Former University of Central Florida Football Head Coach George O’Leary celebrated his 70th birthday this past week, and for the first time in nearly 50 years, was able to do it at home.
When George’s wife Sharon asked him how he wanted to commemorate his birthday, George chuckled and said “Come up with a way to spend the next 48 years not being home on my birthday,” according to the Orlando Sentinel.
O’Leary has been spent nearly 50 years coaching up and down the gridiron sidelines on all levels including professional, and during those years, rarely took any time to celebrate his birthdays.
According to the Sentinel, O’Leary is spending time relaxing and going back and forth between his Palm Coast house and his lake house in Georgia. He even purchased some jet skis.
“I’m really enjoying retirement,” O’Leary told the Sentinel. “It’s nice getting up in the morning and not having to worry about 200 other people. I enjoy bouncing around on the jet skis and I really like taking the dogs out in the boat. Nobody bothers me or gets near me because the dogs start barking like crazy!”
O’Leary has flown under the radar since stepping down as UCF’s head coach last October. The original plan was for O’Leary to announce his retirement at the end of the season, but that changed after the losses started to add up and UCF suffered a 59-10 defeat to Houston during its homecoming game.
“I didn’t want to be a lame-duck coach,” O’Leary told the Sentinel. “You never want the kids to know you’re leaving because then you’re not in charge. And I also believe it hurts recruiting. But, finally, I just told president Hitt, ‘If we’re going to make an announcement that I’m retiring at the end of the year, let me just make it easy on you: I’ll just retire right now — effective immediately.’
“You know me,” O’Leary said, according to the Sentinel. “I’m going to do things the way I’ve always done them — my way. I wish it had ended better, but I’m proud of what we accomplished at UCF. The program is a helluva lot better now than when we got there.”
Despite how things were handled, O’Leary says he’ll always root for UCF.
“I’ll always be a UCF guy; I want UCF to win,” O’Leary said. “That’s never going to change.”
