Smith adjusts to role as interim Director of Athletics at FAMU

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  --  School may be out for the summer, but Michael Smith is far from taking a vacation.

As the new interim Director of Athletics at Florida A&M enters his office, there's a stack of papers waiting for his signature and an inbox full of emails waiting for his reply.

"It's been real busy," Smith says of his first three weeks on the job. "Lots of meetings, telephone conversations, just individuals and other people interested in the program wanting to know how they can help where we're going, what we're doing, and the success of the athletics program."

Smith once had an even more direct hand in the success of FAMU athletics as a kick returner and wide receiver on the Rattlers' football team in the early 1980s. Since then, he's worked for more than 20 years with the university, and this current stint as interim A.D. is his second time in that role. For more than eight months of 2010, Smith had the same interim role, bridging the gap between Directors of Athletics Bill Hayes and Derek Horne.



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