People love to talk about how it’s important to be a leader.
There are entire societies at UF dedicated to teaching students this very skill. In job interviews, we’re told we need to come across as leaders, innovators and the like, even if it’s not true. And of course, who among the job-savvy doesn’t put “leadership” as a skill on their LinkedIn profile?
Many people desperately want to be leaders, but only a select few are. And I’ll be the first to admit I’m not among them.
But I’ll still never forget when I first recognized what real leadership looked like, and it happened courtesy of UF athletics director Jeremy Foley, who announced his impending retirement on Monday after 25 seasons in his current role.
It was fall of my freshman year in my Sports Media and Society class.
Our teacher had brought in Foley as a guest speaker, and someone had asked him about UF’s policy regarding fans rushing the field after football games.
For those who don’t know, UF is notorious for its strident opposition to fans rushing the field. Look no further than the parade of cops — which Foley said some people refer to as the Gestapo — that surrounds the field in the fourth quarter as proof.
I always hated that rule.
Rushing the field, breaking down the goal posts; it all looked like fun to me.
“Do we really have to wait until someone gets trampled to death or seriously injured by the goal post falling on them before we talk about stopping this?” I remember him saying.
And he was right. Because even though I’ll always enjoy watching fans of other teams rush the field on TV, something bad will eventually happen and everyone from Finebaum to First Take will make it a talking point.
Instead of waiting for that to happen, Foley acted preemptively. And that’s what real leadership is.
But real leadership also gets results, and in his 25 seasons at the helm of Florida’s athletics programs, Foley got plenty of them.
Since he became AD in 1992, UF has won 27 national championships.
Before that, it had won nine.
Foley’s success also made my job both very easy and very difficult.
It’s easy because it’s much more fun to cover a team when it’s winning and the coach doesn’t have to worry about his/her job.
It’s difficult because one of the essential functions of the press is to criticize leaders, and in sports, foremost among those leaders are athletic directors.
However, aside from the Ron Zook and Will Muschamp eras, Foley hasn’t given us much to criticize him for. Pretty much every team at UF is consistently ranked and consistently competes for national titles.
Heck, I was going to write a column just two weeks ago about how the track team was underperforming — they were ranked in the top 5 but had struggled in the indoor season. But Florida went ahead and won an outdoor national championship this week.
UF also hasn’t been embroiled in any major larger-than-sports scandals during his time, which speaks to his “do it right” mentality.
And because of his success, Foley certainly deserves a space on UF’s “Mount Rushmore” of sports along with Steve Spurrier, Billy Donovan and Tim Tebow.
But here’s something to think about: When Tebow left UF, he left shoes the size of a Heisman trophy and two national titles. Seven years later, no one has been able to fill them.
Foley leaves behind shoes the size of 27 titles.
I wish the best of luck to whoever tries stepping into them.
Ethan Bauer is the assistant sports editor. Contact him at ebauer@alligator.org or follow him on Twitter at @ebaueri.
Jeremy Foley addresses reporters during a press conference Monday.
