USC’s McGee Makes Move . . . to USC : Colleges: Athletic director says the challenge is the main reason for his switch to South Carolina.

Athletic Director Mike McGee of USC, saying that he was looking for a new challenge, announced Monday that he is leaving Southern California to become athletic director at the University of South Carolina.

McGee, who has been athletic director at USC since 1984 and who turned 54 today, called his decision to leave “the most difficult in my professional experience.”

In an interview Monday afternoon, before his departure for Columbia, S.C., where he will hold a news conference this morning, McGee said that the key to his decision was the chance to go somewhere else and roll up his sleeves again.

“Right now, for me, it is just better to be there than here,” McGee said. “Here, I am a little bit in a maintenance program. The football team is going to be good at SC next year. The coaching and administrative staff is good across the board. Financially, the program is sound, and our endowment for athletics is healthy.

“I’m in no way joyful about leaving, but for the kinds of problems South Carolina has, I can be useful.”

Among the problems McGee will face at South Carolina are a basketball program under investigation by the NCAA and a football program that had such internal turmoil that a team vote earlier in the season called for Coach Sparky Woods’ resignation by a 62-24 count. The football team, though, won five of its last six games and finished with a 5-6 record.

McGee will replace King Dixon, a former South Carolina football All-American, who was reassigned to other duties Oct. 20. Dixon has been athletic director since 1988.

According to the Columbia State, McGee was given a four-year contract that includes complicated pay structures and renewal terms.

The newspaper said that his base salary will be $120,000, but that he will also receive a $15,000 annual supplement from athletic department funds, a one-time $20,000 consultant payment for work done for the university, and a five-year, interest-free, $80,000 relocation loan. The relocation loan will come from the Gamecock Club, a powerful booster group with a membership of about 11,000 that has, in recent years, raised as much as $6 million for the school’s athletic program.

McGee’s contract may be extended after three years for one more year. After that, his term can be extended a year at a time, effectively resulting in an ongoing two-year contract.

President Steve B. Sample of USC praised McGee, calling him “a tough administrator with a deep commitment to educating and graduating the 600 young men and women who compete in 20 varsity sports at USC.”

Sample also said: “He has a lot to be proud of in his eight years at the school. He turned around a program that was challenged with unbalanced budgets and NCAA violations. During his watch, the football team played in seven bowl games, including four Rose Bowls, and men’s basketball played in successive NCAA tournaments for the first time. Fund-raising and overall revenue has doubled.”

President John Palms of South Carolina said: “I do believe we now have the absolute best AD in the country at South Carolina.”

Palms said that, originally, McGee had been hired by his school as a consultant in the search for Dixon’s replacement. He added that the list began at 80 and was cut to 20. But, Palms said, once McGee expressed an interest in being on the list himself, he went right to the top.

“This exact same job was offered to me four years ago,” McGee said Monday afternoon. “But I turned it down flat then. As much as I was flattered, there was too much to do here.”

But once he was hired as a consultant by South Carolina, something McGee has done for a dozen or so schools since he has been at USC, the possibility of taking the job himself started to grow on him.

“About five weeks ago, President Palms asked for permission from President Sample to discuss my situation,” McGee said. “But I told both of them that I wouldn’t even think about such a thing until such time as our football team was assured it would have a winning record. I was not about to leave USC in the lurch.”

The assurance of a winning record occurred Nov. 14, when the Trojans went to 6-2-1 by beating Arizona.

“That was it,” McGee said. “At that point, South Carolina called back again to get permission to talk to me, and things just escalated from there.”

Since the Trojans beat Arizona, they have lost to UCLA and Notre Dame and will play Fresno State in the Freedom Bowl in Anaheim. McGee denied that pressure from alumni over the failure of Coach Larry Smith’s football program to dominate UCLA and Notre Dame, which has beaten USC 10 consecutive games, had anything to do with his departure.

“The pressure from alums has been very little,” McGee said. “But what’s there, I like. I have been at schools where there was apathy, and I prefer places where people care, where they express their unhappiness.”

As for the future of Smith, who is believed to be halfway through a four-year contract, McGee said: “I talked to Larry, and he seemed fine. I don’t think this will hurt him. We’ve had a good relationship. It wasn’t always harmonious, but it was good.

“His football team is going to be good, very good. The best team we played all year was Notre Dame. They were so physical you almost couldn’t believe it. But Larry started only two seniors or something like that, and next year at this time, with a year of growth and maturity, we’ll be even with teams like that.

“Sure, there have been mistakes made, like not double-covering UCLA receivers near the end of that game. But all in all, Larry has done well and he’ll be fine.”

Sample said that a search committee had been formed to find McGee’s replacement and that former USC and Ram quarterback Pat Haden would head that group.

Those in the USC athletic department, in direct line of succession, are Don Winston, senior associate athletic director, and Mike Garrett and Lisa Love, associate athletic directors. Garrett won the Heisman Trophy as a USC running back and Love is also the women’s volleyball coach.

McGee won the Outland Trophy as the country’s top lineman while a player at Duke in 1959. He had a short stint as a pro player with the St. Louis Cardinals, that career ending in 1962 because of an injury. He went on to become football coach at East Carolina for one year and at Duke for eight. He was athletic director at Cincinnati from 1980-84.

McGee, who played high school football in Elizabeth City, N.C., said a large group of family and friends remained in the Carolinas.

“That was a factor in this, but not the main one,” he said. “The main one was that this is a challenge I want to take on.”