Former Georgia Bulldogs coach Mark Richt: "I Have Parkinson's disease"
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ATHENS - Former Georgia Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt announced on social media Thursday night that he has Parkinson's disease.
The former Georgia coach left his final coaching job at Miami after a 15-year stint at Georgia that featured two SEC championships. He is currently an analyst on ESPN’s the ACC Network.
"Truthfully, I look at it as a momentary light affliction compared to the future glory in heaven,” Richt said. “Thank you Jesus for promising us a future blessing of a glorified body that has no sin and no disease.”
Richt is 61, and he has been “waddling around lately.”
Parkinson’s is a nervous-system disorder that can get worse over time. The news follows Richt confirming in 2019 that he had a heart attack.
“I am assuming word travels fast,” he said that October. “So I wanted to be able to inform everyone that I did have a heart attack this morning. I am doing fine. As I went through the experience I had peace knowing I was going to heaven but I was going to miss my wife.”
Richt was the head coach at UGA from 2001 to 2015. He now serves as a college football analyst on the ACC Network. In his time at UGA, Richt won two SEC championships and two Sugar Bowls. His teams won ten or more games ten times in 15 years.
After being let go at UGA at the end of the 2015 season, Richt coached three seasons at Miami before stepping down last winter. His time there was highlighted with the Canes’ first trip to a major bowl (Orange Bowl) since 2003. Miami’s 2017 season was that program’s first ten-win season in 14 years.
He began coaching after his time playing at Miami ended. After a successful decade at Florida State under Bobby Bowden, Richt was hired as UGA head coach in 2001.
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