It’s official. Josh Brooks is the University of Georgia’s new athletic director.
The UGA Athletic Association made it official during a meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Brooks, 40, replaces Greg McGarity, who retired last month and is now the chair of Gators Bowl Sports.
Brooks, who took over as interim AD on Jan. 1, joined the Georgia staff in December of 2016 as Executive Associate Director of Athletics after serving as Deputy Athletics Director at the University of Louisiana Monroe from 2015-2016.
He was promoted to Deputy Athletic Director at Georgia in 2018 and Senior Deputy Athletic Director in 2020.
A native of Hammond, La., Brooks previously held positions as Director of Athletics at Millsaps Colleges (20-14-2015) and Assistant and Associate Director of Athletics for Internal Operations at Georgia during his first tenure in Athens (2012-2014).
From his official bio on the athletic association’s website: “During his tenure, Brooks has worked closely with McGarity and oversees internal and external for all athletic operations. He serves as the liaison with the Office of University Architects office on all athletic construction projects and with several campus departments as well as the president’s office. His responsibilities at UGA have included overseeing the departments of facility support, graphics and design, and turf management.”
“When you think about all the facility enhancements, we’ve made over the past 10 years—over $300,000,000 of enhancements—during that same time. we haven’t drawn long-term debt. We’ve actually reduced it. If you think about it, we’re in as great a shape financially as any university in the country,” Brooks said told reporters earlier this month.
Brooks has also been involved in the scheduling of future football games, as well as overseeing bowl game operations. In addition, his responsibilities included assisting with the development and management of facilities, new construction projects for the Athletic Association, and planning the 2013 Jason Aldean Concert in Sanford Stadium. Brooks has also served as the sports facilitator for football and men’s and women’s track and field and cross country.
The Louisiana native was asked if more concerts at Sanford Stadium might be in the future.
“I’m always looking at options for that,” he said. “This year would have been a great year for it, but in light of what all is going on, it would have been difficult.”
The subject of beer inside the stadium and other UGA venues is another topic of great interest to fans.
Brooks’ take:
“We want to be responsible about that and make sure that whatever we do, we go about it the right way, in a responsible way,” he said. “We’ll see; I think it’s more popular in the conference. We’re obviously learning what others have done and how it’s going.”
Of course, the success of Georgia’s 23 athletic programs is what’s paramount on his mind.
“I’m a competitor. I want to win in everything. If we started a badminton team tomorrow, I’d want to win a national championship in that,” he said. “It doesn’t matter the sport; they’re all important to me. When you’re an AD, every one of those teams feels like your children, and you want them to be successful. Every win is great, every loss is terrible. The natural competitor in me wants us to win championships in everything we do.”
