What will Michael Adams’ legacy be in regard to UGA athletics?
UGA's athletic facilities saw dramatic improvement during the tenure of Dr. Michael Adams, seen here at the dedication of the expanded football complex in February of 2011. (AJC photo by Curtis Comption)
ATHENS – One of the most successful — and tumultuous — periods in the University of Georgia’s long history will come to an end when Dr. Michael A. Adams officially retires as the school’s president 13 months from now. Adams will make that decision public on Thursday, The AJC has learned.
The question I want to pose is, what will Adams’ legacy be with regard to Georgia’s athletics?
Certainly, Georgia’s athletic teams continued to fare well and maybe even improved during his tenure. He took over for Charles Knapp in 1997, which was coach Jim Donnan’s second year as the Bulldogs’ football coach.
It was only a short time later that UGA supporters witnessed Adams’ willingness to weigh in on athletic matters. After Georgia lost to Georgia Tech for the third year in a row in Athens in November of 2000, Adams — over athletic director Vince Dooley’s objections — made the decision to fire Donnan. It was several years later that we would find out that Adams had also promised Donnan $250,000 in a “secret deal” following the 1997 season.
That was the beginning of several clashes Adams would have with Dooley over athletic matters.
When the Bulldogs needed to hire a new men’s basketball coach, Adams added former UCLA and Rhode Island coach Jim Harrick to Dooley’s list of finalists. Harrick was eventually hired and, after a brief period of on-court success, the program had to vacate wins due to accusations of academic fraud involving basketball players. Harrick was forced to resign.
Around the same time, Dooley, who had been a member of UGA’s athletic association 40 years at that point, asked for a two-year contract extension as Georgia’s athletic director. Adams denied that request despite pressure from several influential members of the UGA Foundation, then the university’s primary fundraiser. Adams eventually granted Dooley a six-month extension, but only to assist in the transition to new athletic director Damon Evans. The controversy eventually led to the dissolution of the foundation.
“He’s been very divisive for the Georgia people,” one prominent UGA alumnus said of Adams. “There are important factions out there that would not come together for a wiener roast under him.”
But while Adams may have been divisive to the fan base, he has also been a beneficial to the teams they love to root for. Virtually every sport for which Georgia fields a team has seen dramatic facilities improvements during Adams’ tenure as chairman of the athletic board (that trend has been duplicated ten-fold on the academic side as he helped secure more than $1 billion for new construction projects). Adams’ tenure as chairman of the NCAA executive committee made him a powerful influence on national matters and in the SEC.
And, of course, because of Adams’ persistence, the Bulldogs ended up with Mark Richt as their football coach in 2001. They have since won two SEC championships after not having won one for 20 years and played in four SEC title games.
“I think he’s done one heck of a job for the university,” said longtime athletic association executive committee member Bob Bishop.
So I pose the question to you. What kind of job do you think Adams did as chairman of Georgia’s athletic board?
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124 comments Add your comment
Dawg Haus
May 3rd, 2012
12:37 pm
Farewell to the quintessential politician. The Athletic Association will certainly be better off without him. Dooley for prez!
Free At Last, Free At Last...
May 3rd, 2012
12:42 pm
Hey Mike Adams, thanks for wasting tons of UGA money, hiring your wife for a privately appointed assistant position, being a total toolbag, and pretty much being hated by everybody from students to faculty to alumni. Go walk your a$$ into oncoming traffic. We can’t stand you and we never could. Good Riddance Biooooooooooooooootch!!!
McDawg
May 3rd, 2012
12:49 pm
he understands the NCAA and the economics better than any AD in the country-his legacy will be a BCS playoff system
Homepage | MrSEC
May 3rd, 2012
1:09 pm
[...] 10. But what will athletics legacy be for the man who forced out Jim Donnan and Vince Dooley, who hired Mark Richt and Jim Harrick, and who long ago for a college football playoff system? Adams has been a controversial figure to say the least. [...]
DirtyDawg
May 3rd, 2012
1:09 pm
I’ve been trying to remember the former coach/athletics dept member (seems to me that he also, at one time or another, was at both Tech and UVA), that wrote an ‘open’ letter, to Adams as I recall, that basically laid waste to Adams’ megalomaniacal management style. One that saw him, Adams, fire the Heads of every School at the University, regardless of their tenure or accomplishments, iover the first year or two of his ‘rule’, and announce to the author of the letter that Dooley was the last one on his ‘hit list’…point being that he didn’t want anybody working for him that wasn’t beholden to him, or in other words, wouldn’t ‘kiss his a$$’.
That’ll be the thing that I’ll always remember about him…along with the fact that if Vince hadn’t enlisted the ‘help’ of Atlanta’s premier PR huckster, Bob Hope, who convinced Vince that pulling embarrassing stunts like pushing a red wheelbarrow full of signatures supporting Dooley in front of the State Capitol and those childish, insulting, outdoor billboards were good ideas – in other words if they hadn’t turned off so many, and along with it make Adams seem a sympathetic figure – Vince might still be AD and Adams announcing his planned retirement from Tennessee. Of course we wouldn’t have Richt and McGarity running he show, which I think is great.
bingdon
May 3rd, 2012
1:10 pm
Glad he’s gone. Seems like the kind of guy who would be very difficult to work around or for.
As far as I can tell, however, he doesn’t play any sports so his leaving will have zero impact on them.
No recruit is going to say, gee, I’m not coming here because Adams is leaving. Like the Billy Payned idea. A lot. I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that one.
YoungDawg
May 3rd, 2012
1:14 pm
OK now we can go SPEND the majority of the Athletic Dept. Budget on FOOTBALL. I’ll continue to repeat 2 things: 1. UGA makes the most money in the SEC so we should spend the most on FOOTBALL. 2. From Board of Regents down to the ball boys if you’re not helping us WIN National Championships then GET OUT! The main person causing #1 which wasn’t helping #2 is leaving so let’s replace him with someone that will do the right & logical thing! Football is paying the freight so for the most profitable Athletic Dept. in the SEC so NO OTHER School should EVER out spend US!!! Let’s get an Indoor Practice Facility built ASAP! Then go renovate Sanford’s concourses into an NFL style stadium like Alabama, Auburn, LSU & Tennessee have! GO DAWGS! GATA!
ATLcracker
May 3rd, 2012
1:15 pm
I agree with concerned 11:30 pm. I think Adams has underperformed. Given the advantage of the Hope scholarship at keeping bright kids in state it’s hard to explain why Gergia is not right there with UVA and UNC. I also think having a third party payer like the Hope gave him very little incentive to control overall tuition costs and priced a lot of Georgia kids out of the game.
His legacy?
May 3rd, 2012
1:33 pm
Mishandling the Dooley affair, the Jim Donnan situation AND OF COURSE, the Jim Harrikc Sr. and Jr. era in basketball. These issues all close together, reall sullied UGA’s Athletic Department.
Glad that he is leaving.
Class of 71 & 73
ATLcracker
May 3rd, 2012
1:42 pm
article about the book Behind The Hedges
http://www.newsouthbooks.com/pages/2009/04/10/controversial-uga-book-behind-the-hedges-receives-community-media-attention/
gdawg
May 3rd, 2012
1:47 pm
Mike Adams has dedicated his life to academics and the last 16 years to UGA. UGA has achieved high marks for academincs & athletics never achieved before. everyone associated with UGA is a part of this performance and every ship has to have a Captain. A ship’s captain commands and managers all ship’s personnel, and is typically in charge of the ship’s accounting, payrolls, inventories and complies with all laws and guidlines set by the appropriate sanctioning bodies. In my personal opinion, Mike Adams is this person. thanks Mr Adams for 16 going on 17 years. all the best to you in the future.
UGASlobberknocker
May 3rd, 2012
1:47 pm
No class scumbag?
UGASlobberknocker
May 3rd, 2012
1:51 pm
It was the Hope Scholarship, not Mikey that caused UGA’s emergence. he was just lucky enough to be here.He was an autocratic imperious boor who people could not stand, even if they had to tolerate him. A whole book has been written about his abuses while in office.
From an athletic standpoint he was a nightmare, treating Dooley poorly, pushing the Harrick and Evans hires, and generally being an obtrusive pain.
good riddance, Doc, please dont come back to visit.
UGASlobberknocker
May 3rd, 2012
1:52 pm
@gdawg
Adams has dedicated his whole life to Mike Adams. ck out the link right before your post. The guy was a borderline felon when it came to state controlled money.
Buckeye
May 3rd, 2012
1:55 pm
He was the leader of the Lady Gym dogs and otherwise mostly wanabee dogs.
Buckeye
May 3rd, 2012
1:56 pm
Bring back Jan Kemp!
BD
May 3rd, 2012
2:01 pm
This is one of the BRIGHTEST MOMENTS in UGA History !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leye O.
May 3rd, 2012
2:37 pm
Hey boys, I have been a dawg fan for more that six years of my life. During these six years, Micheal Adams has been the president of UGA, and I don’t know about ya’ll, but in these past few years I am not sure if I have ever been more proud of our athletic program. Sure Dr. Micheal dealt with some problems during his administration, but how would you measure ones leadership without a time of crisis. Furthermore, Mike, from a dawg to another, you’ll be missed. God bless.
HeyDawg
May 3rd, 2012
4:51 pm
Had to respond after reading DandyDawg’s comments, what a clueless idiot. Adams was NOT the reason for greatly improved academics at UGA. The improvement occured 3-4 years before his hiring, ad that was because HOPE kept all the good students in-state, and the first choice for in-state schools is usually UGA. Heck, ol’ Zell Miller did that. Adams always tried to take credit for the academics, and would talk that up every chance he could. Adams is a jerk and I’m glad to see his sorry butt go. He will never be remembered fondly among alumni, and there won’t even be a park bench named after him.
crusher dawg
May 3rd, 2012
6:11 pm
Some good things occurred during his tenure while there were several bad things that happened. He tore the heart out of an athletic program by forcing Coach Dooley out. The one person that held the program together. Best thing was he did was hire Coach Richt for which we are thankful. However he caused more controversy than good. Thank him for his service and get him out now………
ugab
May 3rd, 2012
10:30 pm
Drug testing and getting kids suspended// Adams got to go along w CMR
Pitbull
May 4th, 2012
5:24 pm
Michael Adams’ legacy will be the Jim Harrick NCAA basketball probation since the school was forced to hire his Pepperdine buddy and it will be Damon “Red Panties” Evans.
Quite a legacy to be proud of, right Michael?
Pitbull
May 4th, 2012
5:30 pm
Oh and let’s not forget when you were booed out of Sanford Stadium after escorting the Homecoming Queen to midfield after you ousted Vince Dooley. That had to be a highlight for your time in Athens right?
Or how about the time the basketball team walked to your office to ask you to reconsider your decision to keep UGA out of the SEC and possibly NCAA tournaments after your Pepperdine buddy Jim Harrick shipwrecked the program and you called the police on them rather than sit down with them and talk with them like a real man would do? That was a highlight too wasn’t it?
Chris Mike
May 4th, 2012
6:31 pm
Well he is a big reason why Ga did’nt fire Coach Rict. So with saying that good by. We need a person that what to grow young men on the field and off. UGA has been punish for the last decade with coaches and AD’s that look at sports as being secondary. That the the problem UGA fans put sports as primary and as a UGA fan we deserve better.