There may be no more decorated
director of athletics and former
head coaches in the country
than Vince Dooley, who served as head
football coach at the University of
Georgia from December, 1963, to
January 1, 1988, and as Director of
Athletics from 1979 to 2004.
As football coach Dooley guided the Bulldogs to a career record of 201-77- 10, becoming only the ninth coach in NCAA Division I history to win over 200 games. The Bulldogs won one national championship (1980) and six Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships under his direction. He took his teams to 20 bowl games and coached a Heisman Trophy winner (Herschel Walker, 1982), a Maxwell Award winner (Walker, 1982), an Outland Award winner (Bill Stanfill, 1968), 40 First Team All-Americans, and 10 Academic All- Americans.
During Dooley’s tenure as Director of Athletics, Georgia teams won 20 national championships (ten in his final six years) including an unprecedented four during the 1998-99 year (women’s swimming, gymnastics, men’s tennis, men’s golf). Athletic teams won 78 SEC team championships and numerous individual national titles, and in the annual Directors’ Cup national all-sports competition, Georgia teams earned top ten finishes in five of his final seven years as Director of Athletics.
Dooley’s national stature is evident by his most recent honors: 2004 James J. Corbett Memorial Award presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, the highest honor one can achieve in collegiate athletics administration; the 2004 John L. Toner Award presented annually by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame for superior administrative abilities and outstanding dedication to college athletics; 2005 Francis J. “Reds” Bagnell Award Contributions to the Game of Football by the Maxwell Club; and the 2004 Contributions to College Football Award presented by National College Football Awards Association and ESPN. He was also selected to the Georgia Trend magazine Hall of Fame in 2004 and was named by the magazine as one of the Top 100 Georgians of the Century in 2000.
Coach Dooley’s elementary education was with the nuns of the Irish Sisters of Charity, and his secondary education with the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, both in Mobile, Alabama. In the heat of the Southern passion for football games, the nuns, of course, used to pray regularly for Notre Dame’s “Fighting Irish.” When Coach Dooley took his University of Georgia Bulldog team into the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame in 1980, he invited some of his former teachers to attend the game. He told them that he hoped they would be praying for the Bulldogs – who did win their first national championship in this game. One of the nuns replied, “Sorry, Vince, I’ll be praying for the Irish.”
Vince wrote his master’s thesis at Auburn University on the 1928 presidential campaign of Al Smith. James Tom Heflin (1869 - 1951), then the U.S. Senator from Alabama, campaigned against Smith on the grounds that he was a Catholic. Heflin claimed in his stump speeches in Alabama that, if Smith won the election, the “Pope’s army would sail right up Mobile Bay!”
Barbara Dooley, Vince’s wife, is of Lebanese ancestry and a colorful personality in her own right. She has run for political office in Georgia and is a cancer survivor. Vince says that she wears a different color wig every day. She also has written a book about being the wife of a living legend in the world of Southern football. Describing Vince’s dedication to the sport, she says that, during the football season, she could have run past him naked and he never would have noticed!
As football coach Dooley guided the Bulldogs to a career record of 201-77- 10, becoming only the ninth coach in NCAA Division I history to win over 200 games. The Bulldogs won one national championship (1980) and six Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships under his direction. He took his teams to 20 bowl games and coached a Heisman Trophy winner (Herschel Walker, 1982), a Maxwell Award winner (Walker, 1982), an Outland Award winner (Bill Stanfill, 1968), 40 First Team All-Americans, and 10 Academic All- Americans.
During Dooley’s tenure as Director of Athletics, Georgia teams won 20 national championships (ten in his final six years) including an unprecedented four during the 1998-99 year (women’s swimming, gymnastics, men’s tennis, men’s golf). Athletic teams won 78 SEC team championships and numerous individual national titles, and in the annual Directors’ Cup national all-sports competition, Georgia teams earned top ten finishes in five of his final seven years as Director of Athletics.
Dooley’s national stature is evident by his most recent honors: 2004 James J. Corbett Memorial Award presented annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, the highest honor one can achieve in collegiate athletics administration; the 2004 John L. Toner Award presented annually by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame for superior administrative abilities and outstanding dedication to college athletics; 2005 Francis J. “Reds” Bagnell Award Contributions to the Game of Football by the Maxwell Club; and the 2004 Contributions to College Football Award presented by National College Football Awards Association and ESPN. He was also selected to the Georgia Trend magazine Hall of Fame in 2004 and was named by the magazine as one of the Top 100 Georgians of the Century in 2000.
Coach Dooley’s elementary education was with the nuns of the Irish Sisters of Charity, and his secondary education with the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, both in Mobile, Alabama. In the heat of the Southern passion for football games, the nuns, of course, used to pray regularly for Notre Dame’s “Fighting Irish.” When Coach Dooley took his University of Georgia Bulldog team into the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame in 1980, he invited some of his former teachers to attend the game. He told them that he hoped they would be praying for the Bulldogs – who did win their first national championship in this game. One of the nuns replied, “Sorry, Vince, I’ll be praying for the Irish.”
Vince wrote his master’s thesis at Auburn University on the 1928 presidential campaign of Al Smith. James Tom Heflin (1869 - 1951), then the U.S. Senator from Alabama, campaigned against Smith on the grounds that he was a Catholic. Heflin claimed in his stump speeches in Alabama that, if Smith won the election, the “Pope’s army would sail right up Mobile Bay!”
Barbara Dooley, Vince’s wife, is of Lebanese ancestry and a colorful personality in her own right. She has run for political office in Georgia and is a cancer survivor. Vince says that she wears a different color wig every day. She also has written a book about being the wife of a living legend in the world of Southern football. Describing Vince’s dedication to the sport, she says that, during the football season, she could have run past him naked and he never would have noticed!