I don't intend to repeat what's been said about Gator basketball and Gator football. Three national championships in 2 years, two of them against the newest of Gator-Haters, Ohio State. SEC championships (how I hate it when Gators call them "chompionships") out the ying yang in a conference that eats it young.
Sweet.
But think how great a job the athletic director of UF has done. When a program is that good, and without a hint of wrongdoing or NCAA minutia violating (although Urban Myer had to walk out of a scheduled speech to some high school grad's because one of them had signed with the Gators too recently -- makes no sense) somebody in upper management is doing something right. The man's name is Jeremy N. Foley and he began his career at UF working as an intern in the ticket office in 1976. Obviously, the man bleeds orange and blue. Check this out, which was written before the last two national championships:
Florida has been equally successful on the field of play and in the classroom during Foley's administrative tenure. The Florida athletic program has ranked among the nation's top 10 for 23 straight years (1983 84, 2005-06) and among the top five for 12 of the last 17 years, according to national all sport rankings.
The men's basketball team captured the 2006 NCAA Championship, the 10th NCAA title for Florida under Foley. Nine other teams finished in the top 10 of their respective sports in 2005-06, including five top five finishes.
With the national title in men's basketball, Foley became the only athletic director in Division I history to supervise a program that won national titles in football and men's basketball.
Foley was named the Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal National Athletic Director of the Year in June of 2006.
In Southeastern Conference action, Florida won two league crowns in 2005 06, raising its total to 79 league titles since 1990, the top totals in the SEC over that time span.
UF's commitment in the classroom is equally impressive. Under Foley, UF student-athletes have been honored 63 times as Academic All-Americans, the fourth highest among all Division I colleges since 1992. For the 2005-06 academic year, the University of Florida had 187 SEC Academic Honor Roll honorees, the second highest in school as UF had 193 in 2002-03. The Gators led or tied all SEC schools for Academic All-SEC honorees in five sports this year - men's basketball (5), women's golf (8), gymnastics (10), men's swimming & diving (20) and men's track & field (23). The men's swimming total equals the league record set by UF in 2003.
The Gator athletic coaching family, which Foley had a large part in assembling, has collected 51 SEC Coach-of-the-Year awards during the last 14 years.
So here's to you, Foley. Attaboy. DAMN good job. And keep up skeer.
Foley should have been featured at the rally but Billy did give him some props.
Go Gators
Posted by: 'da Bronx | April 06, 2007 at 11:55 PM