Being Tennessee's AD was a job Mike Hamilton had. It wasn't who he was | Estes

Most know Mike Hamilton from his eventful tenure as the University of Tennessee’s athletic director, but here’s hoping today that he’s remembered for everything else.

For how he used his time here to help so many people. For being a hero to the impoverished. For his charitable work at home and in Africa. For making it a personal mission to address shortages of necessities like water and medical care. For he and his wife's adopted family. For his five children.

Mike Hamilton made the world a better place.

That former job might have made him newsworthy, but it's not what made his life remarkable.

"Athletics director at Tennessee was a job I held. It was not who I was,” Hamilton told The Tennessean’s Brad Schmitt in 2014. “It didn't define who I am.”

It’s sad to see an inspiring light extinguished too soon.

Hamilton died at only 60 years old Friday. He posted on Instagram in recent months that he'd been diagnosed with cancer and was set for a liver transplant.

I didn’t know Hamilton well, but I did get to know him through a couple of years in the mid-2000s covering the Vols for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

I liked Hamilton. He had a disarming way about him. He could be friendly and surprisingly funny. You saw why he was a good fundraiser. He came across as a typical AD in the modern mold: An administrator, not some old coach. What stood out was that he came across as a kind-hearted person operating in what can be a merciless world.

I’ve often wondered why a man so righteous and good ever wanted to get involved in the nasty business of running an SEC athletics department.

Hamilton made mistakes as Tennessee’s AD, sure, but his tenure wasn’t as bad as recent history has guided so many in Vol Nation to conclude.

Context is relevant. This was a complicated time – maybe the most difficult ever – for anyone to be the Vols’ AD. The most successful coaches of the modern era for Tennessee football and men’s basketball each had tenures end on Hamilton’s watch, and for different reasons.

Phillip Fulmer’s football teams lost 21 games (going 17-15 in the SEC) in his final four seasons. That simply wasn’t good enough at Tennessee. Not then. Not now, either, no matter how much history has revised memories of Fulmer’s firing. Wasn’t solely Hamilton’s decision, but that had to be a grueling situation for any AD.

A common gripe among Tennessee’s football program in those days was a perception – misguided or not – that Hamilton played favorites with men’s basketball, given that he had hired Bruce Pearl from Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Pearl was indeed a spectacular hire by Hamilton, right up until he wasn’t anymore. NCAA infractions caused the Vols to part ways with the coach who’d revitalized their program. That, too, had to be a grueling situation for any AD.

Hamilton’s UT legacy was dinged for both choosing to hire and having to subsequently fire a deeply popular and controversial coach like Pearl.

It was dinged, too, when Lane Kiffin bolted for Southern Cal after one season. Kiffin was also a pretty good hire, by the way, until he wasn’t anymore. And then Derek Dooley was just a swing-and-miss, accelerating football’s slide into mediocrity.

Hamilton once told CBS Sports: “My biggest regret is that things didn't work out better at Tennessee."

“I'll admit the things I needed to do better, and hopefully people will recognize what I did well," he said. "But in the end, you have to know who you are and find peace and rest in that, and I do.”

My last communication with Hamilton was a text message a few years ago. UT had hired Danny White as its new AD. Hamilton politely declined to interview, saying he only wanted to support White and would always be available to help him and the university.

It was a nice sentiment, I thought at the time. Wondered why he didn’t want it shared.

But that, I realize, was Mike Hamilton. Wasn’t about him. He cared so much about unselfishly helping others that he didn’t have room left to care how much attention he received for it.

And that, when you think about it, sounds about like the best thing you can say about a person.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Being Tennessee's AD was Mike Hamilton's job. But it wasn't who he was