COLUMBIA - South Carolina athletic director Mike McGee, who brought national championship coaches Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier to lead Gamecocks football, is retiring from the job he's held since 1993.
McGee's last day is June 30, he said Tuesday. University President Andrew Sorensen says he hopes to have new athletic director in place early enough that the two can have some time to work together.
McGee, the 1959 Outland Trophy winner as a Duke offensive lineman, was athletic director at Cincinnati and Southern California before he moved across the country to take over a South Carolina athletic department that had just stepped into the powerful Southeastern Conference.
Since then, he's watched the athletic department's revenues nearly triple from the $18 million department he inherited to the $52.8 million in fiscal year 2004. He oversaw construction of $65 million Colonial Center arena for the university's basketball teams and added seats and amenities to football's Williams-Brice Stadium.
"Building a base that will last and is enduring - that I hope is the legacy," said McGee, 66.
Nearly a year ago, McGee and wife, Ginger, discussed their future. It was then that his wife hit him with a "very convicting statement."
"For years we've done what you wanted," she told him. "Now, it's time to do what I want."
McGee says that means spending time at the couple's Colorado home and seeing more of their 13 grandchildren. Sorensen has offered McGee a consulting role with the university, and McGee said he will consider it.
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