Lives of Consequence
Jeremy N. Foley '74
Athletic Director Emeritus of University of Florida
For 25 years, Jeremy N. Foley ’74 led the athletic department of the University of Florida (UF), overseeing every aspect of the Gators’ programs and the $100 million-plus budget. Following his retirement in 2016, Foley was named athletic director emeritus and joined the UF faculty as an instructor in the university’s sport management program.
From humble beginnings as a ticket intern in 1976, Foley rose through the ranks of the UF athletic department, managing business affairs, game operations and sports. He was appointed director of athletics in March of 1992, retiring in 2016 as the second-longest tenured athletic director in the country.
During his tenure, Florida teams won 27 National Championships, including 14 since 2009, equaling the highest total in the nation. Of the Gators’ 229 Southeastern Conference titles — the most since the league began in 1932 — 130 of them were won with Foley at the program’s helm.
He is the only athletic director in Division I history to supervise a program that has won national titles in football and men's basketball in the same year, 2006. The men’s basketball team then became the first repeat champions in their sport in 15 years after capturing the title again in 2007. Foley is also the only athletic director in Division I history to supervise a program that has won multiple national titles in football (1996, 2006, 2008) and men’s basketball (2006, 2007).
Under his leadership, the Gators’ athletic program completed a number of capital improvement projects, increased support for the student athlete as a whole, and specifically bolstered opportunities for women student-athletes, adding three women’s sports programs to the university — soccer, softball and lacrosse. In 2012, two years after its founding, the lacrosse team won the American Lacrosse Conference regular season title.
Projects completed under his direction include two major expansions of the football stadium, a multipurpose athletic field house, new facilities for tennis, track and field, soccer, baseball, golf, softball, swimming and lacrosse. In 2010, a new 1,500-seat lacrosse stadium opened prior to the team’s inaugural season. Prior to his retirement, he oversaw the renovation of the O’Connell Center, home of the basketball teams, gymnastics, swimming and diving and volleyball, and the building of the Hawkins Center, which opened in the summer of 2016.
Foley was one of the first athletics directors to hire a full-time nutritionist and has supported the creation of an academic advising center on the Gainesville campus. All told, he has seen 105 Gators earn Academic All-American honors and the University of Florida has 1,666 SEC Academic Honor Roll honorees in the past decade.
UF has ranked in the top six in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Standings in 19 of Foley’s 25 years leading the Gator program, including the top two finish five times. In 2006, he was named the Street and Smith's SportsBusiness Journal National Athletic Director of the Year. The National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame awarded him the 2007 John L. Toner Award, which honors outstanding athletics directors who have demonstrated superior administrative abilities, especially in the area of college football. Foley was named Honorary Alumnus of the University of Florida by the Florida Alumni Association Board of Directors in October of 2000. The Ohio University Alumni Association also awarded Foley with their Medal of Merit in September of 2008. He was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 2016, and named to the NCAA College Basketball Commission in 2017.
Beyond his commitment to the Gators and the Colleges, Foley volunteers with the local Humane Society and makes numerous public appearances on behalf of local charities and youth organizations. He has been a strong example to Gator student athletes, 445 of whom participated in 4,365 hours of community service in 2014-15.
At Hobart, Foley was a three-time letterman in football and a two-time letterman in lacrosse. After he graduated with a degree in psychology, he coached and scouted for the tradition-rich Hobart lacrosse program and later went on to earn a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University.
In 2008, more than 300 people gathered to honor Foley as he was bestowed the Hobart Alumni Association Medal of Excellence, the Association’s highest honor, for his outstanding achievements at UF. In 2018, Foley was inducted into the Hobart Hall of Fame.