University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director Rick Hart stands in front of a collage of team portraits inside McKenzie Arena in this file photo.In the early spring of 2007, Rick Hart not yet a year into his job as University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director, a prominent Mocs booster told me, “I’m not sure what to think of this guy. He’s always in his office, always on his computer, always meeting with his staff. He needs to spend more time with the people who care about this program.”
Three years later this same booster told me, “I think I’ve got Rick Hart figured out. He thinks before he acts. There’s no question we got the right man for the job.”
That right man is reportedly headed southwest today to Dallas to run the Southern Methodist University athletic department, and no one should begrudge him that move.
A year from now the Mustangs will join the Big East Conference, finally signaling a symbolic end to the death penalty the NCAA dealt their football program nearly 25 years ago.
He’ll also be the boss of new SMU basketball boss Larry Brown, the gypsy genius who remains the only man ever to win both an NCAA and an NBA title. Both men being North Carolina grads, they should get along better than Brown often has with the brief bosses of his past.