Florida athletic director Foley retiring after 25 years

“I ended up being general manager of the Gators”.

Foley is the second-longest tenured athletic director in the United States.

Longtime Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, one of the most successful college sports leaders in the country, is retiring.

He will remain with the school as the Emeritus Athletics Director through the end of January 2018.

“Timing is as good as it can be because now we have a tremendous group of coaches and professional staff. As good as there is in the country. I just think that makes it a good time to transition”. While Foley, who started his Florida career as an intern in the ticket office back in 1976, can’t cover a single hand with football national championship rings, he always made sure Florida was one of the nation’s most well-rounded athletic programs. “So many memories… of championships won, of teams setting goals and then achieving them”. Since Foley has taken over the athletic department, the Gators have seen their budget increase from $30 million to $119.3 million, according to CBS Sports.

Billy Donovan (basketball), Urban Meyer (football), Kevin O’Sullivan (baseball), Mike Holloway (men’s and women’s track), Roland Thornqvist (women’s tennis), Tim Walton (softball), Becky Burleigh (soccer), Rhonda Faehn (gymnastics) and Amanda O’Leary are among Foley’s most successful hires. Each won a pair of national championships.

Foley wanted to make his plans official prior to UAA Board and UAA Booster meetings this week that will focus on future planning for the organization.

“I want to do what’s right for Florida”, Foley said after explaining that this decision came after months of consideration. “But I think those bars are good and have served the University of Florida well”. I’m not sick. I’m not dissatisfied. It happens to all of us. Florida has ranked in the top five nationally in all-sports rankings 17 times and has been in the top 10 in all 25 years.

In a business that is predicated on the success of college football, Foley didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture of running an entire athletic program. Foley, who will turn 64 on December 1, was acknowledged by University of Florida President Dr. Kent Fuchs for the legacy he’ll leave behind in Gainesville and in collegiate athletics.

“What I especially appreciate about Jeremy, however, is his integrity and his commitment to our students”. Success to Jeremy is a student-athlete who graduates and wins championships in the right way. Even when his attention turned away from football and frustrated many factions of Florida’s enormous fan base, he stayed set in his ways of running his own program.

“I want to get some of the facility planning off the ground because I’ve looked some coaches in the eye and told them we are going to do some things”. I like to root. I have been truly blessed with a career I have loved at a place I love. I’m a Gator fan. He will step down from the position on October 1. Those are what I’ll take with me because they are a part of me.

Would Muschamp be an SEC head coach again so soon at SC if Foley hadn’t embraced him even as he was necessarily cutting him loose?