Thomas Arthur Spragens (/ˈspreɪ.ɡɪnz/ SPRAY-ginz; April 25, 1917 – February 11, 2006) was an American administrator who was the 17th president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.

During his term, which ended in 1981, Centre's student enrollment and faculty numbers both nearly doubled, its endowment increased, and the property value of its campus rose.

Additionally, he was a part of an effort which culminated in the 1962 founding of what is now the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, of which Centre remained a charter member until 2011.

[2] In 1951, Spragens left Stanford to accept a position as the secretary and treasurer of the Fund for the Advancement of Education, which was a newly-formed subsidiary of the Ford Foundation.

[8] At Stephens, he implemented a plan which saw the use of closed-circuit television as an academic aid, for which the school received "wide notice in educational circles".

[3] During this time, he was selected to be a part of a commission that produced a report, "The Church and Higher Education", to the Presbyterian Synod of North Carolina, which was completed in July 1955.

[11] In 1957, he was contacted by Don Campbell, a friend of his and chairman of the trustee presidential search committee at Centre, regarding the school's vacant presidency.

[24] He hired Shirley Anne Walker, a French language professor who became Centre's first black faculty member at the start of the 1971–1972 academic year.

[25] As football grew more popular at Centre during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Spragens sought to keep the college's priorities on academics rather than athletics.

After he was announced as president in August 1957, he said that he would continue the existing policy of lessened emphasis on athletics, saying that they were a "corollary aspect" of the school.

[5] In December 1966, he introduced a plan under which classes at Centre would be held during four days of the week, rather than five, as part of a trimester system that was in effect for some time beginning with the fall semester of the 1966–1967 academic year.

[34] Following the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, he declared all classes suspended on May 8, and addressed much of the student body and faculty on the campus lawn.

Numerous buildings were constructed or upgraded during his time in office, including the Grace Doherty Library (which took the place of Old Main, which was demolished),[36] the new Young Hall, Sutcliffe Hall, the Regional Arts Center (now the Norton Center for the Arts), Alumni Memorial Gymnasium, fraternity residences, and multiple dormitory buildings.

[1] Provost Edgar C. Reckard finished the academic year as interim president; Spragens was formally succeeded by Richard L. Morrill on June 1, 1982.

[1] During his presidency, he was selected as part of two commissions, appointed by Governors Bert Combs and Ned Breathitt, to study higher education in Kentucky.

[43] He ended up as a consultant for one year to the newly hired president of Kentucky State, Raymond Burse, a Centre alumnus himself.

[2] In an interview shortly following his resignation, Spragens stated that his personal hobbies included playing tennis and golf, as well as water skiing.

[52] Two years later, he was elected moderator of the Northern Synod of Kentucky and recommended that Centre remove many of its remaining ties to the Presbyterian Church.

[53] In 1968, Centre withdrew from the Kentucky Synod for financial reasons[5] and the following year it removed its policies which required the president and most board members to be Presbyterian.

The Thomas A. Spragens Rare Book Room and Archives, located in the Grace Doherty Library at Centre, is named in his honor.