ATHENS — Josh Brooks was the youngest athletic director among Power 5 schools when Georgia president Jere Morehead hired him into the position .

Some 4 1/2 years later, it’s not a stretch to consider Brooks one of the most proven, involved and successful athletic directors in collegiate athletics.

FLASHBACK: Georgia officially announces Josh Brooks as AD

Brooks will bring a veteran presence into UGA’s spring athletics board meeting in Greensboro on Thursday and Friday, breaking down hundreds of millions of dollars in spending and the program’s direction amid a shifting collegiate landscape in stride.

“Every single day, every year, I want to find ways for the University of Georgia athletic department to get better,” Brooks said when he was officially hired in January of 2021 at the age of 40. “We can never settle, we can never rest on our laurels.”

The program hasn’t, and in fact, is surging across the board with Kirby Smart’s two-time national championship program leading the way.

Leadership guru

It’s safe to say that Brooks, once an equipment manager in Nick Saban’s LSU football program, a student assistant for then-assistant Jimbo Fisher, a graduate assistant at Louisiana-Monroe and a football operations director at UGA under Mark Richt, understands the dynamics of strong leadership.

“They aren’t asking me to pitch, they’re not asking me to bat, shoot the ball or call plays,” Brooks said. “I’m just the lucky person that gets to sit in this chair and gets to support them (coaches).”

And, Georgia fans are well aware, hire successful coaches.

Brooks’ hires at UGA have been as impressive as any program’s in the nation, and last weekend served as a reminder.

It was Brooks who hired Drake Bernstein to succeed Jeff Wallace as the the Georgia women’s tennis coach in 2023, and on Sunday they won the national championship.

Brooks made the decision to invest in nationally renowned track coach Caryl Smith Gilbert in 2021, and last weekend the UGA women’s track program won the SEC outdoor track meet and the men finished second in the league.

A Georgia softball team coached by Tony Baldwin, an internal hire made by Brooks prompted, in part, by team sentiment, remains among the 16 teams in the NCAA tournament even after losing more 80 percent of its hitting production from a season ago after upsetting No. 14-national seed Duke on the road.

Then there’s the Bulldogs baseball team, led by second-year coach Wes Johnson -- whose contract was extended through 2031 on Wednesday.

The so-called “Diamond Dawgs” were No. 1 in the national RPI rankings at the end of the season and sit primed to host NCAA regional and NCAA Super Regional action in their quest to return the program to the College World Series for what would be the first time since 2008.

Mike White, hired by Brooks three years ago, successfully returned the Georgia basketball team to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015 — this, in a year that saw the SEC rank as the most competitive conference of all time with a record 14 teams making the NCAA tournament.

Bulldogs fans are proud to note that Georgia was the most recent basketball program to defeat eventual national champion — and SEC rival — Florida, the school Brooks hired White away from.

A list of No. 1s

There have been five Georgia athletics programs ranked No. 1 in the past calendar year — equestrian, football, women’s tennis, baseball and women’s track — and at one point three (tennis, baseball, track) were ranked No. 1 at the same time.

Even Brooks had to note, “that’s pretty amazing”

But Brooks has also made it clear that, true to his opening remarks as athletics director 4 1/2 years ago, there’s more work to be done.

“To the day I retire,” Brooks said, “I have to have a mindset that I’ve never made it, and I have to keep growing and learning.”

It’s more than just talk — Brooks serves on the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee and is the vice chair of practicing and playing season.

Brooks doesn’t just have a handle on what’s going on in collegiate athletics, he’s also helping to shape it with his input.

“If I’ve learned anything, it’s never about me, it’s about the student-athletes, coaches and staff,” Brooks said. “If I hire great coaches and staff members, then my job is to make their jobs easier, but get out of their way.”

Brooks is the first to admit Georgia athletics has had its issues, and the sports programs haven’t always been successful at each turn.

But the Hammond, La., native recognizes that’s part of what comes with serving in this capacity.

“Going through the fires of losing seasons in a sport, having to fire a coach, and hire a coach, the ups and downs of it all, we’ve been through some tough things here, but also through some great things,” Brooks said.

“It strengths you, it galvanizes you, you get tougher.”

Faith meets vision

Morehead had interviewed several high-profile athletics directors for the position Brooks currently holds, most all of them more proven at that point in their careers.

Brooks’ athletics director experience was limited to two years at tiny Millsaps College, a private college in Jackson, Miss., with 600 students in 2014-15 before he became the Deputy Athletics Director at Louisiana-Monroe in 2015-16.

It was part of Brooks’ vision to gain that sort of administrative experience that would qualify him for the UGA athletics director position one day, and his return to Georgia as executive director of athletics in November of 2016 brought him one step closer.

The Bulldogs’ facilities upgrades surged upon Brooks return, as he oversaw much of the planning and building while working under former UGA athletics director Greg McGarity.

Morehead, seeing the direction of the athletics program, made the decision to put faith in a young, internal hire.

WATCH: Josh Brooks auditions in AD interview session

“What I think is most important right now is to maintain stability in the senior leadership of athletic,” Morehead said on Dec. 1, 2020, leading into Brooks’ hire.

“I think one of the great things we have right now is a really strong leadership team, and by installing both Josh [Brooks] and Darrice [Griffin] into the two leadership positions on an interim basis, I wanted to send a signal to the entire athletic organization that we are strong, that we are stable.”

Griffin has remained in her position as Senior Deputy Director of Athletics at UGA, as well, with Brooks confident in the continuity and success he has enjoyed on his staff.

It appears to have paid off, as Georgia has thrived throughout one of the most unique eras in collegiate sports history.

CNBC recently ranked Georgia as the seventh most valuable college athletic program in the country, with a $950 million valuation.

Building through tough times

Brooks has guided UGA athletics through the challenges presented by Covid and its fallout, along with changes triggered by Name, Image and Likeness legislation and an open transfer policy that has essentially led to free agency.

“I don’t want to sound cliche, but it’s never routine, it’s always changing,” Brooks said. “You have to keep growing and learning, you’ve never made it.”

Like Smart once said, “If it ain’t broke, find a way to make it better.”

And that means finding a way to pay for it — which Brooks has also helped manage, as the Georgia Bulldog Club has set fundraising records in each of the last three years with $86.4 million raised in 2022, $102 million in 2023 and $113 million in 2024.

The facilities speak for themselves: Sanford Stadium has seen $240 million in upgrades under Brooks’ supervision, it’s $80 million football building a crown jewel in the SEC.

But then there was also the $26.7 million renovation to the tennis facility — which will host the NCAA tournament in 2026 and 2027 — and the ongoing construction of a state-of-the art indoor and outdoor track and field complex that will host future national and local events, bringing more money into the Athens’ business economy.

Foley Field, which will host an NCAA baseball regional next week, has seen $45 million in renovations over the past two years. SEC softball fans got a look at the $38.5 million upgrade at Jack Turner Stadium when it hosted the SEC tournament last week.

“When I was lucky enough to get this job I told my staff I want to get to a point where every year we expect to be in the postseason,” Brooks said, “and it looks different sport to sport.”

Georgia fans and supporters would have to agree, it looks like Morehead couldn’t have made a better hire than Josh Brooks.