Jim Cole - Director of Athletics - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Jim Cole

Title:
Director of Athletics
Alma Mater:
Mercer, 1993
Office Phone:
(478) 301-2737
Email:

Jim Cole assumed duties as Director of Athletics for Mercer University on July 1, 2010. Prior to being named to his current post, he served as Mercer’s Senior Associate Director of Athletics for External Affairs where he headed up the Mercer Athletics Foundation. He has also spent considerable time as a Georgia state representative, as well as in private business.

Cole has imparted visionary leadership across his 15 years as Mercer’s athletics director which has helped vault the Bears into the upper echelon of Division I athletic programs. Since his arrival, Mercer student-athletes have made NCAA Tournament appearances in 10 sports, including multiple postseason berths by the baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, football, women’s golf, women’s lacrosse and men’s soccer programs.

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, while the football program has made back-to-back postseason appearances, including a run to the NCAA Quarterfinals round in 2024.

Cole’s tenure has seen numerous postseason successes from the men’s and women’s basketball programs. Mercer is the only men's basketball program in the nation to register a win 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 2024-25 athletic season was no anomaly as five different teams combined to capture six conference crowns, with three of those programs – football, softball and women’s lacrosse – advancing to NCAA postseason play. The softball team put together an incredulous 7-1 run through the Southern Conference Tournament to garner the program’s first NCAA postseason berth, while the women’s lacrosse squad captured both the regular season and tournament crowns as part of the Big South Conference.

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 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 state-of-the-art 1,500-seat OrthoGeorgia Park at Claude Smith Field prior to the 2017 baseball season, and Cole has also secured funds for recently completed 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. The Bears won their 10th consecutive Barrett-Bonner Award from the Southern Conference following the 2024-25 academic year. That laurel 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.

Seventeen 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 civic and community leader throughout the state, Cole has served as a board member for local chapters of the Salvation Army and Methodist Children’s Home, as well as took on political appointments to serve as part of Georgia’s Department of Drivers Service Board (appointed by former lieutenant governor Casey Cagle), Georgia Charter School Board (current governor Brian Kemp), and the Georgia Lottery Coin-Operated Amusement Board (current lieutenant governor Brian Kemp). He was also previously elected by Georgia’s house and senate to serve as part of the Georgia Department of Transportation.

A voting member of Macon-based Stratford Academy’s Board of Trustees, Cole is also a member of Forsyth United Methodist Church and serves on the Pastor Parrish Relationship Committee. He was recently presented with the prestigious Golden Eagle Award by the Boy Scouts of America Central Georgia Council. The laurel is given to honor community leaders who provide outstanding civic service to adults and youth in the area and lift future generations of young people.

Cole is married to the former Gaylyn Lawson, a real estate professional for Macon-based Fickling & Company. The couple resides in Forsyth and has two children - Caroline, a graduate of and current law student at Mercer, and Lawson, a senior business administration major and pitcher on the Mercer baseball team.