COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gordon Gee, rehired by Ohio State University in 2007 to great fanfare, boldly declared, ‘‘This is Ohio State’s time.’’

He made good on the boast by reshaping the university into a leading academic institution. Yet Gee, also famous for painful verbal gaffes, couldn’t stop staying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Gee, 69, announced his retirement Tuesday after his latest remarks jabbing Roman Catholics and Notre Dame became public last week. Even then, he couldn’t play it straight at the end of a hastily called news conference.

‘‘I've only got a month to ruin the university,’’ he joked. ‘‘I've got to get at it.’’

Gee said the furor over the remarks was only one of several factors that led to his decision. He also cited his age and the start of a long-term planning process at the university, which includes a trustee meeting Wednesday to talk about Ohio State’s future.

Gee’s remarks, jokingly referring to ‘‘those damn Catholics’’ at Notre Dame and poking fun at the academic quality of other schools, were first reported last week by The Associated Press. Ohio State at the time called them unacceptable and said it had placed Gee on a ‘‘remediation plan’’ to change his behavior.

Gee said he didn’t regret the way he conducted himself as a higher education leader.

‘‘I have regrets when I have said things that I shouldn’t have said, but I have no regrets about having a sense of humor and having a thick skin and enjoying life,’’ Gee said.

According to a recording of a Dec. 5 meeting obtained by the AP under a public records request, Gee, a Mormon, said Notre Dame was never invited to join the Big Ten athletic conference because ‘‘you just can’t trust those damn Catholics.’’

Gee also took shots at schools in the Southeastern Conference and the University of Louisville, according to the recording of the meeting of the school’s Athletic Council.

Gee apologized when the comments were disclosed, saying they were ‘‘a poor attempt at humor and entirely inappropriate.’’

Robert Schottenstein, who as chairman of the university’s board of trustees condemned the remarks last week as ‘‘wholly unacceptable’’ and ‘‘not presidential in nature,’’ deflected questions about whether Gee had been forced out by the board.

‘‘It’s really about a decision to retire for the reasons that Gordon has articulated,’’ Schottenstein said.

He called Gee ‘‘a unique person’’ with ‘‘sort of a one and only style.’’

‘‘That unique style and his very thoughtful leadership candidly has taken Ohio state to new levels and put us in position where we believe that we have enormous opportunity,’’ Schottenstein said.

Ohio State, one of the biggest universities in the nation, with 65,000 students, named provost Joseph Alutto as interim president.

Gee, a familiar figure on campus with his bowties and owlish eyeglasses, has repeatedly gotten in trouble over the years for verbal gaffes. Tuesday’s news lit up Twitter, with numerous posts using the hashtag (hash)savethebowtie.

Ohio State trustees learned of Gee’s latest remarks in January and created the remediation plan. In a March 11 letter, the trustees warned any repeat offenses could lead to his firing and ordered him to apologize to those he offended. But it appeared that several of Gee’s apologies came only in the last week or so as the school prepared to respond to the AP’s inquiries.

Gee said Tuesday he waited until recently to apologize in person to the Notre Dame president, Rev. John Jenkins, because they had a long-scheduled meeting. Schottenstein said the board was satisfied with Gee’s response to the letter.

In the recording of his meeting with the Athletic Council, Gee said that the top goal of Big Ten presidents is to ‘‘make certain that we have institutions of like-minded academic integrity. So you won’t see us adding Louisville.’’ After laughter from the audience, Gee added that the Big Ten wouldn’t add the University of Kentucky, either.

When asked by a questioner how to respond to SEC fans who say the Big Ten can’t count because it now has 14 members, Gee said: ‘‘You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we’re doing.’’

Notre Dame and the SEC had no comment on Gee’s retirement.