Tom O’Connor to retire as George Mason athletic director

Tom O’Connor is retiring as athletic director at George Mason.

The school announced Tuesday that O’Connor will leave June 30 after 20 years on the job.

The 67-year-old O’Connor helped raise the athletic profile of a university that had long been known as a commuter school. The Patriots made the 2006 men’s basketball Final Four under coach Jim Larranaga, and O’Connor was the chairman of the NCAA’s basketball championship committee during the 2007-08 season.

Last year, George Mason moved from the Colonial Athletic Association to the Atlantic 10.

O’Connor will remain at the university in a fundraising role until January. The university has begun the search for a new athletic director.

George Mason President Angel Cabrera called O’Connor a “Patriot legend.”