By LARRY VAUGHT
Kentucky native Homer Rice was an All-American football player at Centre Centre in 1948 and from 1951-61 he compiled a 101-9-7 record coaching high school football in Kentucky and Tennessee. He was offensive coordinator at Kentucky under coach Charlie Bradshaw from 1962-65 and later was head coach at Cincinnati and Rice before a two-year stint.
Rice was also a successful college athletics director at North Carolina (1969-75), Rice (1976-77) and Georgia Tech (1980-1997). His tenure at Georgia Tech included a 1990 national championship in football, 1990 men’s basketball Final Four, nine consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament in basketball, 1994 College Baseball World Series runner-up, 13 consecutive NCAA appearances in baseball, 1994 NCAA runner-up in golf and 14 ACC team championships.
The Homer Rice Award, established by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, is given annually to a FBS director as recognition of achievement.
New Kentucky athletics director Jason “J” Batt was AD at Georgia Tech from 2022-2025 before spending the last two years at Michigan State.
Karen Rice has nothing but “wonderful thoughts” about the new UK athletics director.
“Homer and I knew him well. Homer felt like he was the man for the job. I am sure he is thinking now somewhere up there (in heaven) that he is perfect for UK,” said Karen Rice.
Homer Rice passed away on June 10, 2024, but there is a statue of him near the entrance to Bobby Dodd Stadium at Georgia Tech and the Homer Rice Award established by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics is given annually to a FBS director as recognition of achievement.
“I love J Batt and his wife and family. He is a great fundraiser. He knows all the things a successful AD should and knows how to run an athletics program,” Karen Rice said.
“He has a great personality and he will mix well with the Lexington community and state of Kentucky. I think the community will welcome him and he will be glad to be there. He is just a great person. To me, he is the perfect person for this job.”
When Batt got the job at Georgia Tech he came to visit Rice at his home. At the time, Homer and Karen Rice had two suites at Georgia Tech home football games.
“I told Homer we no longer needed two so why not give one to J for his family and he gave him that suite. We saw (Batt’s wife) Leah and the kids every week. J was in there (the suite) some but he had to spend time visiting with a lot of people. However, he always came into our suite to see us. He’s just a great guy.”
Homer had two football suites, J came to the house to meet Homer, we not need two, why not give one to J for family and gave that suite to J. we saw Leah every week and kids, J in there but had spend time visiting, he always came into our suite at both football and basketball.
“Homer really liked him a lot. They had such a mutual respect for each other. I think Homer admired him because he was young and ambitious and suited for the role as AD at Georgia Tech. He brought people together at Tech. He respects the old guard and learned from them, which Homer appreciated. Not everybody is like that.”
Batt has worked at seven schools since 2005 and his five years as associate athletics director at Alabama from 2017-2022 was his longest stint anywhere. He was at Georgia Tech from 2022-2025 and Michigan State from 2025-26.
“It will be interesting to see how long he stays. Homer made so many career changes and he respected J for making changes. I hope this is the big one that he has chosen and Kentucky is where he will be for a long time,” Karen Rice said. “He was very visible at Georgia Tech. He was always out there doing something.
“He’s young and energetic. I think UK fans will love him and he will love Kentucky. I think J is just different. He is more motivated than most me and I know coming back to the SEC will just motivate him even more to do everything he can for Kentucky.
“I have thought about what Homer would say about J Batt now and I think he would probably say J has an even greater opportunity to not just build winning teams but to build champions for life.”
When Homer Rice was inducted into the National Football Foundation Leadership Hall of Fame after his death, Batt spoke at the event.
“I’ll always appreciate this young man for doing that,” Karen Rice said.
