McGarity’s route from Florida to Georgia ran through NYC, Chicago
RELATED: UGA sees tough side in nice-guy AD McGarity
(Updated 8 p.m. Friday)
ATHENS — A 2 1/2-hour lunch in New York and a two-hour interview in Chicago brought Greg McGarity home to Athens.
The University of Georgia on Friday named McGarity, the University of Florida’s No. 2 athletics official and an Athens native, as its new athletic director — the culmination of a speedy process that McGarity acknowledged left him pinching himself.
McGarity, 55, was formally introduced at a Friday afternoon news conference as the successor to Damon Evans, who resigned as Georgia’s AD in the aftermath of a June 30 DUI arrest. Moments before the news conference, the UGA Athletic Board approved a five-year contract that will start McGarity at $420,000 per year with $20,000 raises each subsequent year. He’ll also get a $125,000 longevity bonus if he completes the contract.
McGarity said he was offered the job in a Wednesday morning phone call from UGA President Michael Adams, whom he had met for the first time over a long lunch in New York about 2 1/2 weeks earlier.
“It was just great,” McGarity said of that first meeting. “I left there thinking, ‘I feel like I’m speaking with someone I’ve known a long time.’”
The process continued last Saturday, when McGarity was interviewed for two hours by Georgia’s six-person search committee at a Chicago airport hotel, the O’Hare Hilton. The committee interviewed a number of candidates — it’s unclear how many — over two days at the hotel.
McGarity said he was “really nervous” in the days leading to the high-stakes interview. “I was having a hard time sleeping,” he said. But he left the interview feeling, “You know what, I’ve done the best I could. Let the best person win.”
Search-committee chairman David Shipley, a UGA law professor, was reluctant to discuss details of the interviews in Chicago, which he referred to only as a “neutral site.” He said “more than” four candidates from around the country — he wouldn’t name them — were interviewed for two hours each, with the committee taking one-hour breaks between interviews. Adams was present for the interviews as a “fly on the wall,” Shipley said.
At the end of the interviews, the committee voted by secret ballot, each member ranking the candidates. Once back in Athens, the committee reconvened.
“And there was full agreement on this,” Shipley said, meaning the hire of McGarity. The ultimate call was Adams’.
Early Wednesday morning, Adams made the call — literally.
Around 8:30 a.m., McGarity’s cellphone rang, interrupting a conference call he was having on another line.
“I saw the call [from Adams] coming through as ‘private number’ on my BlackBerry,” McGarity said, “and I thought, ‘Well, it’s either thumbs-up or thumbs-down.’ Dr. Adams offered the job and spoke about the reasons, and … it was just a dream come true.
“It was one of those things where you just say, ‘You know, this really did happen. I’ve got to pinch myself.’”
McGarity grew up in Athens, where his first childhood job was chasing tennis balls for legendary UGA coach Dan Magill. McGarity earned a journalism degree from Georgia in 1976 and started his career at UGA, working in a variety of roles in the athletics department before leaving for Florida in 1992.
“It is indeed great to be home,” said McGarity, whose parents, brother and sister live in Athens.
He will start his new job Sept. 1.
“Given the circumstances that surrounded this opening,” Adams said, “there is some healing here yet to be done, and I believe Greg is the type of person who can facilitate that healing.
“Greg has told me this job is his lifelong dream. … I am convinced that he is the right person at the right time at the right institution.”
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171 comments Add your comment
anybody but gt
August 13th, 2010
5:32 pm
how2fish, we agree. CMR has evidently forgotten much about football. Is that why FSU or Miami never contacted him about their coaching vacancies? CMR had strong ties to both programs.
Also, never mistake me for a GT fan. I just think UGA fans and alumni deserve a coach that can get us a NC.
RunningDog
August 13th, 2010
5:33 pm
————————–
Nesbitt for completing more than 46% of his passes!
————————–
Kock Blocker
August 13th, 2010
5:34 pm
Ooops……As I was saying…….Athens Ga……”Center Of The Universe Once Again”
Can we just cut the BS and play TCU & Boise State for God’s Sake. This ranking crap is BS to say the least. UF shouldn’t count the Arkansas Game & Cincinnati from last year….but they will…..How Pathetic ! ESPN is the most BS Biased Sports Monopoly in the World….Ranking them up there with NBC & Notre Dame. Does anyone wonder who they want to win?
GO COLUMBUS, GA. LITTLE LEAGUER’S……GATFLLA
Rook
August 13th, 2010
5:35 pm
I agree that was a butthole comment. Welcome back Greg!
GDAWG65
August 13th, 2010
5:37 pm
Bobo the clown is more of a detriment to the team than penalties or injuries. FIRE BOBO NOW
Jacket Spray
August 13th, 2010
5:43 pm
Hey Mr. You Got thaT WRONG-My advice is to you my friend. Go SUCK a rotten egg. God Bless the red and black. Good years are ahead dawg fans.
how2fish
August 13th, 2010
5:43 pm
anybody but gt its not like CMR isn’t knocking on the door or do you forget the 20 year drought between SEC titles before he got here..sorry I do I also think he’s the kind of coach I’d want my sons playing for…but to each his own…I’ve been around a long time in the SEC and there are things about college football to me that are more important than a NC…ask UT fans after what they have just gone thru..but that is IMHO…and no I wasn’t calling you a Bug sorry if he came off that way.
Maddog
August 13th, 2010
5:43 pm
RunningDog
August 13th, 2010
5:33 pm
He would have been at 46.1% had Boo Boo not dropped that 4th down pass:)
Tater Tot
August 13th, 2010
5:49 pm
Man i can’t begin to tell you all enough how moist this makes me as i am so excited
Tech is for awesome people!
August 13th, 2010
5:49 pm
lawzoo
Why in the world would you wonder what color panties any man is wearing? Lets stick to football here.
Bullwinkle
August 13th, 2010
6:01 pm
You are really good at cutting and pasting the same crapola over and over.
You dawgturds really hate those pesky inconvenient truths, don’t you!
dagnabit
August 13th, 2010
6:03 pm
DIT: Why would techies be jeolous of JAWJA’s AD. We have a fine AD already. Welcome.
anybody but gt
August 13th, 2010
6:05 pm
how2fish, we both seem to want good things for UGA. I never said CMR wasn’t a good person,a good man. He is a good man and I am happy that he is. I don’t want an evil man to coach at UGA or certainly one of your sons.I am just sick of paying CMR millions for what has looked like on the job training. I think CMR is in way over his head and that he is just not capable as a coach. It is not a bad thing to want championships. In my opinion CMR is not the leader/coach that can take us to the NC level.
bulldawgbill
August 13th, 2010
6:06 pm
Could not have made a better hire! Greg has had great experience working for Dooley and Foley. What a big improvement in terms of experience with top programs.
BULLDOG NATION
August 13th, 2010
6:07 pm
DOES THIS MEAN A SEC CHANPIONSHIP FOR THE DAWGs in 2010.????..HOPE SO..
Mike
August 13th, 2010
6:16 pm
How refreshing to see comments instead of some idiot saying…..1st.
jdjd
August 13th, 2010
6:16 pm
Great day in Athens!
collegeballfana
August 13th, 2010
6:30 pm
Congrats on the new job and the raise.
Please try to talk the UGA grads into getting their butts into the stands at the men’s basketball home games. For the past 50 years attendance has been a disgrace.
SOS Dawg
August 13th, 2010
6:31 pm
•”I have never met Mark (Richt), but I plan to very shortly,” McGarity said. Wow CMR just might have been put on notice. Win the big one or else !
I will not be the next head coach at Alabama. I am the head coach of the Miami Dolphins
August 13th, 2010
6:34 pm
DC John– A stadium on Hutchinson Island?? C’mon. Where are you gonna put thousands of parking spaces?? The marsh b/t Hutchinson and the SCAD Horse facility? Be careful, you may meet a real gator in the parking lot.
What other events are you going to host there to pay for facility? SSU football? They couldn’t fill one endzone of a first class stadium.
No way this is a remote possibility.
If you’re going to dream, dream big!!!
MariettaDawg
August 13th, 2010
6:35 pm
Congratulations and welcome home Greg! Oh, I almost forgot… Tech sucks.
UGA Names Greg McGarity New AD
August 13th, 2010
6:43 pm
[...] a longevity bonus of $125,000 – $25,000 per year – if McGarity completes the five-year contract. ajc.com A Gator as our new AD? I think I am going to [...]
Clean House
August 13th, 2010
6:45 pm
I agree its great to have McGarity as the new AD and hopes he lets CMR know that underachieving against teams like Vandy ,SC and Kentucky along with the beatdowns from the Gators and the Vols will no longer will be tolerated !
Fire Bozo the Clown immediately !
Just the facts
August 13th, 2010
6:46 pm
Richt has an overall record of 90-27 (.769) in his nine seasons . He is one of only seven coaches in FBS history to reach 90 wins in his first nine seasons as a head coach. Richt guided the Bulldogs to two SEC titles in 2002 and 2005, making him one of only six coaches in SEC history to win two conference titles in his first five years in the conference. He was named SEC Coach of the Year in 2002 and 2005, and earned AFCA Regional Coach of the Year honors in 2002.
Georgia is 7-2 in bowl games under Richt. His record against non-conference teams is 38-4 and his teams are 33-6 when playing in an opponent’s home stadium. Fifty-one of Richt’s players have been chosen in the NFL draft over the last nine years including eight chosen in the 2002 NFL draft- -the most Georgia players ever selected in a single year.
2009: Georgia upset #7 Georgia Tech in the regular season finale and then won its fourth straight bowl game to complete the season at 8-5.
Richt sent six FSU quarterbacks into the NFL between 1987 and 2000
Lets not forget Matthew Stafford was the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.
So, dont let your vile, emotional, liberal comments get in the way of the real facts.
Damon Evans
August 13th, 2010
6:52 pm
Where the White women at
Circus Act
August 13th, 2010
6:54 pm
Hope McGarity puts those Clowns on notice Garner and Boo Boo. Glory Days could be here again !!!!!
anybody but gt
August 13th, 2010
6:56 pm
Statistics, so called facts, whatever. Very few coaches given the opportunity couldn’t win 8-9 games at UGA. Look at the facilities, the fan base, the great recruiting base. CMR looses too many games to teams with inferior talent. He rarely beats someone he isn’t supposed to beat. CMR has made UGA a laughingstock nationally. Quit with the gimmick uniforms, all the other cuteness. Blackouts.
Lose the girly offense. Knock someone down instead of trying to finesse them. Man up!
SOS Dawg
August 13th, 2010
6:58 pm
•”We will have very high expectations, and every sport will be expected to be competitive with our peer institutions,” McGarity said. I bet a lot of you blind homers just cringed with that statement ! Finally someone that aint gonna tolerate crap along with smoke and mirrors.
Ricky 4
August 13th, 2010
7:00 pm
WELCOME HOME MR MCGARITY!!
George
August 13th, 2010
7:06 pm
and you wonder why college and secondary education is so expensve. No one and I mean no one is worth what college and pro coaches make.
george
August 13th, 2010
7:07 pm
Hey Mcgarity
Your first assignment is to fire Bobo.
lance
August 13th, 2010
7:07 pm
He should have been hired over Evans the first time. Adams in in effect admitting his mistake. Political correctness run amuck
jp
August 13th, 2010
7:07 pm
anybody but gt, your are a poster child of why abortion is still legal and people use protection. what a complete idiot you are. cmr is the # 3 behind meyer and stoops in active winning percentage. He has won 10 games 6 out of 9 years , he has won 2 sec titles and 2 bcs bowls . we had the best team in 07 and 02 but did not get to play for it. he is one of only 9 coaches to win 90 games in 9 years and will win his 100th game in 10 years in the best football conf. in the world.7-2 in bowl games.you played video or flag fooball and probably sucked at both ,go pull for boise or youngstown st . they could use a few more idiot fans
Dog Power
August 13th, 2010
7:13 pm
Why didn’t FSU and Miami contact Richt? Question raised earlier.
My opinion- two possible answers:
How do we know they didn’t make private inquiries through a third party?
Richt has made it plain early on that UGA was a destination job, and he was going anywhere
SOS Dawg
August 13th, 2010
7:14 pm
jp…. sorry dude but in 07 we lost to a pathetic SC team at home without scoring a TD thanks to Boo Boo and also got crushed by Tennessee. CMR hasnt done much since the departure of Van Gorder and the last of Donnan recruits.
Dog Power
August 13th, 2010
7:14 pm
Place “not” between was and going in last sentence
DCJohn
August 13th, 2010
7:15 pm
Putting an 80,000 seat stadium on Hutchinson Island with the infrastructure would be a definite possibility. Plenty of cheap land, but I will admit, feasibility or sustainability for one kickoff game, Georgia Florida every other year, and a bowl game would make it extremely tough to make it a reality.
I would say high school football would bring in more money than Savannah State. When the High plays Beach would bring a crowd. Georgia Southern could bring some people to Savannah too. Not saying it would work, but there would be some (minimal) interest.
ugag is irrelevant
August 13th, 2010
7:17 pm
mcg has a big job ahead … 70 tons of trash is a lot to clean up
Still@theBAR
August 13th, 2010
7:30 pm
5 years and all the Drinks are free.
Your welcome,
Leeburn
anybody but gt
August 13th, 2010
7:34 pm
SOS Dawq, jp is the definition of a person with blinders. jp you should use your time to really evaluate the sorry losses and lack of ability CMR has to evaluate coaches and players instead of
thinking childish insults and name calling.Get back to me after CMR has wasted a few more seasons. Just for your information, I never played flag or video football. You, course, were All America somewhere. Am I right? Just open your mind sometime.
buzzDawg
August 13th, 2010
7:52 pm
Welcome home, Greg McGarity! You’ll soon have the privilege of celebrating a football victory over your former employer.
GADAWG88
August 13th, 2010
8:24 pm
I’m a Dawg through and through but I don’t think we could move the game out of Jville without looking like a bunch of pu$$ies. When we used to dominate, the game didn’t change locations so now that we are getting dominated I don’t think the game should be moved or we will look like a bunch of little whiny crybabies. GATA!!
JDawg
August 13th, 2010
9:07 pm
anybody but gt, please change your name and your team to “anybody but ga”. I love your passion for winning and your obviously richly steeped atheletic history (8 varsity letters in 3 sports!!!). Wow man that is huge. And at a 5a school to boot (its cool the way you spelled out all of the a’s to make it look more impressive). The problem is, you are an idiot. You are the kind of a**hole that every person at their kids little league game wants to put a foot up their a**. You are frustrated with your own life, because every thing you have tried to do has ended in failure. Your greatest moments in your life were earning your 8 letters in three sports, oh, and let’s not forget at a AAAAA school. You are type of person that everyone thinks is detestable, and actually thinks that that detestation is respect, or even fear. Please do every decent Dog fan a favor and pick another team. Do your son or daughter a favor and stop going to their games. Do humankind a favor and figure out the source of your anger and hatred for everyone else but yourself.
college is forever
August 13th, 2010
9:12 pm
http://www.collegelunchboxes.com This is the perfect man for the job, good call Mr. Adams you got this one right. Now lets kick his former employers ass. My Mom’s best friend is using the lunchbox as her craft box. She carries glue sticks, glue gun, tape, etc.. The UGA lunchbox is not just for a ham and swiss anymore, those days are long gone. Post your picture on our facebook page. Go Dawgs!!!
keith contarino
August 13th, 2010
9:17 pm
WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!
Wonderful hire for Georgia. Look for rebirth of men’s basketball. Just a shame that lowlife Evans wasn’t gone sooner and Kirby Smart could be here too!!
harold
August 13th, 2010
9:26 pm
RICHT BETTER WIN THE SEC AFTER A SIX YEAR ABSENCE OR YOU CAN TURN OUT THE LIGHTS. THIS GUY EXPECTS WIN SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS! NO MORE DREAMS!
Rabun Dawg
August 13th, 2010
9:37 pm
Great hire for the AD job. Now, I will not take sides with any of you, but someone please explain to me how it is that UGA recruits all these so called top athletes and yet we implode in so many games. I will venture to say that we should never lose to a UK, Vandy, or even UT most of the time. With the exception of UT, I’ll bet that we never even recruited the guys that play for Vandy or UK. And, UF, while they have been above most all of us for some time, should not we have won a few more than 3 of 20? And the every blow outs that we seem to encounter, why? I personally think CMR is a fine man, good coach, but why the struggles each year? USC South, we should handle them with a lot more ease than we do, but every year is such a struggle. I personally think that UGA should every year be right up there with the elite of the SEC, but somehow we have fallen off the radar. Why so? Call me a frustrated Dawg, not delusional, but need to see us more in tune with the Bama’s, UF’s, etc. Seems as though no one has much fear of the Dogs lately. Inquiring mind wants to know!
Rabun Dawg
August 13th, 2010
9:40 pm
Should have been every year blowouts!
Derek Dooley
August 13th, 2010
9:41 pm
Not as good as my father.
WITHOUT LINDSEY SCOTT,THERE'S NO 1980 TITLE
August 13th, 2010
10:00 pm
MCGARITY REPRESENTS S.E.C AND NATIONAL TITLES,SOMETHING DAMON EVANS AND MARK RICHT COULD’NT DO!
P.S.MARK RICHT YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED,BECAUSE BEST BELIEVE MCGARITY WILL BRING IN KIRBY OR MUSCHAMP,SORRY BUT THATS THE WAY IT IS! YOU HAD YOUR TIME AND NICK SABAN CAME AND WENT AFTER WINNING TITLE WITH LSU,THEN CAME BACK AND WON TITLE WITH ALABAMA WHILE RICHT WAS STILL AT UGA!