicycle's been the single most powerful thing to, uh, to touch every aspect of what I do on a daily basis, even now.
Wow. Okay. I gotta know what age and tell me the story the first time you beat someone who's twice, twice your age.
Oh, it took a couple years. Yeah. Trust me. It, it, it was, it was learning, learning the, the way it goes. Um, but I just, it was continuous improvement. Right. And it was being able to go out and ride with guys.
I mean, my Saturday and Sunday mornings were meeting at the bike shop. 8:00 AM to go out for 30, 40, 50 miles. And again, with guys that were, uh, older siblings to me in many ways, or father figures to me in many ways, uh, and I was really, fortunately they took me under their wing. And so it, it just, it was this very unique upbringing where all of a sudden I'm traveling across the Midwest and then the country and beyond.
When I'm 13, 14, 15, 16 years old. And so it really wound up being this way to, to learn a lot, learn a lot about the country, um, appreciate different cultures and different aspects and different communities, but also really understand how special the Midwest is and, uh, made me really wanna stay here and call the Midwest home, wherever that was.
Yeah. And, and it ends up. Taking you to Marian University, which is like, I think at first people would be like, wait, why? Why are you go to Marian? But when you think about the cycling realm, Marian is a big deal when it comes to all things cycling and bikes across the country. Like for people that might not know, can you give a flyover of Marian's impact in the cycling community?
Yeah. They, they really are. I mean, you, summed it up well, they're the Alabama of, collegiate cycling in a lot of ways. Um, one of the unique things about cycling is. It's not an NCAA sport, it's an NCCA sport, national collegiate cycling. And so there are some different loopholes and rules.
It's not unusual to have collegiate cyclists that are racing in the Olympics, that are racing professionally, that are getting paid for it, that have equipment sponsors. And there's several different seasons. There's, there's a track season, velodrome season in the. Fall and a road season in the spring.
What is a Velodrome?
A velodrome is one of these great things we have in Indianapolis that was built more than 40 years ago for the National Sports Festival and was used for the Pan Am games. It's a big bicycle racing track, so think a mini Indy 500, a mini IMS, right? Uh, the one we have here in Indianapolis is 333 meters. It was the Olympic standard for many years.
For me, it was also the closest velodrome to growing up in Columbus, Ohio. And so I spent many days with my parents driving back and forth from Columbus to Indy just so I could be on the track here. Uh, and so I got to know Indy when I was 12, 13 years old. Uh, started coming here when I was in seventh grade to experience the velodrome.
And fortunately I was pretty good at track racing and so spent more and more time in Indy and it made it a very natural fit. When I was starting to look at colleges, um, 'cause I wanted to stay in the Midwest, I wanted to be relatively close to home. I knew Indianapolis. I had a scholarship opportunity at Marian.
Uh, and Marian was this culture of professional competitive cyclists that wanted to be able to pursue their college degree as well. That was the culture. They were highly regarded, many, many national championships long before I came in. Uh, and it was a really unique opportunity. And so I started college at 17.
Uh, came here, never, I'm, I'm a young kid, so born in Michigan. I started like a year before everybody else with the way the school cutoff works. So I was 17 when I moved here from my freshman year at college. And quite honestly, never planned on staying in Indie. This was a place to get a degree and be able to be centrally located, but I wanted to go to the west coast.
I wanted to. It to be in a spot where I could surf or I could ride my bike and all this fun stuff. Right. Uh, but like for so many of us, Indianapolis just kind of sucked me in. And so that was 2004 when I moved here. We're now in 2026. Uh, life looks a little bit different 22 years later, but I wouldn't call, I wouldn't wanna call any place else home besides Indianapolis.
So that was 2004?
Yes.
You come in as a 17-year-old kid. How competitive were you Right away on the collegiate cycling landscape?
Uh, very much so. And you know, I was, again, I was very fortunate that I had already been racing at the, the elite level, um, as that junior age, so as that 17 and 18-year-old. So I was already racing against guys that were competing for Olympic caliber type opportunities and, and competing in Europe and internationally.
And so, um, I came in, uh, really was focused on the, uh, match sprint track sprint event for, uh, velodrome racing.
What does that mean?
Uh, it's when you see two guys on a track. Banging handlebars and heads at 40 miles an hour and playing a game of cat and mouse and chicken and trying to go, you know, from zero to 40 plus miles per hour in the course of a couple laps.
And it's a bit of strategy, it's a bit of chess, it's a bit of a brute force and pure power. And
just one V one.
Yep. One V one. And so I was. I kind of fell into that role and I wound up being third, um, in the National Championships in 2004, uh, as a freshman. And it just evolved from there. Won that first national championship in the match sprint in 2005.
It had been the first one for Marian in a number of years, uh, and it just continued to evolve from there. And so. I was very fortunate that Marian gave me a chance to begin my college education and continue to pursue cycling. Um, I ultimately left Marian after my junior year, uh, to have some more flexibility with my school scheduling and finish up at IUPUI, now IU Indianapolis, uh, which has been another great institution.
And so I feel very lucky because I look at both of those colleges, both of those universities. Get to be an alum of both of them in many ways. And again, fast forward here to 2026 and whether it's working with Marian Professors now with Nine13sports and having college students come through and do programs and mentorships and internships with us, or whether it's sitting on the board of Advisors for the School of Liberal Arts for for IU Indianapolis.
It's been amazing to be able to stay engaged and in touch with both of my universities.
Well, one, how many Total National Championships did you win?
I won. Let's see, for Marian, we had had one individual. We had two team championships, and I had one U23 Elite Championships.
Okay, so four national titles there.
Yep. And then when you switch over, were you still a competitive cyclist at uh. Uh, IUPUI,
I was just, didn't have the benefits of it being a full school built program. And at that point I was focusing more on the elite side of racing. So what
does that mean?
Um, you know, traveling all over the country, trying to race all over the world.
Um,
so what year you were on track to be a professional cyclist?
That, that was certainly the goal. That, that was the reason I was putting in, you know, 25 hours a week on the bike. And
was that the goal? So you graduate and then you don't have to get a, like a, one of our normal pencil pusher jobs. You're like, I'm gonna go be a full-time athlete.
You know, the, the sad part about cycling even today is it's not a great way to make a living. It's a great way to, uh, uh, be passionate, but there's not a whole lot of money, especially on the track side of stuff. So, um, I grew up in a business household. My mom was an entrepreneur who sold her company at 40 and retired.
My dad was a CPA by trade, but ran bank-to-bank mergers and acquisitions all across the country. And so I grew up in this very unique business household, uh, and I think the only expectation my parents had, they were incredibly, incredibly supportive of my cycling and helped, helped make it all happen.
Uh, but they wanted me to continue to pursue that higher education and have a plan B, and it made perfect sense even then. And so my original plan had to become, was to become an attorney and I wanted to do business law. And so my goal was to finish up my undergrad race competitively for a couple years and then, then go to law school and then, uh.
In June of 2010, I just finished undergrad, was still racing at a, at a high level, at an elite level. And uh, I was involved in a, a private limousine bus crash here in Indianapolis. There, the bus we were on ran a red light and I went from a 23-year-old elite level athlete to being 23 years old, walking off a bus, being told I had two broken vertebrae and brain injury and my best friend was killed.
And in fact, my best friend saved my life in that moment because he wound up underneath me. Um, but he was killed. And so I went from what? 23-year-old elite level athlete being told I shouldn't be alive. I was lucky to be alive, but I would never race my bike again, uh, to then trying to figure out what I was in that, that sudden post athlete world.
So, you know, I spent the next year grieving, healing, resting and recovering, and really wrote what would become the eventual business plan for Nine13sports and launched that, um, less than two years later.
Hold on. You graduate Marian or you graduate from iu? PUI. At what, how, how old?
2220. 23. Yeah.
Okay. And then you were on, was it a wedding?
Yep, it was a wedding.
You're on one of those, like a party bus or
Yeah. Party bus. Yeah. 15 person party bus.
Okay.
And it ran a red light at South and Delaware. Uh, we were going to St. Elmo's to take photos beforehand.
Yeah.
Uh, and suddenly, quite literally, the world was upside down, including the bus.
So it gets hit.
Gets hit.
And. In that moment, like what are you thinking? Like what, take me through like the, the scenario.
Yeah. I mean, it's a wild thing to be with 15 of your closest friends.
Like laughing,
joking, smiling,
having fun.
Literally had a beer, you know, three minutes before we got on the bus. And uh, uh, it's supposed to be this magical day and it goes from that to, you know, walking off a bus knowing my best friend was killed.
Um, knowing there was nothing I could do to save him, uh, he was killed instantly.
Was this before the wedding?
It was before the wedding.
So it's like you're getting pictures and everyth stuff. Exactly. Oh yeah. Wait, your wedding?
My wedding. My first wedding.
Your first wedding. Okay. This is your, like this is your groom
thing.
This is, yeah, exactly. It was, it was my best man, our officiant, uh, that was killed. And so we went from that to suddenly being in this world where everything changed. You know, we had, um, yeah, media attention. We had attorneys in our world were, you know, survivors all have various injuries. Uh, and we're just trying to figure out which way's up.
And so really in those days, those hours, minutes after, whether it's the people that stopped to check on us, whether it was the nurses at the hospital and the doctors at the hospital, uh, I truly think that day, that being the worst, one of the worst days of my life. Set me up for an appreciation of how special Indianapolis is and I got to see people, strangers, reach out, strangers, you know, genuinely concerned, strangers stay in touch with us.
The nurse who took care of me that day as a friend that I still talk to here 16 years later. And so I got to really see the best of Indianapolis in my darkest time and it really made me further appreciate what. What community we live in. It also made me realize I didn't want to be an attorney. I had them in my life after the crash.
I had them constantly around. And so, uh, instead of going to law school, I decided to do something to be able to give back to the community. At that point, I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to race a bike again or ride a bike again. I knew my cycling career was over, um, but I wasn't sure what my limitations would be.
And so I fueled that grief, that energy, that emotion into what would become Nine13sports a couple years later.
I think, uh, there's a lot of stories of horrific accidents in like really unfortunate times that fuel spectacular, whether it be comebacks, innovation, business owners, nonprofit, change makers, the whole nine yards.
There's tons of stories about that, but it's not an overnight thing. Like I think that a lot of people, like even when you're retelling the story, it's like, oh yes. And then, you know, over the next year I launched, you know, I thought of the ideas and all the things, but that's a year, that's 365 days. You know?Take me through that process of dealing with. The hand that you were dealt in these difficult circumstances and how you did fi figure out how to channel that into something positive. Because I think there are a lot of people out there, a lot of listeners that might be dealing with adversity and channeling that into opportunity and channeling that into positive, uh, change is really challenging.
One of the single best pieces of advice I got from, from somebody very close to me in the days after, um, understanding the scale that this was going to be was. This can be part of your story, but doesn't, it does not have to define your story. And those simple words really stuck with me through the, through the highs and through the lows.
And, uh, to go from being 23 years old competing at the highest level of sport to like being told you're. Your T three and T four vertebrae are crushed and we don't know how you walked off the bus. You probably shouldn't have, you probably should be dead too, but you're not. And you're here and oh, that massive concussion you have that turns into post-concussive syndrome, the massive, uh, cut on the back of your head that had to be stapled up.
All of these things, right? So it you go from just processing to being pissed off. To grieving. And then you play that cycle a few times every day, day in and day out. And then at some point it becomes exhausting in itself and you really have to do that gut check of how, how do I want this to be? Do I want this to define me or do I want it to be part of the story?
Yeah. And uh, fortunately I had an incredible group of people around me that made sure it became part of the story, but not the story.
One. When you say competing at the highest level, can you give us like a context or an example like you had been participating in?
I mean, I was spending some time racing in Europe.
I was, I was spending time racing in National Championships here at the elite level. I was doing both road and track. Uh, so I mean, the bike was, my life revolved around the bike. I woke up every morning, I went, what's my training schedule for the day? Right? And so that competitive, that elite level athlete, um.
Really gives you the drive on a lot of things and, uh, gives you the framework to be able to cope with a whole lot of things that are not just sport.
A lot of times when adversity rears its ugly head, people can get stuck in those cycles of. Well, poor me, like that's unfortunate. Like it's unfair. Like you're pissed off all these things.
Do you have advice or, or anything that worked for you to flip the switch from you are a victim of the circumstances to man this, this is unfortunate, but I, it can be part of the story. Um, but it doesn't have to be the whole story.
Another great piece of advice I got unsolicited from a friend was practice your passion, whatever it is, right?
And so, uh, I think that. Knowing that I was never gonna be competing cycling again, knowing that I probably would never be able to be cleared to race again. Um, there was just too much physical risk to another crash or another injury that could exacerbate brain injury or back. Um, I had to figure out what passion was and how do you make something that's been a competitive drive for.
Many, many years suddenly be something that's a job, right? And so, uh, whether it was healthy or not, what I find myself doing was pouring, let's say in competitive effort that I gave to racing a bike, to starting a nonprofit that used the bike as a teaching tool in the schools and. Uh, to go from that being June of 2010 when the crash happened to February of 2012, launching programs.
Uh, that's where I put my fuel and my focus.
So within two years you had programs developed. Okay. What were the original programs?
So our first program we launched with was called, is called Kids Riding Bikes. It's still the program we we see with most volume today. Nice. Um, it's a big bike video game we'd taken to schools, we'd taken to PE classes.
And so here I was now 25 years old, uh, and I didn't have an education background. I didn't know that schools are pretty sterile places. Like any one of 50 people in the city could have said no to me, and it probably would've derailed Nine13sports. But either they were willing to hear what I was trying to do, which was get kids riding bikes as part of their PE classes, or they placated me and said, good luck.
But nobody said no. And I think that's a great summary of Indianapolis as a whole. Basically took the equipment that was used to be able to survive Midwest winters and to be able to, to train when it was snowing and raining outside, modified it and built it to be able to go into schools. And suddenly we were working with 150 kids a day in a school.
We were every student that had PE class, and it just continued to grow slowly.
Like what did that look like? Biking and PE class and like the program kids riding bikes.
Yeah. So kids riding bikes takes eight bicycle simulators into the PE class. So we take all the equipment, it's uh, the bikes talk to a computer.
The kids are looking at a big 65 inch monitor. When the kids go uphill on the screen, the bikes get harder to pedal When they go down, all they go faster. I mean, it's really Peloton before Peloton. Uh, and it creates this unique dynamic where. Uh, when we go into a school for the first time, even now here in 2026, about 10% of the kids we see have never been on a bike before.
And so what's your earliest memory of a bicycle?
I was probably five or six, and my dad like pushed me and I just started pedaling and it didn't fall over that time and I made it all the way around the block and I couldn't stop. So I did it like twice.
We, we always tell the kids gravity is a mean mistress, right?
She always wins at some point. Um, for many of the kids we work with, they just don't have somebody who is using the bicycle. It's not that they don't care about the bike, it's just not even on their radar. And that's 10% is pretty consistent, whether it's in urban Indianapolis or rural Morgan County.
Whether the kids are seven or whether they're 14, uh, it's just a whole generation that doesn't have memories of. What the bike means to them as a kid. And you know, for me, the bike outside of being a competitive tool was a way to explore my neighborhood, a way to get to my friend's house, a way to go see the girl.
When I was telling my folks I was going to the other side of the neighborhood, all of those things. So
you got pegs on that thing and you tossed one of your boys on the back and we were off.
So the bike is freedom. I mean, that's what we really equate it to, right? And it's one of these few tools you can.
Due from when you were three, four or five years old until the end of time, you can use it for fitness, for transportation to be able to get to work, to get to school, to explore your community or in some cases, escape it.
You're talking about the importance of a bicycle. Okay. All right. This letter, ma'am, uh, it comes from a, a high school student who, um, me and a bunch of my, my buddies.
So we've all done like. Uh, or a bunch of us have done like Iron Mans or triathlons, we run ultra marathon. Like we're just like a group that loves activity. And I noticed that there was a kid who was riding the public bus to school and I was like, you know, we gotta do something for this young, young student.
And so we ended up getting them a bicycle so they could, you know, have more transportation and get around. And I got this letter, which is like the most. Sentimental moving thing that I've ever gotten. But a, a small excerpt of it says, I also really appreciate you and everyone, uh, buying me the bike so that I could get to and from practice.
That year in particular was really hard for me, and that was like the only Christmas present, uh, I got. And to this day, I still use it all the time. It's actually one of my most prized possessions. And this, this young, uh, individual lives in a, you know, a. More challenged part of, mm-hmm. Of the city. And so being able to get to and from places is not super easy.
And not everyone has the access to Uber or the money to pay for Uber or a parent that can drive them to and from practice in the whole nine yards. And you talk about freedom. You also, like a bicycle is also opportunity. And when I read that, I was so moved of. You know, I'm a 29-year-old individual and it's like I, I have like two bikes and I, you know, pull 'em out every now and again.
And, and to me, you know, what it meant back in the day was freedom. And to this young youngster, it could mean opportunity into someone else. It could mean passion and competition. And, and there is that, uh, that feeling you get the first time you, you know, whether you go 15 miles or, I remember the first time I rode a hundred miles on a bike.
It was, you get to the end and you're like. Holy smokes. Like we just, we covered some ground and we did that thing
and that's what was just, it was amazing to see the, the smiles on the kids' faces when we got 'em on the bikes and the PE classes. Right. What a great opportunity. And so for us. We built upon that.
And for the next six years, from 2012 to 2018, all we did was continue to grow kids riding bikes. We added staff. We were able to add how many schools we could serve in a single day. We went from serving a thousand kids in 2012 to about 30,000 students in 2018, uh, and the momentum in the ground. So I'll just continued to grow.
And so in 2018, we launched a kids building bikes program, which reading. Very much off that letter, uh, was an opportunity to talk about workforce development initiatives with kids that are in fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade, and give them an opportunity to spend 16 hours with us learning how to build a bicycle from scratch.
And then graduating with a brand new bicycle along with a helmet, a lock, and a tool set. And the vast majority of the students we're working with are on free and reduced lunch. So, uh, for us it was a great opportunity to get kids access to a bicycle while having them earn it. Uh, we believe that. You have to earn something, right?
You, you have, there has to be learning involved with any programs we put on a Nine13. And so, uh, to be able to, to really create this as a workforce development initiative where getting tools in the hands of kids was our goal. And you know what I tell kids all the time is. Everybody defines community differently.
For you and I, we probably define communities Indiana, right? Not just Central Indiana, but statewide. For a lot of the kids we work with, they define it as their block, their neighborhood, their, their corner of town, right? And so what I always stress is it doesn't matter how you define community, it matters that you're part of your community.
And every community needs a plumber and electrician and auto mechanics just as much as they need a doctor and an attorney and an engineer. And for a lot of the kids we're working with, being able to put tools on their hands, many of which have never held a screwdriver before. I've never held a wrench before.
Uh, and to be able to teach them in a, a safe space that it's okay to learn, it's okay to fail, it's okay to figure out why you failed, and then find success, uh, really becomes this, this community initiative to be able to set these kids up for what's next in life. And as those programs continue to grow, we just saw more and mo more and more momentum.
And in 2025, we served 50,000 students across Indiana.
Wow. How many different high school or how many different schools?
About 125 different schools we work with on an annual basis, and we're typically in schools for four to five days each. So we can see every student in the, in the building and give them the experience with the Kids Riding Bikes program.
Wow. So you, so that was, that's the flagship program, is you're bringing this. Software, hardware, software, hardware, the whole, the whole gaming type experience, which I'm sure has, uh, definitely evolved over the last decade. You know,
it, it has, and, and the other aspect is we bring our staff. So we have two staff member members at every school site, right?
And so the other cool thing that happens is you have a PE teacher. Who is typically used to working with 24 to 32 students in a class at a time, uh, suddenly having reinforcements, right? And, and we're there to supplement and compliment the incredible work teachers and educators and administrator, administrators are doing on a daily basis.
Uh, but. We also have this opportunity to work with eight students at a time as the PE teacher works with the rest of the class and we rotate through. And so, uh, it really creates this unique dynamic where we become part of that collaborative effort of the education curriculum and be able to, to make a real impact along the way with it.
Yeah. So starting with, you know, getting kids on bikes through the. Kids riding bikes.
Kids riding bikes, yeah.
Yep. Through kids riding bikes. Then you started to add in the building programming. Yep. And that got you to what, 50,000 students in 2018?
20, yeah, 20, 18, 50,000 students. And then, uh, we continued to, to be intentional with growing our program lines, growing our staff.
Uh, we've been very fortunate that demand for our programs isn't the issue, it's our capacity. And so. That's a point of privilege in a lot of ways. It allows us to be able to work with philanthropic and corporate funders. It allows us to work with school districts directly and really be able to build the model of how we can continue this in a sustainable way.
Uh, we moved into our own home, uh, previous to 2018. We've been based outta Shortridge High School in the basement. Um, IPS was kind enough to give us space for a couple years there as we were doing a lot of work alongside of them. Uh, but in 2018, we located what we call 29th & the Canal on the near northwest side of Indianapolis.
Uh, moved in and it was a pretty dilapidated property at that point. Uh, but it was a perfect home for us to be able to continue to grow. Uh, did some build out there in 2019 and then really felt like we were on top of the world at the beginning of 2020. New building, new programs, more staff than ever before.
We were gonna serve more kids than ever before. And then the world shut down, right? And March of 2020, uh, comes rolling through, we suspend school programs and I'm looking at my staff and going. Shit, how is this gonna work? Schools are gonna be closed for months. We were a quickly growing organization. We didn't have a ton of runway.
I knew we had 60 days, 60 days before I was gonna have to let everybody go and walk away from this thing that I had poured my, at that 0.8 years into. Uh, and at that point was very much my identity, right? And very much my pr, my passion project after this horrible bus crash 10 years before. And. I watched my staff walk out the door on Friday, March 20th, 2020.
Walked into my office, poured myself a big glass of bourbon, and sat there and cried and realized that the likelihood of those staff walking back through that front door of this building we had just moved into a year before wasn't gonna happen. And it's one thing to be a social entrepreneur or an entrepreneur in any capacity and take calculated risks and know that it may not work out.
When it's in your control, that's the risk calculation you're making to suddenly be in this world. And every business was going through this, right? Every, every for-profit, whether you employed one person, whether you're employed 10,000, what is this gonna do to our bottom line? How do we keep people employed?
So our story's not unique, but what was unique was the fact that we still had that social entrepreneurial vision, and so. Come Monday, March 23rd, after feeling really sorry for myself all weekend long and probably having another glass or three of bourbon. Uh, I sent an email to six people in the city. I said, I don't know how we can help, but we've got 10 staff or vans of forklift and 10,000 square feet of warehouse space.
Let me know. And within two hours we were on the phone with the local food banks. We were on the phone with the mayor's office. We were being asked if we, we could repurpose our staff and our vans and our trucks. To help begin to move food across the city and really focus on two specific lanes. One was helping move large amounts of palletized food to the churches and parks.
Community centers had to become overnight drive-through food pantries, uh, as the world shut down. And then the other aspect was helping build a home food delivery program for residents in Marion County that couldn't access any of those food pantries. Either they were COVID positive or elderly, or immunocompromised, or couldn't travel.
And like all good social entrepreneurs, especially those that are desperate, I said, yeah, we'll figure it out. Bike's, food, these, these go hand in hand, right? Recalled my staff a couple days later, said, Hey, I know I sent you on this extended spring break with the reality. You're, you, I didn't think you were coming back, but I need you.
I, if you're willing, I need you to start jumping into vans and throwing food on doorsteps across the city. And I figured this was gonna last 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. Jokes on me. Six years later, we're still doing it. Nine13 Logistics is a sibling division and Nine13sports. Uh, it allowed us to survive the pandemic for a year.
All we did was to deliver food on a daily basis to tens of thousands of homes. We delivered millions of pounds of food and we continued to do that. And what we really found was. There was this unique problem within the food resource sector that we have amazing organizations in the city like Gleaners and Midwest Food Bank and Second Helpings that do an incredible job getting food to the community.
In Marion County alone, there's 210 plus community food pantries. Some are open every day, some may be only open once a month. Some are that church around the corner, some are that, that Indy Park facility that's open every Wednesday. But the pain point was getting food from the loading docks at those incredible facilities that could get food into the community, and getting the food to the.
Distribution points. And so what Nine13 Logistics really has evolved into is we are that last mile, that last 250 foot delivery service that helps facilitate the transportation. I like to think of it as the least sexy part of food insecurity work. It's not fun to talk about box trucks and sprinter vans and cold storage and food safety.
Uh, but there was this immense need and so. If anything, we were very fortunate because we were able to find a way to be able to step in and serve Indianapolis and Marion County in another way, and we continue to do that today.
This is interesting. I wanna dive in a little bit on how, just to give people a scope of the moving parts, because I think when the average person thinks of a, of a food bank, food pantry, they think, uh, okay, you host a food drive, like, you know, local church, host a food drive, then.Has a food pantry where other people from the community can come and have that. So I drop off my, you know, non-perishable food items. They get put onto shelves. People come in and see those shelves in like the smallest version that is food pantries and that is how this works. To the tune of Gleaners.
This is like the infrastructure that, it's almost like a, um, utility. It's almost like, like they are supplying food to so many different food banks and like distribution points across the city, across central Indiana. That it's, it's so, like you're talking about palletized, like, you know, hundreds of, I dunno, mac and cheese boxes or whatever it might be.
Exactly. Exactly. And. The, you know, out of those 210 food pantries that are ones, the ones that are directly working with their neighbor, their community member that needs that food, right? Where the, the challenge has always arisen is how do you get that food from those amazing organizations to that final destination?
And you often see, you know, the old church school buses or the old pickup trucks that, you know, hopefully they start in the morning in the parking lot when they go out to, to fire 'em up, to be able to run out to these food site locations. There's no efficiency in that. You think about the average age or the, the average person that's volunteering in a food pantry, they're typically more retired.
They're, they're typically more elderly, and you're suddenly asking 'em to move a 1500 pound pallet of rice or beans or whatever it may be. That's not feasible. You're asking 'em to jump in a 26 foot box truck and drive out to a loading dock and back it up and wrestle these pallets on. That's not feasible.
And so we've really built this model where we focus on. That logistics piece, the transportation piece, and then creating efficiencies along the way. And so when we go out to a Gleaners, we may pick up for four or five pantries simultaneously, create an efficient route to make those deliveries. It just helps everybody get more food.
Yeah. So you guys would be picking up from the large distribution where there's like warehouses full of, you know, tons and tons of food. Exactly. And then getting that to. Distribution points and then as well as working on getting it the last mile to individuals, like let's say you're elderly and you can't travel and you know this is your food source is like that as well.
Exactly, yeah. We're basically the hired gun, so people need food moved, whether it's to those facilities or to a home address. That's what we do. And, uh, we have continued to see that program grow. Um, despite the fact we thought it wouldn't survive past 2021 or 2022, um, we're celebrating six years of, of that aspect.
Does more time and resources get dedicated towards logistics or to sports?
I have an incredible team. Yeah, so Nine13sports and Nine13 Logistics both operate under the same parent umbrella. And so for me, I get to sit at the high level, like look at the 50,000 foot view. What are we doing in three months, six months?
How do these partners collaborate with us? How can we do new programs? How can we create better efficiencies? Really get to scratch that entrepreneurial itch on a regular basis. I have two incredible COOs, one over Nine13sports, and one over nine, 13 logistics that make that daily implementation possible.
So, uh, like so many CEO executive level folks, I get to deal with the really good stuff or the really bad stuff, and I've got a team that helps make the day-to-day happen. While they, let me play with the, the what's next in the big picture? Yeah. So it, it just continues to feed, you know, not only literally feed people, but feed our ability to serve the community.
Uh, we've been very fortunate that the logistics piece helped us survive the pandemic, um, has been, uh, a net positive in terms of what we can do with the community. And if you draw a Venn diagram at the end of the day of the. Families and the kids that benefit from our education programs and schools and the families that are benefiting either directly or indirectly through our food programs.
It's a pretty direct overlap, right? That's the same clientele we're dealing with. And so at its core, we believe that kids need access to quality food to be able to be successful in school. And if we can catch 'em on both ends where we're helping make sure that their neighborhood food pantries, got the food.
To keep 'em fed. They're gonna excel in the school piece,
the full energy cycle right there. It's like, you know, you get, you get fed, you're, you know, doing well in school, getting good grades, and you're also like, you know, recreationally, you're on the bike, you're doing whatever. That's a positive, uplifting thing, and then you're gonna be hungry and need more food.
Exactly. Exactly.
Wow. What's the footprint of. Hoosiers that you impact today.
Nine13sports or education programs works in schools across central Indiana, so my focus is Marion County. I started to be able to serve kids within the beltway, but we've been very fortunate to see growth in the donut counties and, and even well beyond.
Uh, Nine13 Logistics has historically been Marion County focus that we are, uh, we expanded in Hamilton County here at the beginning of 2026 to help support some of the food pantry work and food resource work up there. And so. Uh, the beautiful thing for us is we're mobile. We go to where the kids are. We go to where the funders want us, and that gives us the flexibility to be able to continue to grow the capacity along the way Where whether we're talking about 50,000 kids a year, or we're talking four and a half million pounds of food moved.
On an annual basis, we expect to see those numbers just continue to grow in 2026 and beyond.
What's your advice to other nonprofit leaders out there that are, you know, looking to continue to make a bigger impact? I feel like there are so many great people that are doing. Amazing work across our city, across our state.
Uh, but at times it's challenging. It's, it's, uh, definitely a difficult industry. Uh, and, and I know people don't, maybe, like, it's not the first thing that comes to mind, but it's also competitive. You know, it's like there are philanthropic dollars that you, you really have to get people to resonate with this mission and identify with you guys.
I'm a big believer that if you think the higher education or the government or the healthcare sector is slow to evolve. Come hang out in the nonprofit world for a couple days and you'll realize just how archaic it is, right? Um, we've been very fortunate that the model I approached to Nine13 is the vision of collaboration.
And my biggest piece of advice to nonprofit leaders in the nonprofit community is to find partner organizations that collaborate with you, to work alongside of one of you. The example I always give is, if we didn't play nice with schools, we wouldn't have kids. On bikes in schools during the school day, right?
If we didn't play nice with our food partners, we wouldn't be having places to pick up or deliver food to. Collaboration and efficiency is key. And so, uh, you know, I think we're at a really exciting time in the nonprofit sector. Candidly, uh, I think you're starting to see a lot of changing in the guard. I think you're starting to see a lot of younger individuals stepping in into executive leadership roles within the nonprofit sector.
And I think that's gonna continue to foster better collaboration and ultimately a bigger impact on the community, uh, as we move forward.
As you look to the future for Nine13sports and Nine13 Logistics. Well wait one, where does the name Nine13 come from?
It's my birthday, September 13th. I can say when I launched this when I was 24, I was trying to find this, the simple branding.
Um, I had no idea what it would turn into, and so there's a, there's a little piece of me on every van that goes out on every letterhead that goes out. It's an excuse to throw a really bitchin' birthday party at some point. Oh yeah. Come on. So, yeah, so it, it, it really is very much me on this, even as we've been fortunate to grow to a staff at 20 plus and, and all these different things.
Um, it's, uh. Uh, it's pretty cool to see on a daily basis.
Yeah. Okay. So as you look to the future of Nine13, from the sports and logistics side, where do you see the biggest opportunity to make the biggest impact?
So we continue to push more into the education space with Nine13sports. Uh, we launched a new experience based stem learning program earlier this year, uh, that focuses on using modules to help, uh, primary school teachers, grades fourth, fifth, sixth, and eventually seventh and eighth.
Uh, to help teach math and science standards using the bicycle. The bicycle is the, the most efficient, simple machine ever created, right? So we can teach math, we can teach gear ratios, we can teach physics, we can teach that gravity is always a mean mistress and, and will always win when you fall. Uh, so we continue to really see the bicycle become even more a part of the education community, um, along the way.
And we're the driving force on that. And we continue to see school partners that are. Begging to have us in the school in all of these different capacities for Nine13 Logistics. We're excited. We're actually opening the Nine13 Logistics food hub and logistics hub, uh, at 29th & the Canal at our home base here, uh, later the spring, uh, Nine13 Logistics hub will give us the ability to even better serve our food clients.
Uh, one of the biggest challenges within the food insecurity sector when it comes to community pantries is they don't have cold or freezer storage. Uh, so they can't always take cold products, protein thing, like things like that. And we've been able to centralize a lot of those resources. So we have cold and freezer storage on site.
We'll have even more as the logistics hub opens, and so. It's how do we continue to be a resource behind the scenes? Uh, it's kinda like fight Club. For the first four years of Nine13 Logistics, we didn't really talk about it. We just did it. We didn't expect it to continue to grow. Right. But now we've really leaned into it.
Uh, and so those opportunities just continue to really, really populate for us.
When you think about the food insecurity problem that the, the central Indiana is facing, what needs to continue to happen for that to be eradicated? Like how do we get to a point where. Anyone in, in Indiana as a whole has the opportunity to eat nutritious, like enough food.
Consistency in the programming is, is where I would go with. So I mean, you look at what happened, uh, during COVID where food access was a major. Issue, but there was more food in the system than ever before. And the, the reality is the demand that we saw during the pandemic never really went away. It peaked and then it's really plateaued and stayed and even increased a little bit, but people don't talk about it anymore.
Right? The, the need for food related resources is bigger than ever, and that's gotta be solved. A combination of, uh, government, traditional philanthropy, individuals, households, really working together to, to figure out the resources. I feel like the secret shopper at times when we talk about food, right? I didn't sign, this isn't my background, this isn't what I signed up for.
Uh, but we work with dozens of amazing food pantries. We work with amazing community partners like Gleaners and Second Helpings in Midwest. And so the passion is there. It's just how do we, how do we get more food into the system and how do we make it as reasonably accessible as possible for the individuals?
And there's not a one size fits all solution. There are individuals that can. Go to a major food pantry, a food distribution site, and be able to pick it up with their car. There are people that can walk down the block to the church that's got that once a month food pantry and get the resources they need.
But there's also a huge population of, in individuals that can't leave their house, can't go to those resources. And so there's not a one size fits all. But continuing to collaborate and create efficiencies in the system is how we. Are able to serve more within the resources we have.
Yeah, like especially, I've had a few different guests on, they've talked about food insecurity for children in Indiana.Like, I dunno, that should just be at the top of the priority list. It's like, how do we make sure that when. A kid is leaving school on a Friday afternoon. They're gonna have food over the weekend. They're gonna have food when they go home at night and there's some, there's dinner for them to eat. 'cause I mean, we had Martha Hoover on and she's, you know, working with A Longer Table and Billy, that whole thing.
And I mean, her thing is even not just. Your scraps, not just like if, oh, we've had these old beans in the back of the pantry for forever. It's like, well, if you don't want to eat the beans, like yeah, that kid probably doesn't want to eat the beans either. You know? Like how do you. Make it your, your first fruits, you know, like the stuff that you would want to eat, uh, like these kids that are largely out of control about what's in their pantry, they shouldn't, they should have the opportunity to have nutritious food that's gonna help them thrive.
To thrive. No. To learn what proper eating is, right? And, and the concept that, um, food doesn't come through a window, right? Food shouldn't all be fast food. And, uh, to be able to, to learn and understand how you. You know, cook basic meals and how you cook, you know, do all this and that. And so, um, a lot of it's education.
A lot of it I think is community priority. Uh, I think Hoosiers genuinely want to help and want to help out and help lift others up. Uh, but we still got a long ways to go in terms of how we, how we help fight. So, food hunger here,
do the average Hoosier, what's the number one way you could impact. Food insecurity in the state,
give to those major food.
Giving those food related organizations, they are so efficient at being able to take a dollar and leverage it and be able to, to really create a bigger impact than that. What the dollar could do at the individual level. Um, volunteer. Volunteer, volunteer at your food pantry in your neighborhood. Volunteer at that church pantry.
Volunteer at a Gleaners or Midwest. There are so many needs for volunteers. So it comes down to time, talent, or treasure, which is so often the case in the nonprofit sector.
I mean, the work you're doing is super important. People are, uh. I mean, you're impacting lives, whether it's, you know, through the sports side or logistics side every day.
Yeah, a little bit of the unsung hero, kinda like the plumbing of the, the food, the food system across the, across central Indiana. So, uh, keep up the great work. Thank you. We do wanna wrap out talking all things Indiana. So this question is brought to you by our.
JC Hart, they're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homeisjchart.com. My question for you, Tom, why do you call Indiana home?
I cannot imagine living in another spot. I've been very fortunate to travel all across the world, but there is something about Midwest humbleness, about Hoosier hospitality.
Uh, you don't have to have the right last name or have gone to the right high school to be successful in this community. This community is incredibly accessible across the board. And you know, I look back to when I was starting Nine13, there are people that met with me that I never had any business meeting with at that startup phase I was in.
That took the meeting, gave me great advice and helped shape where we're at today. And I'm fortunate to call many of those people friends here in, in 2026. So, uh, I cannot imagine a better place to raise a family, to start a business and to call home.
Amen. I love it. You're so right and I feel like that is a, a reoccurring theme we hear about just the people in the community here.
It's not just lip service, like they really will go outta their way to help you and they wanna see you win.
Okay. We've got a couple rapid fire questions here. First one. What's the biggest lesson you've ever learned from a bike? No matter what, you still gotta get home. So even if you're too tired, even if you don't have the energy, you gotta figure it out, right? You don't have the luxury of just stopping when you're 20 miles from home or 10 miles from home or two miles from home.
You gotta get it done. And what a great, uh, translation to life. You, you gotta finish what you start,
man. It's like nothing. You're feeling good on the front. Half of that. You get 50 miles out, and then maybe you take a nose dive and you're like. We still gotta get home.
And there's always a headwind in those days
there.
I have so many great bike stories from when I did Ironman 'cause I was not, I am still not a I'm, I'm a biker. Like I will every now and then go on a bike ride. I'm not a cyclist. And so when, you know, the first time I ever rode a hundred miles it was just like, this is brutal dude. Like this is so hard. I remember being on the phone with one of my buddies and he was like getting his ride in and I just like, we're talking and chit-chat and he's like, dude, there's a strong headwind.
And all of a sudden I hear just. Plop and he like fell over. He's like, shit. And I'm just like laughing so hard to be on the phone with him while he, while he like correct his bike because it was like his first time using clip-ins. It was so great. The best advice you would give to young cyclists.
There is no quick way.
To be fast. There is no quick way to build endurance. Uh, this is a sport that even if you're naturally gifted, you're still gonna have to pay your dues for a very, very long time. And, uh, it's a time commitment, it's a lifestyle commitment, but work hard and stay true to yourself, and the best will come.
Where's the best place around central Indiana to bike?
I mean, I'm always gonna be partial to the velodrome.
Yeah.
One. You don't ever have to worry about it raining there 'cause you're not on the track when it's not, when it's raining. Right. Uh, but it's also just a special place. But to be able to be there and then be out on, you know, the northwest side of town, on Lafayette Road at five miles, you know, uphill or five miles away, and be out in the farmland of central Indiana.
I love farmland. Going back to the, the story of your buddy. Yeah. You know, it's a bad day, you know, it's windy when you're seeing white caps in the puddles, in the farm fields in, in March and April, right before the, before the crops had implanted. So, uh, just to be able to have that blend of city and country and, and velodrome enjoy it.
I've heard rumors or like a little bit about, I've never gone over to the Velodrome to see a race, which I need to do, but it's like. You don't brake, do you like there are no brakes or what does, what does it look like?
Yeah, so a track bike is a fixed gear bike, so no brakes, no gears, and you can't coast.
So if the back wheel's moving. The pedals are moving. The chain is a direct drive, and so you have to select what gear you're racing in. You physically change your gear out, um, no different than you may in a race car, right? You're, you're changing your top gear, uh, and you've gotta be able to use that gear from a standing start to be going 40 or 45 miles per hour.
And so, uh, it's this very unique thing where. Momentum is the only thing you've got.
So one, there's no breaks and you're going 40 miles an hour.
Mm-hmm.
But like, have you ever, it's like one of those little kid bikes, you know, remember where it's like the, but then like, have you ever gotten one of those going too fast and like you can't keep your legs up?
How do you keep your legs up?
You gotta hang on for dear life. And
you just let 'em roll.
And it's not unusual, I mean, to, to be going 160 or 180 RPMs, where if you're on a road bike or doing a triathlon, you may be going 80 or 90. Right? So leg speed. And that, uh, that sewing machine feel, as we call it, is, uh, is really the, the, the way to.
To be able to go fast.
Like what's the most iconic, like velodrome racing video?
It's called Keirin, uh, which is a, a style of sprint racing or match sprint.
How, how, how would you spell that?
K-E-I-R-I-N, I think Keirin racing. Uh, and you're gonna be able to see guys doing magical things while looking like they should be playing football.
There's no breaks on these bikes.
There's no brakes on these bikes. What you're watching right now, the guy in the front is driving a derny, so it's actually a battery powered bike. Mm-hmm. He'll be on the track for the first couple laps and then he'll pull off. These guys will have a, a massive dash to the end here pretty quick.
What's interesting is when you're a little kid, you like stand up to get speed, but this, you don't wanna leave the seat, right?
Not until the very end. 'cause that's where you got your most explore explosive power. But it takes a bit to get there and you don't have a ton of it.
So you were doing this, but it's just one V one.
Yep. And I did some of this as well.
That's nuts.
Now I get to watch other people do it or you know, my favorite thing is go out to the speedway during the month of May and Oh yeah. Be it, IMS and watch this in person.
How long is the velodrome track?
They're all different styles. So Major Taylor here in Indie is a 333 meter, so three laps to a kilometer.
Uh, most of the Olympic standards now are 250, so four laps to a kilometer. So they've, they've gotten shorter and steeper and they're now mostly made of wood and inside versus the old concrete one. We've got,
you know what's crazy is when I think about the history of cycling, what was really popular back in the day was like.
24 or seven day, 24 hour races or seven day races, and I'd say they would just never stop. That's nuts to me to think about.
You know, Madison Square Garden in New York is named after the Madison bicycle race. The first events that were held at Madison Square Garden was, was the Madison, which was the old six day racing where they would start on Tuesday.
They were, they would race through Sunday and. The, the country forgets the culture that was the bicycle for a long time. And so to be able to play a small role of just helping put the bike back in front of kids is, is an amazing thing for me to get to call work on a daily basis.
Amen. I love that. Okay, we've come to the final three questions of the show.
They're always the same first thing. What's something the world needs to know about Indiana?
That Hoosier humbleness is an incredible thing, but we are a damn good city and state and there's so much going on here. So don't let the humble humbleness, uh, overshadow the impact that is being made here at the state level across the world.
We we're not necessarily the most, uh, willing to get up and say, I'm so great. Look at me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But. They are so many great people doing amazing things. Okay, this next one is the opportunity to shine some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?
The Monday after quals at IMS, the the tuneup day, when it's a short session, the track's only open for a couple hours. It's not an all-day practice. Half the people are out there. Everybody's out there is passionate about it, and it's a great day to, to skip work. Even if you're planning on skipping for Carb Day a couple days later, go enjoy that Monday after Pole Day.
Why the Monday? What's so good about the Monday?
It, it's short, it's sweet. It's easy to get around. You know who's gonna be on, on the front grid, front of the grid, you know who's gonna be on the back, you know, who may not be in there at all. Um, it's a pretty special time to walk around and just take it all in and actually see what's going on.
I, I, that's a good day. I think that an underrated day also is Bump Day, like that Sunday.
Yes.
That Sunday is intense
and they've done a great job at the format changes and whatnot, not to
Yeah.
Really leaning into it for
like the last two years. It's, it's been, and what's unfortunate? It would be really, really crazy if like multiple people were getting dropped the past couple years.
It's been like one person. And it's intense and you have to like get in, get out, decide if you're gonna go back out, like the whole nine yards. It's crazy. Uh, finally, this is where we get future guest recommendations. Learn about other Hoosiers that are doing inspiring things. Who's the Hoosier we need to keep on our radar?
Someone who's doing big things.
I think there are two that come to mind for me. One is, uh, Kelly Doucet, who just took a new role over, uh, at the Women's Foundation of Indiana. Um, she has been a staple in the community and really one of those kind of behind the scenes un unsung heroes in so many different ways.
And the other one's Chelsea Marburger, who's down at the, uh, Indianapolis Propylaeum now and was previous, uh, to that at The Speak Easy. And, uh, to be able to see. These two women making a huge impact on the city. And to be able to, to say that, you know, the impact they're making is long lasting and, and helps change, uh, change the way the city works is, is wonderful.
And I get to call them friends on top of it.
Heck yeah. Two great ones. Amazing. Tom, thank you so much for coming in and, and sharing your story. The pathway's not always up and to the right, uh, year after year, decade after decade, but your ability to. Take tragedy and turn that into impact is incredible, man.
I mean, here you are. 16 years later, making an impact from on the food side of things, on the sports side of things to kids and individuals all across Indiana is amazing. Keep up the good work. If people wanna learn more, if they wanna get involved with what you're doing, how can they do that?
Check out our website, nine13sports.org, nine13sports.com, nine13logistics.org, or nine13logistics.com.
Any of those will get you there and, uh, reach out for any, uh, one-on-one conversation.
Amen. I love it, man. Keep up the good work.
Thank you.
