UGA selects new athletic director
(Other UGA news: Branden Smith cleared to play.)
ATHENS — Greg McGarity, the University of Florida’s No. 2 athletic official, will be named the new athletic director at the University of Georgia, a person who spoke directly with McGarity told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday night.
The person, who asked not to be named because an announcement hasn’t been made, said McGarity told him he will travel to Athens for a news conference on Friday afternoon.
(UPDATE, 8:20 A.M. FRIDAY: Georgia announced this morning that UGA President Michael Adams will hold a news conference on the AD matter at 4 p.m. at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. In addition, the UGA Athletic Board, which would approve the hire and contract of a new AD, called a special meeting for 3 p.m., also at the Georgia Center.)
McGarity didn’t return repeated phone calls from the AJC on Thursday. UGA officials had no comment.
Georgia has been searching for an athletic director since Damon Evans resigned in the aftermath of a June 30 DUI arrest in Atlanta.
McGarity, an Athens native and a 1976 graduate of UGA, began his career in the Georgia athletics department, serving in a variety of roles –- administrative assistant, women’s tennis coach, assistant sports information director and assistant athletic director -– before leaving for Florida in 1992.
At Florida, McGarity’s current title is executive senior associate athletic director, meaning that he is the right-hand man to highly regarded athletic director Jeremy Foley.
McGarity applied for the Georgia job in a July 16 letter to UGA’s associate vice president for human resources.
“I have been very fortunate to work alongside the very best in collegiate athletics at two outstanding institutions, the University of Georgia and the University of Florida, over the last three decades,” McGarity wrote. “I know what it takes to lead and direct an athletic program at the highest level, and am ready to lead the University of Georgia Athletic Association into the future.”
Rumors swirled around Georgia’s athletic department on Thursday about an impending hire, but there was no official word.
Associate athletic director for communications Claude Felton said he had not been informed of an impending announcement. Football coach Mark Richt said he had not been informed who his new boss will be.
“I’ve been hearing rumors, like everybody else, but I’ve not been told,” Richt said as he left the third floor of the Butts-Mehre athletics building Thursday night. “I’ve just been coaching ball, really.”
Richt said interim athletic director Frank Crumley told him Thursday that “there would be an announcement soon, but he didn’t tell me who.”
Crumley did not return calls from the AJC.
Georgia’s search committee and UGA President Michael Adams are believed to have considered a number of candidates, including Crumley, businessman Mark Lewis and others.
Lewis, a former Georgia football player who is now president of JetSet Sports, a leading provider of Olympic hospitality packages, told the AJC Thursday that he’d heard a decision had been made on a hire and would be announced Friday. Lewis said he didn’t know who the hire would be. He said he did not interview for the position.
Forty-nine people applied for the position, according to documents obtained by the AJC in response to an open-records request last week. A 50th, sports-marketing executive and former Georgia football player Chris Welton, confirmed earlier this week that he had added his name to the list.
McGarity got some high-profile support for the job, including a letter to “enthusiastically recommend” him from U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga.
“He is ready to get back to his hometown and to serve his alma mater in this distinguished position,” Kingston wrote to Adams. “I hope you will give him the fullest consideration possible.”
McGarity also interviewed for the Georgia AD job before Evans was hired in 2003.
McGarity lettered on Georgia’s tennis team in 1973 and first worked for the UGA athletics department as a student assistant while earning a degree in journalism.
(Staff writer Chip Towers contributed to this article.)
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247 comments Add your comment
harold
August 12th, 2010
7:17 pm
WHY NOT CARLA????????????????????????????
Dusty
August 12th, 2010
7:20 pm
I assume that UGA did a better background check to see if he likeds the red panties.
Boca Baby
August 12th, 2010
7:21 pm
jb: We do not need racist remarks like that. For the history of UGA all you had was white guys. Had not Evan screwed up he probably would have continued to do the good job everyone thought he was doing. The Board thought so. They were paying him 550K per year. Please check that garbage at the door. Oh, and by the way do you want an all white football team? If so get ready to finish last in the East.
college is forever
August 12th, 2010
7:22 pm
http://www.collegelunchboxes.com I give credit to Adams for not dragging this out for months when the choice was clear cut. I got an email from a Dawg fan in St. Louis,Mo. who said that he is going to use the tin lunchbox as his grandson’s first fishing tackle box. I thought that was pretty cool. How will you use yours? Check it out. Go Dawgs!!!
CBB1
August 12th, 2010
7:23 pm
All the Tech people are just jealous because they know this means our athletic program-UGA-is just getting bigger and better and Tech will never catch up with us. We have more fans come to the G-Day game than they do when they play an ACC team in Atlanta. As far as stealing him from FL, he is a UGA grad and former UGA tennis player. Seems to me he is a DAWG.
3 Martini Lunch
August 12th, 2010
7:24 pm
Richt and Bobo’s seats just got a little bit hotter!
Delbert D.
August 12th, 2010
7:24 pm
Can he spell Mississippi?
What??
August 12th, 2010
7:26 pm
AltamahaDawg, Have u ever heard of looking up an address on the internet of the Univ of Georgia??? I believe they have a website. Nevermind………
Boca Baby
August 12th, 2010
7:26 pm
3 Martini Lunch: You should give up the liquor lunches. If anything, Richt and Bobo’s seats may have gotten a little cooler. McGarity knows quality and stability when he sees it.
ryan
August 12th, 2010
7:27 pm
I knew these jerks would start hating because with McGarity he going to bring the winning attitude to UGA and these Tech jerks can’t stand it all they have red panties because we beat there a$$ every year.
Margaret
August 12th, 2010
7:28 pm
DAMON EVANS NEEDS HIS BEHIND KICKED.
Dawg'em out!
August 12th, 2010
7:31 pm
great, now lets play some dagum football.
Papa Bowden
August 12th, 2010
7:36 pm
This is the stupidest thing the mutts could do. They shat and they stepped in it.
They’ll be battling Ole Miss for the cellar for years to come. Very ignorant move.
Richt is a big part of the problem. He needs to go.
BULL_GATOR
August 12th, 2010
7:36 pm
It takes a Florida Gator to clean up that Dawg Mess in Athens, Go Gators! Go Greg McGarity! October 30th can’t come soon enough for another Richt Woodshed Whipping!
AltamahaDawg
August 12th, 2010
7:37 pm
Really, the new athletic director is going to tell the football coach to start winning championships? Whew! finally somebody thought of that.
RedPantsDawg
August 12th, 2010
7:43 pm
Excellent hire.
WITHOUT LINDSEY SCOTT,THERE'S NO 1980 TITLE
August 12th, 2010
7:43 pm
NOW MCGARITY PLEASE HAVE RICHT PERFORM ON URBAN AND SABAN LEVEL THIS YEAR OR FIRE RICHT NOW AND BRING IN KIRBY OR MUSCHAMP,I FEEL THE MOMENTUM IS ABOUT 2 CHANGE PEOPLE!
Curious?
August 12th, 2010
7:46 pm
Yeah, why not Carla? I guess Damon messed things up for her huh? Is anybody wondering why McGarity left Georgia for Florida in the first place? Are you sure he’s not really gator disguised as a dawg?
WITHOUT LINDSEY SCOTT,THERE'S NO 1980 TITLE
August 12th, 2010
7:48 pm
AM I DUMB OR NOT!
bart
August 12th, 2010
7:49 pm
Adams finally did something right!
AltamahaDawg
August 12th, 2010
7:50 pm
2004, Evans played UGA football, while Dooley was involved with the program, was hired by Dooley, was quickly promoted by Dooley, was named assistant , then senior assistant by Dooley and was personally endorced by Dooley. Was he not a UGA/Dooley guy?
Mcgarity had left Dooley’s department over a decade before his retirement and is now 20 yrs removed from UGA. He had passed on several attempts by Dooley over the years (long before Adams was in the picture) to get him to come back, and while I’m sure he is still a personal freind, what makes you call him more of a Dooley Guy than the above?
ryan
August 12th, 2010
7:51 pm
Breaking News Brandon Smith is academically eligible to practice GO Dawgs!
Gillislee
August 12th, 2010
7:57 pm
From Top Tier to Middle Tier in one day.
Courtney Fuhrmann
August 12th, 2010
7:59 pm
That drunken Damon Evans won’t return my calls. Where my red panties at?
G8tr h8tr
August 12th, 2010
8:02 pm
Just read on another blog that Branden Smith is cleared for the season and according to CMR “We’re fired up”. Also read that Q Banks has decided to give up football after more knee problems
AltamahaDawg
August 12th, 2010
8:03 pm
The red panties are right there, hiding behind the dangling participal.
G8tr h8tr
August 12th, 2010
8:06 pm
Ryan, you beat me to the punch but this news is so good that it won’t hurt to post it twice. It beats reading the childish GT posts like “Thuga” or “I wear red panties” or …all the unoriginal comments that most 5th graders would post
TopDawg
August 12th, 2010
8:07 pm
A surprising decision by Adams. I thought he would go for the puppet. Must say I don’t care for the taste of crow. Good hire. Go Dawgs!
TD
August 12th, 2010
8:19 pm
strong choice!
SOS Dawg
August 12th, 2010
8:19 pm
Altamaha Dawg…… Sorry…… The new guy will demand that Richt start winning championships. Now is that better ?
ryan
August 12th, 2010
8:22 pm
G8r h8tr you are so right just a lot of immature people on here just ignore them .
Tybee Dawg
August 12th, 2010
8:22 pm
Great hire!. We need to prove ourselves on the field. October 30th just got more interesting. Also, UGA will beat the crap out of GT this year between the hedges.
Hawkshaw
August 12th, 2010
8:22 pm
That drunken Damon Evans won’t return my calls. Where my red panties at?
Mark Richt is holding them for you, dear. I won’t say exactly where he’s holding them…
Bring Greg Home
August 12th, 2010
8:23 pm
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John
August 12th, 2010
8:28 pm
30-24 WE RUN THIS STATE!
Vick=Dog killing Thug
August 12th, 2010
8:28 pm
Best of luck to Damon but glad to have the new guy on board. GO DAWGS
AltamahaDawg
August 12th, 2010
8:29 pm
Nah, Brother, I was only half making fun of that comment. The other half was in agreement.
Johnny3Steps
August 12th, 2010
8:36 pm
Greg belongs back in DAWG town! Welcome back
Snoop Dawg
August 12th, 2010
8:41 pm
I hope that this new AD can excel. But I am so frustrated that a good ole boy from Jawja was selected instead of an open and fair competition for the best in the land. Doesn’t the Bulldawg Nation understand that all this inbreeding and nepotism results in genetic malfunctions and less-than-the-best which is what UGA has been except for the coincidence of the Herschel Walker years? I’m afraid that it’s another , “here we go again…”
This whole process is nothing but a microcosm of the corruption that is now insidious throughout our entire country. It will surely lead to our downfall…
bitter red panties
August 12th, 2010
8:46 pm
please dont forget about me!!!!, mr adams wears me, hahahah
AltamahaDawg
August 12th, 2010
8:46 pm
And somewhere in Gainsville a box of orange ties is getting carried out to the curb.
How about Beating FL coach
August 12th, 2010
8:48 pm
This guy should have been hired years ago
How about Beating FL coach
August 12th, 2010
8:49 pm
Now lets begin talks on replacing Adams
bitter snoop dawg
August 12th, 2010
8:51 pm
the blind leading the blind, hell were would i be without the good ole “race card” and bad ole whitty picking on little ole me, shii— you no what imm sayying yaawww shi—– keep it real hommmee, stick them red panties up ya good ole boy’s yaaawww sh—- you no!!!! hire onther dam— white ole boy fooll you no, shi==== homme
Loquatious T. Futtbuck
August 12th, 2010
8:52 pm
You “people” are mostly clinically retarded. Good luck to the new AD. May the Techies’ little peni fall off in the next hard rain.
ugag is irrelevant
August 12th, 2010
8:53 pm
it’s still a nothing school
bitter cmr
August 12th, 2010
8:54 pm
will see
Loquatious T. Futtbuck
August 12th, 2010
8:55 pm
Good! Good! You learned how to spell ’school.” Keep working, twerp!
gadawgs
August 12th, 2010
9:01 pm
Great hire Dr. Adams and thank you. Welcome back Mr. Garity!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ljdawg
August 12th, 2010
9:01 pm
Great hire but most of the job is laready done! Don’t forget the Damon Evans had a $2 million surplus that he passed on to the Academic Departments! So kill the noise about how things are going to go better now! And by the way!!!!!!! Damon Evans played football at Gainesville High on the team with me and college football at the University of Georgia! so knock off the Georgia Boy crap! Damon screwed up tremendously, but don’t try and act as if he didn’t get anything done while he was there!