From middle-school birthday parties at Baylor football games, and even before that, Doug McNamee has had a passion for Baylor that knows no bounds. It's in his blood and been a part of his life for as long as he can remember.

Other than a summer internship with the Houston Astros, his entire professional career has been in and around Baylor Athletics.

Nineteen years after coming to Baylor as a freshman from Lake Jackson, Texas, the 37-year-old McNamee is leaving for a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to serve under Chip and Joanna Gaines, leading the executive team at Magnolia.

"It was difficult, in the sense that this place has meant so much to me," said McNamee, Baylor's Senior Associate AD for External Relations. "But, I feel like this is a special opportunity I couldn't pass up. This may be the only thing I could draw up on paper that I would leave Baylor Athletics for."

Doug's official last day at Baylor is next Thursday, June 14, and he begins his new job four days later with Magnolia, an unbelievably popular home and lifestyle brand that includes Magnolia Market at the Silos, the newly opened Magnolia Table restaurant, The Magnolia Journal, Magnolia Realty and two vacation rentals, among other ventures.

"They have smart people who are really, really good at what they do," Doug said. "So, if I can just be someone who helps galvanize that group and helps them continue to prosper, it's really a servant role for that group and a conduit for Chip and Joanna to where they can continue to be visionaries and look for bigger things on the horizons. It allows me to take on the burdens of responsibility to manage more of the day-to-day for them.

"I want to hurry up and get started, because I don't want them to wake up and say, `What did we just do?' and reconsider. I feel so honored that they would even consider it."

"Chip and I have known Doug and his wife Lacy for a long time and, like most things here at Magnolia, him joining the team all fell together in a fairly miraculous way," Joanna Gaines said. "With that said, we are just really excited about welcoming him to the team and what this will mean for our company and this community that we all love."

While Doug's relationship with the Gaines family doesn't go as far back as his connection with Baylor, you can say it started before the Magnolia name became such a hot commodity.

"Chip, Joanna, my wife and I have been friends for a while," Doug said, "because they did a house for us prior to being on `Fixer Upper.' We like to move around - my wife and I have been in four houses in 10 years of marriage. But, we're not moving cities, we're moving literally a few blocks."

Walking in the Castle Heights neighborhood where they lived in their second home, Doug's wife, Lacy, came across a Magnolia Realty listing that was "a really ideal home, location-wise, but clearly in need of repair," Doug said.

Reaching out to Joanna about the status of the house, Lacy found out that it was "under contract, but it actually just fell through." Being in a desirable part of Waco, Joanna said, "you may want to look at it quickly if you're interested," and then added, "There's something else I'll tell you, but look at the house first."

That's where the seeds were planted for the pilot episode of "Fixer Upper," which aired on May 23, 2013, and featured Doug and Lacy McNamee.

"Honestly, we were intrigued by that, because it sounded cool," Doug said. "And now that you know what it is, `oh yeah, we would do it, it's a no-brainer.' But, nobody knew what it was at the time, and here we are trying to make a real financial decision on buying a house."

Ultimately, the McNamees decided, `What's it going to hurt? This could be fun, let's give it a shot." So, they went down that road, and the rest is history.

"We were the pilot (episode), they had a much smaller crew than what they were dealing with at the end, and they kind of learned as they went," Doug said. "That allowed us to maintain a good relationship with them, and we've just admired what they've done. We're just so grateful for their contributions to Waco and to Central Texas and to Baylor. Chip, honestly, has been my biggest supporter in terms of professional ambitions. Anytime there was an advancement for me, he was there to cheer along and support me"

In discussions for the past few months about Doug joining the Magnolia family, "they were patient with me, because they knew how much Baylor has meant to me. And I was respectful, because I didn't want to take advantage of our friendship and feel like it was some kind of obligation," he said.

"So, it was a very `let's be real with each other and throw out our concerns and why this may not work and why it will work,''' Doug said. "I talked to their executive team and really have the utmost respect for them, because they have built an amazing company, both Chip and Joanna and their team.

"It's not just the fact that it's big, I've just always been impressed that everything they do is quality. You don't get a cupcake from Silos Baking Co. and think, `Well, it has the brand appeal, but it's not that good.' No, it's great. The restaurant is great. Their customer service experience is exceptional. As you scale, as you get bigger, it's easy to lose touch of those things. And they haven't. They've continued to keep the brand integrity of the quality."

That's why Doug couldn't say no. Just like the house remodel from five years ago, this was a chance that he couldn't pass up.

"It's such an unbelievable opportunity for Doug," said Baylor Vice President and Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades. "And for all of us that know Doug and have worked with him, we're not surprised at all. He'll be great for Chip and Joanna and their businesses."

Two years ago, when Rhoades left Missouri to take the Baylor job, it was Doug that helped make the transition as smooth as possible.

"Anytime you come into a new situation, a new organization, I think it's just natural that you begin to try to quickly assess who you can really trust, who you can lean on," Rhoades said. "And Doug, right away, become one of those people for me. He's been just a great friend. He was really instrumental in just helping with the transition of me coming in, and was there for me personally, for my family, and a really trusted confidante."

Around that same time, Doug had an opportunity to leave Baylor, "but I felt like there was work to be done."

"Baylor is in the fabric of who I am," he said. "It's shaped me so much as a person. I've learned so much, even through the challenges and adversity we've gone through as an institution. I feel like Baylor has given me far more than I've given Baylor. So, I'm incredibly loyal to it. . . . . I felt like we had had a road to climb up, and I owed it to the university to be a small part of that. So, it just wasn't the right time for me.

"Now, I'm at peace that we're in a really good spot. We still have work to do, but the trajectory is pointed in the right direction, and I have the utmost respect for the staff and coaches in place to lead this department. And I have peace this is a good time."

Growing up in Lake Jackson, Baylor was all Doug knew. His grandfather, the late L.V. McNamee, was the dean of the School of Education; his grandmother, Marguerite, was a teacher in the school of music at Baylor; his dad, Gary, graduated from the school; and his older sister, Amanda, was already enrolled when Doug made his choice.

"I don't know what I would have done if I didn't come here," he said. "In intermediate and high school, I was always the kid wearing Baylor T-shirts and sweatshirts around. . . . My grandparents were obviously here. They lived basically next door to the president's house. Like many other families at Baylor, it's been in my blood."

In his four years as a Baylor undergrad (1999-2003), while serving as a student manager for the men's basketball team, the football team won just one conference game and the basketball team's "only sniff of postseason" was an 83-73 loss to New Mexico in a first-round NIT matchup at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M.

"The fact that I'm still working in some capacity in athletics is a minor miracle," he said. "I didn't see a whole lot of success."

As a summer intern with the Houston Astros, a team that featured the "Killer B's" with Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman and Hall of Famer Craig Biggio, Doug worked the ticket resolution window. Which, he calls the "greatest experience of my career" because of the "hand-to-hand engagement with customers."

"If they're coming to you and they're saying, `this is my problem,' that's basically them saying, `here's your chance to fix it,''' he said. "And if you can fix it, not only do you take them from being negative to neutral, many times they become advocates on behalf of you and your organization. Some people that have the best perception of customer service are the ones who have experienced a negative experience, but the resolution to get it fixed was so positive that it flipped them."

Offered the chance to stay on in a full-time role, Doug turned it down, instead returning to Baylor to work on a master's in sports management.

"I missed that change of seasons," he said. "I love the fact that when football is done, you're into basketball. That's what college does. I missed that chance to root for another team and turn your focus and the comprehensive nature of college sports."

Doug spent the next two years as a graduate assistant with student-athlete services and the baseball program, a team that made it to the 2005 College World Series in Omaha.

"I was limited at best at baseball, so I certainly wasn't out there working on the field with them," Doug said. "Coach (Steve) Smith was tremendous to me. Needing to experience something good, it gave me that chance."

Already committed to working with baseball, Doug initially had to turn down an offer from a young basketball coach named Scott Drew.

"Scott reached out to me and just asked for institutional knowledge in terms of the program," Doug said. "He made a plea to come back and work with his program, and I was torn, because you could immediately tell that this guy is amazing. First time meeting him, you're like, `This guy is everything this university needs.'''

A couple years later, it was Drew and his wife, Kelly, that introduced Doug to his future wife, Lacy. He proposed on the field at Floyd Casey Stadium in February 2007, and the couple was married 10 months later. They now have two daughters, Josie and Maggie.

"Scott and Kelly played matchmakers, so I have a great sense of debt to Scott for more than he's just an awesome guy and a great coach," Doug said.

"I've got to give credit to my wife, because women have much better intuition than men," Scott said. "Sometimes, you fix up people and it doesn't work out. But, every now and then, you hit a home run."

Before joining Baylor Athletics in 2012, Doug spent seven years with IMG, rising from marketing assistant to general manager.

"Without a whole lot of sales experience, Ben Sutton and Shawn Becket took a chance on me," he said. "I can't say enough good things about it, because it allowed me to stay in the Baylor environment and the sales training they provided was tremendous."

Getting back on the "university side," Doug was hired in 2012 as an Assistant AD for premium tickets with the Bear Foundation. He rose to the Senior Associate AD level and took over direction of the Bear Foundation in 2015, helping the organization fully fund all athletic scholarships for the first time.

Heavily involved in Rhoades' transition, Doug took on an expanded role as Senior Associate AD for External Relations.

While he has missed the "day-to-day with the Bear Foundation, having more interaction with the donors," Doug said it was a good move for him to have a "better understanding of the other areas of the external side and I'll be forever grateful to Mack Rhoades for that chance to learn."

"Obviously, for the last year and a half, our communications team has been so important in terms of how we shape our message and how we tell our story and how we move this athletic department forward," he said. "That's been important in terms of understanding that every conversation, every story, every quote, every word matters."

Our final words to Doug McNamee come from Scott Drew:

"This is an unbelievable opportunity for him, but the great thing is Doug will always be a Baylor Bear and always be supportive in trying to help Baylor any way he can. . . . . Doug has always been so passionate about Baylor and Baylor Athletics."