Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith walks the sidelines against Michigan State during an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

COLUMBUS — After 19 years on the job, Gene Smith’s last day as Athletic Director at Ohio State University came Friday.

“Thank you for your unwavering support of our student-athletes, coaches, and support staff,” a message from Smith on the Ohio State Athletics website read. “It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve as your Athletic Director over the past 19 years.

“All of us have enjoyed remarkable experiences via our sports, concerts, and other events that occurred in our athletic venues. Thank you for sharing your passion and commitment that contributed to our student-athletes’ success, on and off the field.”

“I am extremely proud of our student-athletes’ performances, in the classroom and competitively. They have set a standard of excellence for all future Buckeyes. Sheila and I look forward to supporting our teams in the years ahead. Although we’ll be a bit farther away, they will always be close to our hearts.”

Friday had been a long time coming for Smith, who all the way back in August of 2023 announced that he would step down effective June 30, 2024.

With then-Ohio State President Kristina Johnson stepping down at the conclusion of the 2022-23 school year, Smith said he wanted the new president to get their own athletic director in the building.

“I really believe with this presidential change, which will be highly positive — whoever they hire — it gives her or him the opportunity to hire their leader and make a run and build on what these coaches and the staff and the student-athletes have already done,” he said in August 2023.

Ted Carter Jr. was appointed as the 17th president of The Ohio State University by the Board of Trustees on August 22, 2023. Ross Bjork was selected to succeed Smith, approved by Ohio State trustees this past February.

Smith said he plans to move to Arizona with his wife Sheila in retirement, but he will not be entirely removed from the public eye all at once. Smith was named in April the chair-elect of the Fiesta Bowl Board of Directors, a two-year term that will see him have a hand in the first years of the new 12-team College Football Playoff.

He will also be at the Buckeyes’ home game against Iowa in October, and he will be inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame that weekend.

Smith was the eighth athletic director in Ohio State history, and the third-longest tenured. During his stay, Ohio State teams won 35 national titles, including 12 NCAA championships, and won 115 Big Ten championships. The Buckeyes football team was national champions in 2014, the first ever victor in the College Football Playoff.

“Two decades, over 1,000 athletes, 36 sports year in and year out, the impact he made on all of those student-athletes,” Ohio State football coach Ryan Day told the Big Ten Network earlier this month, when asked what Smith meant to the university. “I think the impact he made on staff and coaches, in particular myself, what he did for me and my career, his counsel, the impact he made at Ohio State. Certainly the wins and the losses and championships that he’s been a part of speak for themselves, but to me it was more about the impact.

“The impact he had on college athletics across the entire country, certainly here in the Big Ten with his colleagues, working through challenges, he’s been at the forefront of all that. So I think he’s had a profound effect across the country, at the conference level, and then down all the way to the student-athletes.”