McGee did it his way USC Athletic director calls it a career
By David Cloninger The Herald (Published June 30‚ 2005)


This isn't the story of a beloved elder statesman riding off into the sunset after a glorious reign or the story of a scoundrel being ridden out of town on a rail. This story falls somewhere in the middle.
This is the story of Mike McGee, who ran the University of South Carolina athletic department for 12 1/2 years and did it his way. He didn't do it to appease or annoy anyone -- his goal was to improve the USC athletic department, and his decisions reflected that goal and more often than not, achieved it.
"I'm not a particularly good salesman," McGee said with no shame. "I'm direct. I say, 'Here's the way we see things, here's our goals, and the budget,' and those kind of things."
When McGee walks out of the Rex Enright Athletic Center today, his tenure at USC will end and his legacy will be set. McGee will be praised by many and scorned by a few, but even his detractors have to admit McGee improved USC immeasurably.
"No question about it," said Columbia mayor Bob Coble when asked if he and McGee had ever clashed. "We fought over a number of issues relating to professional sports, but we came together for the big picture in how the Colonial Center and (USC's new baseball) stadium were to be used."
It's not like McGee is the most hated man in the state or even close to it. It's just that his abrasive style and legendary stubborness sometimes hindered business and, some say, made USC suffer as a result. Critics point out McGee's spats with Coble over the Columbia Inferno minor league hockey team and the Capital City Bombers minor league baseball club. They also bemoan the Carolina Panthers' decision to play at Clemson's Memorial Stadium during their inaugural season instead of Williams-Brice Stadium.
What many don't see is that McGee's decisions usually benefited USC in the long run.
"We received some criticism from the merchants in Columbia about not making (the Panthers) deal work," said Kerry Tharp, USC's sports information director and McGee's right-hand man for all but the last two months of his tenure. "Actually it was a financial deal. He wasn't going to sell the farm just to have pro football spend a season at our stadium, to shortchange our program at all."
As Tharp pointed out, Memorial Stadium had more luxury suites and fit better into the Panthers' plans to generate revenue than Williams-Brice, which was undergoing a renovation at the time. McGee did negotiate with the Panthers but at the end of the day, they decided to look elsewhere.
McGee never apologized because he felt there was nothing he needed to feel sorry about. The tactic helped when he began negotiating with the city of Columbia on the use of the new Colonial Center for USC basketball and hockey.
"He was not a fan of minor league pro sports," Coble said.
When the Inferno were new and were drawing fans, playing their home games in Carolina Coliseum while the Colonial Center was being built, it seemed McGee made a mistake. Today, the Inferno's attendance has dwindled and the Colonial Center has become a jewel for basketball and other events.
It's also worth pointing out that the Colonial Center is configured for hockey but the Inferno still play in the Coliseum.
"The Colonial Center, we retrofitted that for hockey," Tharp said. "The point of contention was the hockey team wanted us to pay their freight. We weren't going to do that.
"We had an extra locker room we had set aside for hockey. The way the floor and the configuration is, you could play hockey there."
The same situation arose with the Bombers, who played in a decrepit ballpark and were hinting they'd like to share in USC's new venture, a new baseball stadium adjacent to the Colonial Center set to open in 2007. That idea fell by the wayside as well.
The Bombers left town a season ago and USC will be the only tenant in the new field.
"The city, we encouraged them to participate," McGee said. "It was originally looked at as kind of a grander stadium, but not responded to favorably."
McGee leaves USC with a new basketball arena that draws several high-profile events, a new baseball stadium in the works, a twice-renovated football stadium that draws over 80,000 people for every home game and an athletic department that earned $52 million last year, just a shade up from the $18 million during McGee's first year.
There's also plans in the works to try and develop the Farmer's Market area next to Williams-Brice Stadium for a spring sports complex and to possibly purchase the property on the other side of the stadium for a new athletic department building.
Yet, McGee will leave with little fanfare from the people he was trying to serve. His prickly personality wasn't going to win over many of the Gamecocks' fans, despite him doing what he thought was best to serve them.
"At times he made some tough decisions, they may not have been the most popular," Tharp said. "He always had the best interests of the university, and sometimes they didn't coincide maybe with the best interests of the city, but his job was to lead the athletic department."
McGee did it well. He hired "name" coaches like Lou Holtz, Ray Tanner, Curtis Frye, Dave Odom and most recently, Steve Spurrier, to lead USC's athletic teams. Even if the teams didn't have tremendous success, they put USC into the national spotlight. He took over when USC was entering its first year in the Southeastern Conference, and pulled the necessary triggers to make sure the Gamecocks could compete.
If he had to step on a few toes along the way to make that happen, so be it. McGee saw what needed to be done and did it.
"Since I left South Carolina and came to Clemson, I just haven't discussed any of that," said Brad Scott, a former USC football coach who McGee fired. "I'm not going to comment on that."
When McGee announced his retirement in January, it disappointed a lot of university personnel. It also sponsored some muted cheers across the state. Since then it's been a case of tying up loose ends and preparing for successor Eric Hyman to start July 1. Hyman will be entrusted with the task of keeping a financial empire afloat and to take USC into the next phase, with only the dragged-out NCAA investigation of the football program lingering.
"I thought it'd be all wrapped up by now," McGee said.
The only question left is what McGee will be remembered by. The Colonial Center and the new baseball stadium will certainly be the tangible pieces of his reign, and the coaches he put in place should be staying for years to come.
Tom Price, USC's historian who's had an association with the school for almost 50 years, said McGee would rank among the best of USC's ADs. Price worked under a few others as the school's SID for just under 31 years, retiring when McGee was just beginning. He said McGee was at the top of the heap when it came to effectiveness.
"He was always looking out the interests of the university, which is his job," Price said. "Any confrontations he may have had were based on his feelings for the basis of his university. I'd say that he, in some respects, might have been the most controversial of all the athletic directors."
"He was pretty steadfast in his thoughts about putting the interests of say, a professional franchise ahead of USC," Tharp said. "He'd been in the pro markets before. He knew how difficult it could be to succeed."
McGee, of course, didn't really care what he'd be remembered as. He did his job and that was it.
"I think that's tough for me to answer to some extent," McGee said. "I think I've been persistent in going after people, and hopefully, the university was well-served during that period."
It was, and he was. He may not have been friendly and he may not have been gung-ho, but he did what he set out to do.
"I'm not on last legs, but I've been in this business a long time," McGee said. "I've been here 12 years and I planned to come for five."
David Cloninger • 909-4218