Former USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett leaving Langston University

Former USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, who was hired by Langston University in 2012, will leave his position next month, the university announced.

Langston President Dr. Kent Smith Jr. said Garrett “decided to leave the university to pursue other interests at the end of June 2015.”

Garrett, 71, could not immediately be reached for comment. His biography is no longer on the athletic department website and his name does not appear on the department directory.

“I wish to thank Mr. Garrett for his efforts on behalf of Langston University and I wish him well in his future endeavors,” Smith said in a statement emailed from the school. “We will work quickly to lay the groundwork to identify new leadership for the Department of Athletics.”

Garrett was USC’s athletic director from 1993 to 2010. He was replaced by Pat Haden in the aftermath of an NCAA investigation that resulted in some of the most severe sanctions in college sports history.

Langston University, a historically black college in rural Oklahoma, fields nine teams — four men’s, five women’s — that compete in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Garrett hired former USC graduate assistant Stan Holt as men’s basketball coach and former All-American Cheryl Miller as women’s basketball coach.