Greg Byrne and Larry Templeton are 26 years apart in age, but linked by one thing besides the fact Byrne just replaced Templeton as Mississippi State's athletic director.

They have always been at home in a college athletic department.

Byrne, 36, followed his father Bill, a 30-year-plus veteran as an athletic administrator, from school to school; wherever Dad's work took the Byrnes.

"We didn't hunt and we didn't fish, so the way we spent quality time as a family was we went to ballgames," Greg said.

Templeton, 62, a 1969 Mississippi State graduate born in Starkville 50 yards from the football stadium, has worked in the State athletic department all but two years since graduation and just ended a 21-year run as athletic director.

"I've been fortunate to live my dream, and not very many people had that opportunity," Templeton said. "I've given everything I had to Mississippi State.

And now, it's Byrne's turn.

He's what he wanted to be

The third-grade assignment for little Greg Byrne at his California elementary school was simple. What do you want to be when you grow up?

"Everybody was writing about being doctors, veterinarians and firefighters," Byrne said. "I wrote about being an athletic director."

And why not? Every day, Greg watched his father, who was an assistant athletic director at San Diego State in the first of his five stops in athletic administration.

Now, Greg knows that his father is just a phone call away when he needs advice.

"He's always been a very good listener," Greg said of his father, who has been Texas A&M's athletic director since 2002. "He says, 'Don't rush to judgment. Spend time listening. Spend time talking to people. As much as you want to be sometimes, don't be emotional in your decisions.'"

Byrne's only time out of college athletics since he took his first job in 1995 was when one of the University of Kentucky's top donors hired him away from UK three years ago. He was a national sales director for a technology company called CaseLogistix in Jackson, Miss.

"I was traveling all over the place all of the time, and it wasn't six months into the job when I realized I'd make a mistake," Byrne said. "I didn't enjoy going to work. It made it clear to me about re-committing my love and interest in intercollegiate athletics.

"I always used to think you can sell anything, and I think you can. But I'm wired better when I have a passion about what I'm selling."

Byrne's fund-raising track record is why State first hired him in 2006 as director of the Bulldog Club, before former president Doc Foglesong decided to elevate him to athletic director.

Kentucky athletic Mitch Barnhart, who worked for Byrne's father at San Diego State and Oregon, had no problem hiring Greg twice, when Barnhart got his AD jobs at Oregon State and Kentucky.

"Greg knows college athletics like the back of his hand," Barnhart said. "His aggressiveness and his understanding of revenue generation, which gives programs trying to grow a chance to get better, excited me. I trusted him with the things we needed to grow our program, and he's mature beyond his years."

Byrne said all of his previous jobs contributed to him realizing his dream of becoming an athletic director. He even made the bold move of crossing enemy lines, leaving Oregon to work at Oregon State.

"Oregon State had 28 years of losing football, and we inherited $12 million of debt with no debt service plan," Byrne said. "There was a losing atmosphere across the board. But we had a president who hired Mitch. He hired me, and we didn't know any better than to work hard and stick to our plan. We hired Dennis Erickson as our football coach, and he got people believing.

"I think I'm stepping into a better situation at Mississippi State than at Oregon State because of the great job done by Larry Templeton, Sylvester Croom, Rick Stansbury and Ron Polk. But when you look at the demographics, where we stand in the league and what we battle day in and day out, there's a lot of similarities between the two schools."

Byrne's challenge to squeeze money out of donors is even tougher these days, since the increasing cost of living is shrinking discretionary spending. State's athletic budget this year will be its largest ever at just over $30 million, but it still ranks at the bottom of the 12-member Southeastern Conference.

"We feel that Mississippi State people will do everything possible to help out the university and athletic department," Byrne said. "We started our football season ticket promotion earlier than usual, and we've spent a lot of time on a grassroots effort in fundraising. We added 969 new members to the Bulldog Club last year, and that was before we won the Liberty Bowl. This year, we're on pace to add 1,200 new members.

"We don't have a single donor that can write you a $100 million check like a few schools have. If we're going to be as a good as we can be, we need everybody doing their part, whether it's giving $100 or buying two season tickets."

As Byrne moves into Templeton's seat, he has an appreciation for Templeton's love of Mississippi State and what he's accomplished battling the big boys of the SEC.

"I want to be respectful of Larry's love and loyalty to Mississippi State," Byrne said. "He was obviously very good at managing the budget and paid close attention to it daily."

Forever a Bulldog

The one thing Byrne noticed right away about Templeton is nobody worked harder.

"I was in the office by 7:30 every morning, and I never beat Larry to work," Byrne said.

Part of that is Templeton's work ethic. And part of it is that working at State was a labor of love.

In fact, that's why it has been hard for him to accept that some of his political enemies convinced former president Foglesong that Templeton wasn't getting the job done.

Templeton's colleagues remain astounded that he was forced to move to another phase of his life. They marvel at how he made a financially-strapped program nationally competitive, especially in the major sports. State's budget was in the black all 21 of Templeton's years as AD.

"Larry was behind the eight ball a lot financially, and he put together fine programs and had a lot of success," Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley said. "I love the way has done business. He shoots straight, and he's a consensus builder."

At the SEC awards banquet during the league's business meetings in early June, four administrators retired and had a chance to address the crowd. Only Templeton received a prolonged standing ovation.

State football coach Sylvester Croom said his relationship with Templeton won't change just because Templeton is no longer his boss.

"Our relationship started out as a business relationship, and it developed into a friendship," Croom said. "His word was always good to me. It means a lot to me.

"Everything he told me he was going to do, he did. And he went beyond that to make sure we had everything we needed to turn the program around. What we've been able to accomplish the last four years, we owe a great deal to him. The improvement in our facilities (without using state money), getting through the NCAA probation and being viable fiscally is tremendous on his part."

Templeton's next move is anybody's guess. He cleaned out his office just before going to Omaha for the College World Series, where he started to serve the final months of his term as the chairman of the NCAA Baseball Committee.

It has been an emotional time for Templeton, but the feeling is he won't be unemployed for very long. No one would be surprised if he ended up working for the SEC office in Birmingham, especially if the league decides to start a television network.

"I don't plan to leave Starkville," said Templeton, a classy company man to the end. "Mississippi State is still my school. All we're doing is changing leadership."

-- Ron Higgins: 529-2525