Critics of intercollegiate coaches’ leadership have described their behavior as “greedy” and/or immoral.. Several recent events involving high profile intercollegiate athletic coaches have reinforced this notion. However, another paradigm of coaches’ leadership focuses on their concern for athletes’ development in which importance is placed on caring about athletes’ athletic and personal well being. This is known as altruistic leadership and is defined as having the ultimate goal of improving the well being of followers. No studies exist on altruistic leadership in intercollegiate coaching. Thus, it is vitally important to examine this understudied area. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore coaches’ perceptions of altruistic leadership through semi-structured interviews. A secondary purpose was to examine the relationship of coaches’ perceptions of altruistic leadership to positive team and individual outcomes. The sample included 15 Division I, female and male head coaches from a variety of sports. Several qualitative strategies were utilized in the methodology. These included the use of triangulation, a reflective journal, field notes, peer debriefers, member checks, data coding, and content analysis. The results indicated that several themes emerged from the interviews. Coaches perceived character, consistency, balance, caring, and empowerment as altruistic leadership factors. Coaches connected altruistic leadership to several outcomes, including improved performance, reciprocity, improved experience, good relationships, and appreciation. Implications of these findings are numerous and include the various benefits to be gained through the training and development of altruistic leadership for coaches. These implications and others will be fully described and directions for future research will be forwarded. Keyword(s): coaching, leadership development, sport management