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
Gratefuldawghead
August 12th, 2010
9:03 pm
Welcome home and ‘F” the haters!
gcs
August 12th, 2010
9:06 pm
Good riddance.
.
Anti Everything
August 12th, 2010
9:08 pm
You people really need to get a life.
DawginOH
August 12th, 2010
9:10 pm
Great hire for UGA! Welcome home, Mr. McGarity!!! Good times ahead for the Dawgs.
HanDAWG
August 12th, 2010
9:11 pm
Sounds like a good hire. Florida has been a successful athletics program for him to see; Georgia is a successful athletics program and his home. Looking over his experience at the two schools, he deserves a shot. It’s cool that he is from Athens.
Anti Everything
August 12th, 2010
9:12 pm
Does anyone have a “Real Job” or are you a bunch of losers? Unbelievable the stupidity on this site.
Anti Everything
August 12th, 2010
9:12 pm
Enter your comments here
TomGatorinWPB
August 12th, 2010
9:13 pm
From a UF alum and former intern in UF’s athletic dept. who was there when Greg arrived in 1992… Congrats dawgs… No panties jokes here… A good man finds his way home to Athens.
JRW7
August 12th, 2010
9:23 pm
Great hire, DR. ADAMS, GREG MCGARITY, is the right choice for UGA AD! GO DAWGS!!!!!!!!
Gatorbait
August 12th, 2010
9:24 pm
yawn. floyd, powell, elam etc etc. is UGA/UF really a rivalry anymore?
UT
August 12th, 2010
9:25 pm
We own this state! 45-19
FL Dawg
August 12th, 2010
9:29 pm
It appears to be a good hire and all alum should get behind the new AD. Give Adams credit, he has made some good hires for the AD position. Evans messed up all on his own. Adams didn’t have anything to do with it. Evans did a dang good job as AD and I am sure McGarity will also.
seahawk
August 12th, 2010
9:31 pm
Greg is a great guy and tuff as nails. He will do a great job at UGA. I’m anxious to find out what he brings home from gata land. Proud of you, Greg!
Elliot Garcia
August 12th, 2010
9:33 pm
Sweet! McGarity will never fire Richt because he knows Richt cannot beat Florida on a regular basis!
Elliot Garcia
August 12th, 2010
9:35 pm
It is good to see the Dawgs on this board finally admit that Florida has a great athletic department….
poopdawg
August 12th, 2010
9:44 pm
Elliott phone home.
Dawg Stephen
August 12th, 2010
9:48 pm
“McGarity didn’t return repeated phone calls from the AJC on Thursday. UGA officials had no comment”
thats my favorite part of this article.
Big time?? Not
August 12th, 2010
9:48 pm
Great news….great hire. Pretty sure he will NEVER put forth a marketing message of four tickets, four hot dogs, four cokes……even for equestrian…….
Aaron Murray SEC Freshman of the year
August 12th, 2010
9:55 pm
Tech Geek
Do you even know what panties look like.
BigTimeTechFan
August 12th, 2010
9:59 pm
Best wishes on your hire Bull Dogs.
lol, some Tech fans got yall all bothered. Some of the Tech fans were pretty funny on this thread. you gotta give them credit.
Beast from the East
August 12th, 2010
9:59 pm
Congrats, Dawgs! You’re getting a good one.
Bubba_M'ville
August 12th, 2010
10:01 pm
Does anybody think it’s interesting that they are announcing on Friday the 13th?? Is that a good or bad omen???
CEPH
August 12th, 2010
10:03 pm
How old is McGarity? I have looked everywhere but no luck. This really concerns me, here is a guy not too far away from retirement age apparently, so he comes in and doesn’t want to rock the boat and he just goes along with the status quo and here we go again. No pressure on Richt and we wind up with the same old mediocrity we have been experiencing!!!!! I wish they had looked long and hard outside the good old boy network but no such luck!
Scentdawg
August 12th, 2010
10:06 pm
Let me get this straight, he left UGA for Florida in 1992. What year did Florida began the dominance over UGA in football? I am not saying win a game or two. I mean win three in a row. I can smell the tide tide turning our way. I may be dreaming but I think it’s a great hire. Let the winning start this year. Go DAWGSSSSSSSSS
revdawg
August 12th, 2010
10:07 pm
UGA football record vs UF: 1971-1991 (McGarity at UGA) 15-6; 1992-2009 (McGarity at UF) 3-15 … just sayin’
Not Whinning
August 12th, 2010
10:13 pm
Charlie Rangel, Maxine Waters, Barry the Non-Born American and Damon Evans. Maybe Damon should have played the race card like the other three instead of the panty card.
BG
August 12th, 2010
10:16 pm
Great hire! It always good to get one of our own to come back home.
jb
August 12th, 2010
10:23 pm
jb @ 7:13pm, Im a happy Brotherman!!!
Darma's Sister!
August 12th, 2010
10:26 pm
Give him a month and he will have my sister’s panties between his legs wanting to just get her home. LMFAO!
Dreamers!
August 12th, 2010
10:28 pm
UF owns you and always will. Get used to it. This guy won’t change a thing and the domination will continue. GO GATORS!
Panty Waste!
August 12th, 2010
10:30 pm
Aaron Murray SEC Freshman of the year
Yeah I do! They are nasty and red, just ask Evans. He sure enjoyed them and now the entire team are passing them around. Just remember DAWGS, if you drink and drive you lose. So, basically, you lose!
The Smartest Bulldog
August 12th, 2010
10:32 pm
Looks like McGarity may now be the Smartest Bulldog http://www.smartestbulldog.com
Doublewide!
August 12th, 2010
10:33 pm
He should enjoy his extra expensive doublewide and fit right in with all the other 100,000 redneck fans. UF OWNS GEORGIA AND ALWAYS WILL. CHOMP AND ROMP IN JACKSONVILLE. Hey, winning 3 of 22 isn’t so bad.
The dumb dawgs
August 12th, 2010
10:35 pm
I didn’t know there were any smart dawgs. That’s news to me. My subordinates are all UGA grads and they all clean the toilets, take out the trash and clean up the office. Perfect job for a UGA grad.
Half Time Show
August 12th, 2010
10:36 pm
I wonder how many opponent bands will have a ‘red panty’ formation during half-time?
Some lame name here
August 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
I really thought about wishing the dawgs would suck under the new “white guy” for all you racists but I realized I love the dawgs more than i hate you so I hope we rise and you simply drop dead
Some lame name here
August 12th, 2010
10:44 pm
And again who cares about red panties?
WITHOUT LINDSEY SCOTT,THERE'S NO 1980 TITLE
August 12th, 2010
10:50 pm
MY NAME IS A.D MCGARITY,AND MARK RICHT IVE BEEN WATCHING YOU WHILE I WAS AT U OF FLORIDA,AND THE ONE THING I NOTICE IS THAT YOU COULD NOT BEAT FLORIDA,SO YOU HAVE THIS YEAR AND THIS YEAR ONLY TO WIN A NATIONAL TITLE,IF NOT YOU ARE NOT COMING BACK IN 2011
PalmBeacher
August 12th, 2010
10:56 pm
Who thinks this is going to make a dam bit of difference. Why don’t you rednecks beat the Gators for a change and then run your mouth. Pre-season is the best time to be a dam Dawg!!!!!!
Gratefuldawghead
August 12th, 2010
10:58 pm
Without lindsey..Not too late to get your GED buddy!
GO DAWGS!
AMT32
August 12th, 2010
10:58 pm
Y AJC HAVE THE NEW UGA AD PIC WIT HIM SMILING AND HAVE THE OLD UGA AD PIC NEXT THE NEW AD LOOKING UPSET…AJC KNOW HOW TOO PILE IT ON SOMEONE WHEN HE R SHE IS ALLREADY DOWN!!!!!.. SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!!!
Gratefuldawghead
August 12th, 2010
11:00 pm
PalmBeacher ..Believe it or not the DAWGS still lead the series over Florida! We are back! Urban will retire before Florida leads the series!
How Bout Them DAWGS!
Gratefuldawghead
August 12th, 2010
11:03 pm
Take the Caps lock off IDIOTS!
GoDawgs24
August 12th, 2010
11:32 pm
Terrible hire. The only thing he has going for him is he went to UGA. Well heck just hire anyone on this message board. He CANNOT raise money and he CANNOT lead our athletic department. I remind you that he did not get the job in 2004 at either here or at Auburn. Nice that we went the B list to fill one of the most important jobs in the SEC. Unbelievable.
thunderbull56
August 12th, 2010
11:34 pm
EX DAWG WAZ numero dos in the land of flowers? COME ON MAN!
Gratefuldawghead
August 12th, 2010
11:40 pm
GoDawgs24…I think its a great hire. Don’t see him out embrassing UGA and its not like we have problems raising money! We are ranked in Forbes top 10 in money!
GO DAWGS!
GoDawgs24
August 12th, 2010
11:40 pm
I just think we deserved a better hire than this. I dont care if he worked at Florida or not. He has been trying to get an AD job for 10 years and never got one. That makes me a little nervous. With everything that has happened we needed a solid hire and this my friends is far from it.
PMC
August 12th, 2010
11:42 pm
Excellent choice.
GoDawgs24
August 12th, 2010
11:43 pm
Grateful – You obviously know very little about athletic fundraising. In that job you are always raising money and the reason we are so well off is because of some of things Damon did financially. We always need money and this guy has not shown he can get it done. We could have done better – A LOT better.
Gratefuldawghead
August 12th, 2010
11:52 pm
GoDawgs24..I pulled for Damon when he played for the DAWGS, was AD for the DAWGS, and still today. I wish him and his family the best! McGarity graduated from UGA has been a successful assistant AD at Florida, and WANTS the job. This is America and he deserves a shot at it. The University of Georgia has picked McGarity and I support the University of GEORGIA!
GO DAWGS!