A Great Place To Be For A Long Time | Drew McMillen ’89

Long before group fitness had dance classes and before students scanned in with an app, Drew McMillen ’89 was here — hauling cones, fixing schedules, and mentoring student staff. Over the course of 40 years, he didn’t just stick around — he led, adapted, built, and cared. He knew when to troubleshoot and when to crack a dad joke. His title changed a few times, but his heart for service never did.

From student employee to senior leadership, McMillen’s path through Rec Sports reads like a masterclass in dedication. An engineering major from Nebraska, he started in 1985 as a flag football official with Intramural Sports and kept coming back through grad school and postgrad.

“I looked back at all my pleasant memories,” he said. “There were a lot from Rec Sports.”

McMillen joined the full-time staff in 1992 as an intramural coordinator. Six years later, he pivoted to facilities, overseeing everything from equipment checkout to member services. Then Fitness & Wellness, followed by Outdoor Adventures. He later oversaw the Penberthy rebuild and supervised the complex until moving into his current role as senior associate director. His leadership grew with each promotion, but he never lost touch with the student experience that first brought him through the doors.

“Over the years, we’ve done a really good job of becoming more sophisticated with our processes and adapting to technology,” he said. “But I think at the same time, we’ve made sure to remember that people are the most important reason why we’re here, so we still need to take care of our customers and give them that great one-on-one service as a staff.”

Known around the office for his legendary dad jokes, McMillen is easily a pillar of the department. Whether mentoring young staffers, coordinating logistics behind the scenes, or sitting in on advisory council meetings, he leads with adaptability and steadiness.

McMillen serves as the department’s bridge to the two key advisory councils — the Participant Advisory Council and the Student Employee Advisory Council — helping ensure Rec Sports stays grounded in student needs.

“I like meeting with them, finding out what their opinion is,” he said. “We’re always trying to figure out how to do things better at Rec Sports, and those two groups play a big role in helping make sure we’re doing that.”

McMillen’s career also mirrors the history of the Student Recreation Center itself. When it opened in 1995, he was here — watching it turn from a brand new facility into the iconic campus staple now known simply as “The Rec.”

“Even calling it ‘The Rec’ is the biggest change,” he said. “I started before the Rec was built, so I can still remember the grand opening.”

Since then, he’s watched it grow into a campus centerpiece, he’s helped ensure it remained both accessible and excellent. It’s impossible to measure his impact in just programs, projects, or titles. You’d have to look at every student he hired, every staff member he encouraged, every facility decision he helped guide — and every pun he sneaked into a meeting.

“Anybody can build a great house, but it takes people to make it a home,” McMillen said. “I think the full-time staff I’ve worked with has been a great group, [and] the students of A&M — I’m biased — but it’s just an incredible group to work with.”

His favorite memory to this day is being named Intramural Sports’ Student Employee of the Year. His name is still etched into a plaque on the intramural office wall.

“It is neat that my name is the first one on the plaque, although it’s a lot more tarnished and harder to read than a lot of the newer ones,” he said. “It’s a really cool memory, getting that award.”

Now, after 33 years of full-time service, he’s deleting Microsoft Teams and retiring. As he steps away from the department he’s helped shape, he says the hardest part of leaving is — unsurprisingly — the people.

“The people, the enjoyment working at a place where people want to be, the smiles, the fun— all those things made it a great place to be for a long time,” McMillen said.

It’s hard to summarize over three decades of service. Harder still to say goodbye to someone whose fingerprints are on everything.

“I hope that people would say that I work hard in anything that I do,” he said. “That if I get involved with something, I make a positive impact on it.”

For us, Drew McMillen’s positive impact is undeniable. Thank you, Drew—for the leadership, the laughs, and the legacy you leave behind.