Duke’s Gerald Harrison among finalists to become AD at Chattanooga

Duke admininstratior Gerald Harrison is one of four finalists to become athletic director at Tennessee-Chattanooga.

UTC officials announced Friday that Harrison, Duke’s senior associate athletics director for internal affairs, had made the cut to the finalists along with University of Georgia executive associate athletic director Jim Booz, Marshall University associate athletic director and chief of staff Jeff O'Malley and Penn State associate athletic director for athletic development Mark Wharton.

A Florence, S.C., native who has been at Duke since 2008, Harrison is familiar with Tennessee. He graduated from Tennessee in 2001 and worked on the Volunteers football staff for six years, as director of community relations (2002-04) and director of high school relations (2005-07). He came to Duke after David Cutcliffe left his job as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator to become Duke’s head football coach in December 2007.

Currently at Duke, Harrison is the administrator overseeing the football and fencing programs plus the strength and conditioning, athletic training and equipment groups.. He also manages the athlteic department’s human resource operation.

Chattanooga is replacing David Blackburn, who resigned on June 13 after four years in the job. Senior associate athletic director Scott Altizer is filling in as interim AD until a full-time replacement is hired.

Friday’s news release from Chattanooga said the school hopes to make its hire by the end of August. A 12-person committee is handing the search with help from Atlanta-based Parker Executive Search.

"I want to thank the members of the search committee for their hard work and commitment," UTC chancellor Steven Angle said in the release. "We have an excellent pool of candidates, which speaks highly for the quality and reputation of our campus and our athletics program."

This story was originally published August 12, 2017 at 12:49 PM with the headline "Duke’s Gerald Harrison among finalists to become AD at Chattanooga."