Ohio State Athletics Director Andy Geiger to Retire

COLUMBUS --Ohio State Director of Athletics Andy Geiger will retire from his post June 30, 2005, university president Karen A. Holbrook announced Wednesday. Geiger, who has been the school's athletics director since April 1994, will remain at the university through June 2006.

“Today's announcement should be seen in the framework of an extraordinary tenure of leadership, for which Andy has been recognized quite rightly as one of the premier athletic directors in the nation,” Holbrook said. “The Department of Athletics has faced many challenges and has experienced 11 years of remarkable and measurable accomplishment under Andy's leadership. A broad and diverse program for 1,000 student-athletes in 36 sports, talented and committed coaches who are directing winning teams, state-of-the-art facilities, sound finances and significantly improved academic performance are his legacy to Ohio State.”

Geiger has led Ohio State as one of the most respected leaders in college athletics. He has overseen a program with 36 sports, nearly 1,000 student-athletes and an annual operating budget that exceeds $85 million.

Geiger was responsible for adding three women's sports - hockey, lacrosse and rowing - and has assembled one of the premier coaching staffs in America. Ohio State has finished third and fourth, respectively, the past two years in the Directors' Cup, which recognizes the best overall programs in the country.

Under Geiger's watchful eye, Ohio State teams not only qualify for NCAA postseason play on a regular basis, they have done well in the classroom, where last year, 403 student-athletes attended the annual Scholar-Athlete awards banquet, which requires a minimum grade-point average of 3.0. During the last two years, Ohio State has had more student-athletes named to the Academic All-Big Ten Team than any other school. At the end of the autumn 2004 quarter, the average GPA of Ohio State's student-athletes was 3.0.

Since Geiger's arrival in 1994, 19 teams have made 103 appearances in the NCAA tournament and five teams have won 15 national championships: fencing (2004), football (2002), men's gymnastics (1996 and 2001), pistol (2000 and 2004) and nine national championships by synchronized swimming.

While in Columbus, Geiger has engineered a building boom that has included construction of some of the best venues in college athletics, including the 4,450-seat Bill Davis Stadium (baseball), the 19,200-seat Jerome Schottenstein Center (men's and women's basketball and men's ice hockey), and the massive renovation to Ohio Stadium (football) that expanded capacity to 101,568. He also has been responsible for the construction of the 10,000-seat Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium (men's and women's track and field, soccer and lacrosse) and the Steelwood Center, the practice facility for wrestling, fencing and men's and women's gymnastics. The Bill and Mae McCorkle Aquatics Pavilion that will be used by the men's and women's swimming and diving and synchronized swimming teams will open this spring.

Other facility upgrades have been made to the OSU Scarlet Golf Course, the OSU Ice Rink and to Buckeye Field (softball).

Additionally, the Younkin Success Center, which houses the Student-Athlete Support Services Office and serves as a laboratory and resource center for Ohio State's student-athletes, opened its doors in the spring of 2000.

“This is bittersweet,” Geiger said. “It is my decision after months of thinking about this. After 33 years as an athletic director at five fine universities, I find that my work is no longer fun, and that I don't look forward with enthusiasm to each day. Thus, it is time for me to change directions, and time for Ohio State to seek new leadership for its department of athletics.

“We have enjoyed almost 11 years of life in Columbus and intense involvement in the life of The Ohio State University through its athletic programs. I will leave a department that is staffed with coaches, staff and administrators who are extraordinary. I am very proud of them and what they are achieving every day. If there is to be a legacy, I wish it to be about people, not buildings or other things.

“The facilities are in fine shape and the department is fiscally sound,”
Geiger continued. “I believe the future is very bright for all of our sports and I shall do all in my power to ensure that future.

“The athletic directorship at Ohio State is one of the premier positions in the field of intercollegiate athletics. The university administration, faculty, staff, students and alumni support our programs energetically and with a compassion which includes embracement and criticism and that is just right. President Holbrook shares my belief in the values of a strong, broadly based intercollegiate athletic program and she has always been a powerful advocate of our department and its teams.”

Holbrook said a search committee for a new director of athletics will be chaired by Dean Joe Alutto of the Fisher College of Business. The committee will begin work immediately. Holbrook said she hopes to have Geiger's successor named by June 30.