Staff Directory
- Title:
- Director of Athletics
- Email:
- Phone:
- (478) 301-2737
Jim Cole assumed duties as Director of Athletics for Mercer University on July 1, 2010. Prior to being named to his current post, Cole served as Mercer’s Senior Associate Director of Athletics for External Affairs where he headed up the Mercer Athletics Foundation, while also serving as a state representative in Georgia and working in private business.
During his time as Director of Athletics, Cole has imparted visionary leadership which has helped vault Mercer into the upper echelon of Division I athletic programs. Since his arrival, Mercer student-athletes have made NCAA Tournament appearances in baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, football, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse, men’s golf and women’s golf. The 14th-seeded men’s basketball team made a splash on the national landscape in 2014 with a stunning 78-71 defeat of third-seeded and sixth-ranked Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Cole’s tenure has seen numerous postseason successes from the men’s and women’s basketball programs. Mercer men’s basketball is the only program in the nation to win a game in each of the four postseason tournaments – CIT (2012), NIT (2013), NCAA (2014) and CBI (2015). The women’s basketball team continued their championship ways in the 2021-22 season by claiming their fourth Southern Conference Tournament title across a five-year span, while also advancing to the NCAA Tournament to face top-seeded UConn in Storrs, Conn. It was also Mercer’s sixth Southern Conference crown over a dominant seven-year stretch.
The 2023-24 athletic year was a great success for numerous teams. The men’s soccer squad rolled through the Southern Conference Tournament unscathed, while the women’s lacrosse team claimed both the Big South regular season and tournament crowns. The football team was ranked as high as 17th in the national rankings, and used a late-season surge to earn its first berth into the NCAA postseason which included a first-round win over visiting Gardner-Webb.
Cole helped expand the department to 18 intercollegiate programs with the introduction of football, men’s lacrosse, women’s lacrosse, track & field and beach volleyball during his tenure. Most notably, he played a key role in the University’s revival of the football program, which took the field in the fall of 2013 after a 72-year hiatus from the gridiron. The Bears went on to post a stellar 10-2 record in their first season back, setting an NCAA record for single-season wins by a Division I start-up program.
Mercer made a landmark transition into the Southern Conference, one of the oldest and most prestigious conferences in the South, in 2014, and has found great success in both athletics and academics. The Bears are proud affiliates of the Southern Conference, which prides itself in a tradition of academic excellence and has a storied history of programs that have established success in the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference afterward.
Multiple Mercer student-athletes have gained national, regional and conference recognition since transitioning into the Southern Conference, including Kyle Lewis who was crowned college baseball’s national player of the year in 2016 when he won the 39th Golden Spikes Award given annually to the nation’s top amateur baseball player. Lewis was selected No. 11 overall by the Seattle Mariners in the 2016 MLB Draft.
Numerous facility upgrades have also taken place under Cole’s watch, including the construction of the Moye Family Football & Lacrosse Complex and the installation of state-of-the art LED video scoreboards at the football, basketball and baseball venues. Mercer unveiled the stateof-the-art 1,500-seat OrthoGeorgia Park at Claude Smith Field prior to the 2017 baseball season, and Cole has also secured funds for upcoming major renovations to the program’s baseball, men's & women's tennis and men's & women's golf facilities.
Arguably the most impressive accomplishment across Cole’s tenure, Mercer has created a high standard in academics as a Southern Conference member. Mercer University won its ninth consecutive Barrett-Bonner Award from the Southern Conference following the 2022-23 academic year which is given to the SoCon member with the highest percentage of its student-athletes on the league’s academic honor roll. The Bears have led the SoCon in honor roll recipients every year dating back to their inaugural season in 2014-15.
Sixteen Mercer student-athletes have earned CoSIDA/CSC Academic All-America honors during Cole’s tenure, more than triple the amount prior to his arrival.
A native of Augusta, Cole came to Mercer as a student-athlete on academic scholarship in 1990 and lettered in baseball from 1990-93. He was recipient of the Charles C. Morgan Outstanding Student-Athlete Award and graduated with honors from the University in 1993. He was drafted as a pitcher by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1993.
An active community leader throughout the state, Cole has served as a board member for local chapters of the Salvation Army and Methodist Children’s Home. He is also a member of Forsyth United Methodist Church and serves on the Pastor Parrish Relationship Committee.
Cole is married to the former Gaylyn Lawson, a coach and teacher at Macon’s Stratford Academy. The couple resides in Forsyth and has two children - Caroline, a graduate of and current law student at Mercer, and Lawson, a junior business administration major and pitcher on the Mercer baseball team.
