Jeremy Foley once was an intern dispensing tickets in the University of Florida athletics office. He now is one of the reasons the Gators' tickets are some of the most valued in sports.

Foley, a graduate of the sports administration master's program at Ohio, has progressed from ticket seller in 1976 to athletics director of Florida's $38 million program in 1994. Having served in a variety of roles, he has helped to establish the Florida athletics program as one of the nation's best.

After graduating in 1974 from Hobart College, where he played football and lacrosse, Foley didn't know what he wanted to do with the psychology degree he earned, so he took a year off. During that time, he coached and scouted for the Hobart lacrosse team.

And he also did a lot of writing.

"I knew I wanted to do something in sports, so I sent resumes to every professional sports team in every professional league," Foley said. "The reaction wasn't very positive. I got a lot of nice letterheads back with a lot of rejections."

Foley took a friend's advice to follow his interest in sports and apply to several sports administration master's programs. He was told Ohio, which established the first specialized academic sports program in the country in 1966, was one of the best.

"There's no question that, if I don't go to Ohio University, I'm not where I am today," said Foley, who received the Ohio Graduate School of Recreation and Sport Sciences' Distinguished Alumni Award in 1995. "The experience there was crucial. I had one of the best years of my life there."

Requirements for Ohio's master's degree include 50 hours of academic work and a five-hour internship. The internship took him to Gainesville, Fla., home of the University of Florida. After starting in the ticket office, he climbed up the administrative ladder to assistant athletics director in 1981. By 1983, Foley was the associate director, and after a stint as interim director in 1986, he was senior associate director from 1987 until his hiring as director of athletics.

Over that time, the athletics program reached an exclusive level. It has rated among the nation's top 10 programs for 15 consecutive years and among the top five for the past nine years, according to national all-sport rankings conducted by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

Such prosperity, though, could not have been forecasted in the late 1970s. At one point, the program was about $750,000 in debt. Foley said the men's teams were not very successful, and Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, which signaled the advent of women's intercollegiate athletics, deepened the financial holes in the program.

The progression of improving athletics teams and donor and fan commitment has more than plugged holes of the past, though. Florida's economic misery is a distant memory as the University of Florida Athletic Association has an excess of capital that has allowed it to contribute $14.3 million to school academic endeavors since 1990.

The association, of which Foley is chief financial officer, has been responsible for $70 million in improvements. It also has helped fund new facilities for baseball, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis and track and field teams.

Foley also has contributed to the construction of a $4.1 million academic advising center to serve students and student-athletes. The association is "dedicated to the intellectual, physical and personal development of the student-athlete," according to its mission statement.

"We try to be as successful academically as we are athletically," Foley said. "We consider every single sport to be equal and give every sport equal opportunity to improve."

With academic and athletic success intertwined, Foley's leadership led him in August 1994 to be named to the National Collegiate Athletics Association's Management Council. The group is responsible for overseeing the rules and regulations of intercollegiate athletics.

"It's a chance to be involved in the decision making," Foley said. "It's not perfect, but I really enjoy doing it. I've always said I'd rather be in the middle of it trying to make a difference."

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