Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith has been at Ohio State for what seems like an entire generation now. The reality is that he’s been in Columbus since March of 2005. That’s over fifteen years now at one of the premier athletic departments in the country. It goes without saying, Smith has not only seen a lot, but been a change agent himself at OSU.
He may have taken some hits here or there for his handling of some high profile things — some unwarranted and some likely not — but he’s seen some great times at the University. He didn’t hire Thad Matta, but the Buckeyes made two Final Four appearances under his watch. Smith did hire Urban Meyer and Ryan Day. He also brought in Chris Holtmann and helped improve multiple athletic facilities at Ohio State.
During his time, you could argue OSU had the best combination of basketball and football in the Big Ten, the two revenue sports that mean everything for an athletic department.
Mainly because of the hires he’s made, Stadium named Smith the Big Ten Conference’s best athletic director. To mark the occasion, Jeff Goodman interviewed Smith and broke the news. While doing so, he walked through Smith’s time and got his take on all the hires and monumental moments that’s occurred at Ohio State.
You can watch the entire interview by clicking on Watch Stadium’s Facebook video below.
https://www.facebook.com/watchstadium/videos/266824857889995/
Congrats to Smith, and let’s hope there’s more big moments, big wins, and spectacular memories as he continues his era at Ohio State. As an aside, Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez came in at a close second place, but who’s counting?
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