CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Dan Radakovich had no shortage of successes in his 4 1/2 years as Miami's athletic director.
Miami's football team just played for the national championship earlier this year. The men's basketball program went to a Final Four, then rebuilt, then returned to the NCAA tournament. The women's basketball program isn't far removed from an Elite Eight run. Baseball was a win away from the College World Series last year. The diving, track and tennis programs have all delivered national championships on his watch.
But the story that Radakovich might enjoy telling most as he enters retirement Monday is about the rowing team.
"That sport, wow, that might have been as dysfunctional a program as a lot of people have ever been around 4 1/2 years ago," Radakovich said. "I mean, it was just not really good because it was an afterthought here. It had to be."
This is what Radakovich did as an athletic director for more than two decades at American, Georgia Tech, Clemson and Miami. He solved problems, big and small. He got stadiums built, he got others refurbished, he invested in the things that get on national television - like football and basketball.
And, quietly, he did things like find a home for Miami's rowing team. He helped arrange for the university to turn a church that it owns - yes, a church - into the training facility. The team was so moved that it gave Radakovich probably its highest honor, putting his name on one of its boats. It might be fitting that the last result to celebrate in the Radakovich era at Miami came Sunday, when the rowing team finished 13th in its first trip to the NCAA championship.
"We gave them their own place," Radakovich said. "And they've just flourished from there."
