“I want to still be involved in something. I’ve had thoughts for years of what my own business might look like, what consulting might look like. That’s something I can concentrate on and work toward.”
The 59-year-old Grant, who has been the AD at Wright State for 16 years and on staff for more than 30, announced Wednesday he was stepping down effective March 31.
Joylynn Brown, the deputy AD, will move into Grant’s spot on an interim basis and is the heir apparent.
Grant’s tenure transformed Raider athletics — from home-run hires, to facility upgrades, to unprecedent sports success at the school, especially the last five years.
Since 2019, men’s and women’s basketball and men’s soccer all have notched their first NCAA tournament wins, and the volleyball team snagged Wright State’s first NCAA at-large bid in any sport.
The baseball team has made NCAA trips eight times since 2015, winning a pair of games in both 2015 and ‘16.
Men’s golf has made two NCAA appearances in the last four seasons.
From 2018-23, the Raiders had the most across-the-board success in the Horizon League, winning 67% of its conference games.
“Last year, I reached a pretty significant mile-marker with the state of Ohio (retirement fund). Any smart financial person would and did tell me, ‘Hey, you need to take advantage of this and go on to Bob Grant 2.0, whatever that is,’” Grant said.
“I really resisted it because I love it here, I love what I do, I love the direction we’re going in. The culture we have is special. I didn’t want to make the move last year, but after months of conversations with my family, a lot of prayer and looking for the right answer, I came to the conclusion to leave after basketball season this year.”
Grant has seen a slew of coaches parlay success at Wright State into bigger jobs.
He’s also had to make tough decisions in firing coaches when their programs underperformed.
He won’t miss that.
“Those are the darkest days. I’m always extraordinarily nauseous when you have to make a change in personnel. It’s awful,” he said.
“I don’t think I have the stomach for it, but I did it because I thought it was for the greater good of the student-athletes. I made more mistakes than you can count. But I have a great staff and great student-athletes that cover a multitude of sins.”
But he’s had far more hits than misses.
“I’ve always said I had the best AD in the country, and I believe that,” men’s basketball coach Scott Nagy said. “I feel like most coaches complain about their administrations and AD’s, and I don’t. We’ve always had great support.”
Grant went a long way (literally) to convince Nagy to make a major career move in 2016 after 21 years at South Dakota State. His future was secure with three NCAA trips in his previous five years.
“He was a big reason why I came here and why I stayed,” Nagy said. “Still, I’m happy for him (to be able to retire) because he’s earned it. Being an AD is not an easy job, I don’t care where you are. It’s not a job I would want. For him to do it for so long is a great accomplishment.
“But even with him gone, because of him, we’ve got good structure here in our program and in the athletic department. We’ve got the support of the upper-level administration, too, so none of that changes.”
The Raiders under Grant tried to always adhere to his acronym PSA: person, student, athlete — in that order.
He’s been a fully engaged AD, frequently seen at events and always interacting with players.
But when he was hired to replace Mike Cusack in 2008, there were some anxious moments.
“I remember telling my wife Kim, ‘This may not work. This is an athletic department, and they do keep score. I could get fired. But we’ll be able to lay our head on the pillow at night knowing we did it the right way,’” he said.
“There’s been all kinds of lowlights, and you don’t want to dwell on those, and the job has been really hard — probably harder the last five years than ever before (with the NIL and changing landscape).
“But I’m absolutely most proud of our student-athletes — and I’m getting emotional here — the culture they live every day of juggling a full-time load of academics, a full-time load of athletics and still somehow excelling in both. That’s really remarkable to me.”
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