RIP Homer Rice

[Slacker]

A truly good man, whose dedication to athletes and sports went way beyond the playing field ...

Homer Rice, longtime coach and Ga. Tech AD, dies at 97

Rice's Total Person Program is regarded as the model for the NCAA's Life Skills Program. The Homer Rice Award is presented annually to a FBS athletic director in recognition for significant contributions to college athletics.

"Homer has reminded us throughout his career that the ultimate goal of intercollegiate athletics is to help student-athletes grow fully as people," Georgia Tech president Ángel Cabrera said in a statement released by the school. "At a time of profound changes in athletics, Homer's message and legacy of excellence is more important than ever." ...

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

"He was my mentor then, and has been throughout my adult life," Swofford said in a statement. "I had the privilege of serving for 17 years as an A.D. with him in the ACC while he was at Georgia Tech and I was at UNC. Simply put, he was the best Athletic Director that I ever observed during my half century in college sports. He was the best leader, the most organized, the best motivator, the best innovator. He was full of integrity, decency and class."

 

[Shelbyville Manhattan]

And for nearly two seasons, the Cincinnati Bengals' head coach between Bill "Tiger" Johnson -- hired instead of Bill Walsh after Paul Brown retired from the sideline -- and Forrest Gregg. Then he went to Georgia Tech as it went to the ACC, hired Bobby Cremins and eventually Bobby Ross, and turned around a moribund athletic program. R.I.P.

 

[da man]

And he took the job of football coach at Rice University because they promised to name the stadium after him.