Mike Clary begins his 42nd year on the athletic staff and his first as the Lynx head men’s golf coach. Tom Campbell, long-time, highly successful golf and basketball coach, will assist Clary with the team. Coach Campbell won the 2014 Kentucky State Amateur and coached the 2012 NCAA Division III Medalist while at Centre College.
Mike is a 1977 graduate of Rhodes where he majored in biology. He was a three-year starter for the Lynx in football and also played on the 1977 golf team which captured the College Athletic Conference Championship.
Coach Clary has established Rhodes as one of the top NCAA Division III women’s golf programs in the country. In 2014, Rhodes captured the college’s first-ever NCAA Division III National Championship. In 2016, entering the NCAA tournament as the No.1-ranked team in the country, Rhodes captured it’s second National Championship, becoming only the second NCAA Division III women’s team to win multiple NCAA titles. In 2017, Rhodes captured their third NCAA Division III National Championship.
Mike served as Rhodes head football coach from 1984-96 and is the all-time winningest coach in Rhodes history. From 1985-90 the Lynx compiled a 43-9-3 record, which ranked Rhodes in the top ten in NCAA Division III in winning percentage and as the winningest college football program in Tennessee. Clary’s teams won two College Athletic Conference Championships and one Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship, and the 1988 team participated in the NCAA Division III national playoffs.
Clary also served as the men’s head track and field coach from 1980-90 and the 1990 Lynx team captured the College Athletic Conference Championship. Clary served as the head swimming and diving coach from 2003-05.
In 1990, Mike was named Rhodes Director of Athletics. During Coach Clary’s 26 years as the Director of Athletics, the number of student-athletes competing in varsity athletics tripled. Rhodes also consistently ranked among conference leaders in the number of athletes earning Academic Honor Roll, while ranking at the top of the conference in overall athletic success.
Clary was named to the 2016 Rhodes Athletic Hall of Fame.
Mike and his wife Nancy have two children, Brian and Julie, who are both Rhodes graduates.
