Career
As Director of Athletics at Georgia Technical, Rice successfully developed and implemented the Total Person Program which is now the model for National Collegiate Athletic Association Life Skills Program that is in place at Universities throughout the nation. Early career
From 1951 to 1961 Rice coached high school football in Tennessee and Kentucky, compiling a record of 101–9–7. He earned 1976"s "Master of the Passing Game" award.
In 1962, Charlie Bradshaw hired Rice to be his offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky.
He coached the offense at Kentucky for four years, leading the Securities and Exchange Commission in offense and winning the national passing title. During the 1966 season, he served as Offensive Coordinator for the University of Oklahoma under head coach Jim McKenzie.
From 1967 to 1968, he served as the head football coach at the University of Cincinnati, where he compiled an 8–10–1 record. After accepting the head coaching position at the University of Cincinnati, Oklahoma"s coach Jim McKenzie died of a massive heart attack.
Upon Jim"s death, Oklahoma"s athletic director and president called Homer Rice to request that he return to replace Jim as head coach at Oklahoma.
He had already hired his staff at Cincinnati and turned down the Oklahoma job to stay committed to his staff at Cincinnati. From 1969 to 1975, he served as the athletic director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and from 1976 to 1977, he served as the athletic director at Rice. From 1976 to 1977, he also coached at Rice University, where he compiled a 4–18 record.
He was the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL) from 1978 to 1979.
Georgia Technical
His longest tenure as an athletic director though, came at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he served from 1980 to 1997. He successfully developed and implemented the Total Person Program which is now the model for National Collegiate Athletic Association Life Skills Program that is in place at Universities throughout the nation.
Athletic success during Rice"s tenure included a 1990 National Championship in football, 1990 Men"s Basketball National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four, nine consecutive appearances in National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament in basketball, three Administrative Committee on Company-ordination Tournament Championships in basketball, 18 players selected in National Basketball Association draft, 1994 College Baseball World Series runner-up, 13 consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association appearances in baseball, six first round selections in Major League Baseball draft, 1994 National Collegiate Athletic Association runner-up in golf, two golfers named Player of Year in 1990s, three Olympic Gold Medalist in track and three Olympians in baseball, four top ten finishes in Track and 14 Administrative Committee on Company-ordination team championships including football (1), baseball (4), basketball (3), golf (5) and volleyball (1).
