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Short retirement: Former Georgia AD Greg McGarity lands new job at historic Florida bowl game
By Keith Farner
Published:
Greg McGarity wrapped up his tenure as the athletics director at Georgia at the end of the calendar year. But it didn’t take him any time to find a new job.
According to multiple reports, McGarity, 66, will succeed longtime president and CEO Rick Catlett, who’s retiring after 29 years as head of the Gator Bowl. McGarity was announced as the new president and CEO of Gator Bowl Sports on Tuesday. Officially he’ll assume the role on March 1.
At Georgia, McGarity may be most remembered for hiring coach Kirby Smart after he fired former coach Mark Richt. McGarity also was in charge when the school built the Indoor Athletic Facility adjacent to the Butts-Mehre Building, along with recent renovations to Sanford Stadium and Stegemen Coliseum.
Gator Bowl Sports is a division of the Jacksonville Sports Council, which oversees the Gator Bowl, and that organization also focuses on attracting a variety of athletics to the Jacksonville area. That includes the Georgia-Florida game, which has been played annually in Jacksonville every year but two since 1933.
The contract between the two schools is set to expire in two years. So McGarity will be heavily involved in that discussion between his alma mater where he worked the last 10 years, and Florida, where he worked in the athletics department for 18 years. Overall he is a 50-year veteran of college athletics administration.
H/T Dawg Nation.
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
