THE FLATS – Georgia Tech athletics mourns the loss of legendary former director of athletics Dr. Homer Rice, who died on Monday, June 10, at the age of 97.
Rice was the Yellow Jackets’ athletics director from 1980-97. Under his leadership, Georgia Tech revitalized its athletics program, highlighted by winning its fourth football national championship in 1990. Tech’s men’s basketball team won its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 1985 and made its first NCAA Final Four appearance in 1990, and its baseball team advanced to the College World Series for the first time in 1994 with Rice at the helm.
As A.D., he hired some of Tech’s most successful and legendary head coaches, including Bobby Cremins in basketball, Bobby Ross and George O’Leary in football, Jim Morris and Danny Hall in baseball and Bruce Heppler in golf. The Yellow Jackets won 16 ACC championships across five sports during his tenure.
However, perhaps Rice’s biggest legacy is the Total Person Program, which he developed and implemented at Tech and went on to be the model for the NCAA Life Skills Program that is now practiced across college athletics. He continued to teach a leadership class at Georgia Tech until recently. He wrote a number of books on leadership success, including Leadership for Leaders in 1984, Lessons for Leaders in 2000, and Leadership Fitness in 2004.
“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. “At a time of profound changes in athletics, Homer’s message and legacy of excellence is more important than ever.”
Among his countless distinctions and honors, the Homer Rice Award is presented annually to an NCAA Division I FBS athletics director that has made significant and meaningful contributions to intercollegiate athletics.
In 2021, a statue of Rice was dedicated outside of Bobby Dodd Stadium. He is one of only three athletics figures to be commemorated with a statue at Georgia Tech, joining John Heisman and Bobby Dodd. In addition to being legendary coaches at Georgia Tech, Heisman and Dodd also served as Tech’s director of athletics during their time on The Flats. The most prominent national awards for college football’s player of the year (Heisman), coach of the year (Dodd) and athletics director of the year (Rice) are named in their honor.
Dr. Rice was preceded in passing by his wife of 64 years, Phyllis, who passed in November of 2013. He is survived by three daughters, Nancy Hetherington, Phyllis Ingle and Angela Miller, his wife Karen, whom he married in 2015, seven grand children and four great grandchildren.