Ex-Georgia Tech AD Homer Rice, ‘the best leader,’ dies at 97

ATLANTA — Homer Rice, who as athletic director employed a few of Georgia Tech’s most profitable coaches and applied the college’s Whole Particular person Program, has died. He was 97.

Rice died Monday, in accordance with the college.

Rice was Georgia Tech’s athletic director from 1980-97. Amongst his notable hires have been basketball coach Bobby Cremins, soccer coaches Bobby Ross and George O’Leary and baseball coaches Jim Morris and Danny Corridor. Georgia Tech received a share of the 1990 nationwide soccer championship and its first Atlantic Coast Convention basketball championship in 1985 whereas advancing to the Ultimate 4 in 1990.

The Yellow Jackets received 16 ACC championships in 5 sports activities throughout Rice’s time main the athletic division.

Rice was a highschool, school and NFL soccer coach earlier than starting his profession as an administrator. He coached the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals in 1979-79 earlier than starting his time at Georgia Tech.

Rice was a school assistant at Kentucky (1962-65) and Oklahoma (1966) and was the coach at Cincinnati (1967-68) earlier than leaving to serve six years as North Carolina’s athletic director. He was employed in 1976 as athletic director and soccer coach at Rice in Texas and held these positions for 2 years.

Rice’s Whole Particular person Program is thought to be the mannequin for the NCAA’s Life Expertise Program. The Homer Rice Award is offered yearly to a FBS athletic director in recognition for important contributions to varsity athletics.

“Homer has reminded us all through his profession that the last word purpose of intercollegiate athletics is to assist student-athletes develop absolutely as individuals,” Georgia Tech president Ángel Cabrera mentioned in a press release launched by the college. “At a time of profound adjustments in athletics, Homer’s message and legacy of excellence is extra vital than ever.”

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips mentioned in a press release Rice’s Whole Particular person Program “was forward of its time and paved the best way for NCAA programming by making ready student-athletes for all times past collegiate athletics. Every of the seven pillars of the Whole Particular person program proceed to resonate with not solely myself, however each one in all Dr. Rice’s friends, colleagues, and former student-athletes.”

Phillips mentioned Rice, a local of Bellevue, Kentucky, “was extremely influential within the improvement of student-athletes, not solely at North Carolina and Georgia Tech, however all through school athletics.”

Former ACC commissioner and UNC athletic director John Swofford mentioned Rice, AD at UNC when he graduated in 1971, was his inspiration to pursue a profession in athletic administration.

“He was my mentor then, and has been all through my grownup life,” Swofford mentioned in a press release. “I had the privilege of serving for 17 years as an A.D. with him within the ACC whereas he was at Georgia Tech and I used to be at UNC. Merely put, he was one of the best Athletic Director that I ever noticed throughout my half century in school sports activities. He was one of the best chief, probably the most organized, one of the best motivator, one of the best innovator. He was filled with integrity, decency and sophistication.”

Rice taught a management class at Georgia Tech till current years and wrote various books on management success.

Georgia Tech devoted a statue of Rice exterior of Bobby Dodd Stadium in 2021. Dodd and John Heisman are the one different in Georgia Tech athletics to be commemorated with a statue.

Rice’s spouse of 64 years, Phyllis, died in 2013. He married his second spouse, Karen, in 2015.