New UNC Charlotte athletics director Mike Hill has a lot of reasons to like his new job. He has family in Charlotte and he owns a house in Blowing Rock. And the Concord-based Avett Brothers are his favorite band.
Hill also will have an opportunity to turn the 49ers’ fortunes around in football and basketball. He said his first priority will be to hire a new men’s basketball coach.
Hill, 49, comes to UNC Charlotte after working 25 years as an athletics administrator at the University of Florida, most recently executive associate athletics director for external affairs.
On Tuesday, March 6, he told a campus news conference he has several family members who live in Charlotte. He also remembers being in Charlotte when he watched the 49ers lose in the Final Four to Marquette in 1977.
“This is personal for me,” he said about getting the AD position. “This is home.”
He takes over an Athletics Department with two main sports – football (1-11) and men’s basketball (6-23) – that posted a combined .171 winning percentage during the 2017-18 season.
“The priority is the basketball search,” said Hill. “We have to dive into this. It’s a great job, and I’ve had numerous people contact me already.”
Chancellor Philip L. Dubois introduced Hill at the news conference in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center.
“(Mike) knows what success looks like,” Dubois said. “Mike came from not just any Power 5 school, but the University of Florida that had assembled a nationally ranked athletic program across 21 sports.”
Hill has high expectations for excellence, both in terms of competitive excellence and in academic achievement and preparing students for life beyond the University, said Dubois.
“He shares our institutional value set—we want to win on the field, on the court and on the track, but we will win with integrity, full compliance, and an authentic commitment to gender equity, diversity, and inclusion.”