SEATTLE -- Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges is retiring early, worn down by two extraordinary "glitches" and a span of six "strange" months for her department.

The move is effective Jan. 16. The 66-year-old Hedges had planned to retire at the end of June but changed her mind late last month.

"Given the events of the last six months, given my desire to move the focus away from me and to help the university solve the problems we face right now, I thought it was important to move up my announcement," she said Friday.

University president Lee Huntsman named Dick Thompson, the school's retiring director of government relations, as interim AD. Thompson takes over Jan. 17 and will stay on until a successor is hired.

It's been a tough year for Hedges and the Huskies.

Hedges fired former football coach Rick Neuheisel last summer for gambling on the NCAA basketball tournament, then opened an investigation last fall into a drug scandal involving a former softball team physician.

Last month, Hedges reassigned softball coach Teresa Wilson in the wake of accusations that Dr. William Scheyer had handed out painkillers and medications to softball players without first examining them.

The men's basketball program also was penalized by the NCAA for recruiting violations.

Hedges said the Neuheisel and Scheyer situations could not have been foreseen easily, adding to the complexity of each case. She said, though, that department staffers tried to do the right things in both cases.

"Occasionally, glitches are going to happen. That's what occurred," she said.

Those events took a toll on Hedges, along with the responsibilities of managing a $39 million athletic program that includes 177 full-time employees and 700 student athletes.

"It was cumulative. The two major issues we have dealt with are fairly strange, to put it mildly," Hedges said. "It wasn't any one issue."

Hedges was under contract through June 30 at an annual salary of $225,000.

It's been a year of scrutiny and headlines for Hedges, who promoted offensive coordinator Keith Gilbertson to succeed Neuheisel, then later admonished him for betting in a $5 NCAA basketball pool.

Dana Richardson, the person responsible for ensuring that NCAA rules are followed, was reprimanded for betting in pools, too. And Washington's football team went 6-6 with no bowl trip.

Still, Hedges said she doesn't regret any decisions.

"If you look at the total picture, you'll see an athletic program that is financially sound and student athletes who are doing the right things," she said. "We're growing as a program."

The Neuheisel and Scheyer cases attracted the most attention, but Hedges balanced the portrait by pointing to her 12-year record of improving Washington's facilities and boosting graduation rates.

"I have had an unbelievable 12 years at the University of Washington and a very difficult six months," she said.

Hedges is widely respected as a strong fund-raiser. She led an $18 million drive to renovate an academic center and build a new shell house for Washington's world-class rowing programs.

Hedges and her assistants have raised $70 million over the last 10 years, modernizing the basketball arena and building a $29 million indoor facility for track and football.

"Barbara has been a terrific athletic director," Huntsman said. "Twelve years is a long run in such a difficult job. She's been steady, she's been energetic and she's been very effective."

She promised to help with ongoing investigations and legal matters.

"I didn't want the appearance that I was leaving while all these problems were still unresolved," she said. "The reality is that I'm not leaving. I'll still be available to assist the university."

Her Friday news conference was carried live on Seattle broadcast stations. Coaches and athletes stood and applauded when Huntsman thanked Hedges for her years of service.

"I don't think anything like this has happened anywhere else in the country," men's basketball coach Lorenzo Romar said afterward. "And when people hear about it, they don't know exactly what's going on.

"It's easy to look at the leader and say it's their fault, but these have been some extraordinary cases. Who's to say whose fault it has been?" he said.