ATLANTA (AP) — Vince Dooley, the soccer coach who carried himself like a professor and guided Georgia for a quarter-century of success that included the 1980 nationwide championship, died Friday. He was 90.
The varsity introduced that Dooley died peacefully at his Athens dwelling within the presence of his spouse, Barbara, and their 4 youngsters, together with former Tennessee coach Derek Dooley. No explanation for dying was given.
Dooley was hospitalized this month for what was described as a gentle case of COVID-19, however he pronounced himself absolutely recovered and able to attend his common book-signing session on the campus bookstore earlier than an Oct. 15 sport towards Vanderbilt.
Dooley had a profession report of 201-77-10 whereas teaching the Bulldogs from 1964 to 1988, a stretch that included six Southeastern Convention titles, 20 bowl video games and only one shedding season.
“Our household is heartbroken by the dying of Coach Dooley. He was considered one of a form with an unmatched love for UGA!” current Georgia coach Kirby Smart mentioned.
Dooley is the fourth-winningest coach in SEC historical past, trailing solely Bear Bryant, Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier.
“Vince Dooley was considered one of my favourite folks on the planet,” Saban mentioned. “Vince represented the College of Georgia and all of faculty soccer with super integrity and sophistication as each a coach and athletics director.”
After retiring from teaching, Dooley continued as the college’s AD, a job he held from 1979 till 2004. The sector at Sanford Stadium was devoted in his honor in the course of the 2019 soccer season.
Josh Brooks, the college’s present athletic director, mentioned the big-money program he now guides “is what it’s right now due to Vince Dooley.”
Dooley was the second outstanding member of Georgia’s storied soccer historical past to die up to now two weeks.
Corridor of Famer Charlie Trippi, who starred at Georgia within the Nineteen Forties and went on to say an NFL championship with the Chicago Cardinals, died Oct. 19 on the age of 100.
Dooley’s dying got here simply in the future earlier than Georgia, the defending nationwide champion and ranked No. 1 within the nation, faces considered one of its greatest rivals, the Florida Gators, within the annual “Cocktail Celebration” sport at Jacksonville, Florida.
Dooley dominated that sequence throughout his teaching profession, going 17-7-1 towards the Gators. Probably the most well-known victory got here in 1980, when Lindsay Scott hauled in a 93-yard landing move from Buck Belue within the closing minute.
The inconceivable 26-21 triumph propelled Georgia to an ideal season and their first consensus nationwide title.
Dooley lived lengthy sufficient to see one other championship. When the Bulldogs defeated Alabama in final season’s nationwide title sport, the previous coach was in Indianapolis to cheer them on.
Dooley withstood the stress of successful at a football-mad SEC faculty throughout an period when Bryant ran a powerhouse program at Alabama. Dooley received over skeptics early on, utilizing a trick play to upset the defending nationwide champion Crimson Tide 18-17 within the 1965 season opener.
The next 12 months, Georgia received the primary of his SEC titles. By the point Dooley stepped down from teaching at age 56, he was considered one of solely 10 NCAA Division I-A coaches to win 200 video games.
Stoic in his demeanor and chic with phrases delivered in a Southern drawl, a renaissance man who dabbled in horticulture, studied Civil Conflict historical past and wrote quite a few books, Dooley had his best run of success after touchdown a operating again from tiny Wrightsville, Georgia.
Throughout Walker’s three years between the hedges, the Bulldogs went 33-3, received three straight SEC titles, captured a nationwide title and almost received one other in 1982.
Walker, now operating for the U.S. Senate, tweeted an image of him and Dooley on the sphere at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium earlier than Georgia’s season-opening victory over Oregon.
“Thanks Coach Dooley, for being one of many best males I’ve ever recognized,” Walker wrote. “You imply extra to me than you’ll ever know.”
Dooley was a graduate of Auburn, considered one of Georgia’s most hated rivals, and had no head teaching expertise when he was employed by the Bulldogs on the age of 32.
It was not a well-liked rent, as Dooley usually famous by the years.
“My {qualifications} have been such there’s no approach I’d’ve employed myself,” Dooley conceded in a 2014 interview with the college newspaper, The Crimson & Black.
There have been low moments, to make certain.
Close to the top of his reign as athletic director, the lads’s basketball program was caught up in an embarrassing scandal that led to the resignation of coach Jim Harrick and revelations that his son, an assistant coach, taught a hoops class with a remaining examination that included questions resembling “What number of factors does a 3-point area objective account for in a Basketball Sport?”
Dooley’s four-decade keep ended unceremoniously. He was pressured into retirement after a nasty spat with then-university President Michael Adams in 2004.
Dooley by no means left Athens and remained a fixture across the soccer program, usually sitting in on information conferences performed by the final coach he employed, Mark Richt, and Sensible.
“Clearly one of many best coaches of all time,” Richt mentioned. “But additionally the person who employed me and mentored me in my first head teaching alternative at Georgia. I owe quite a bit to Coach.”
Teaching ran within the Dooley blood, for positive.
Vince’s youthful brother, Invoice, was the top coach at North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Derek held the highest jobs at each Louisiana Tech and SEC rival Tennessee.
When Derek returned to Athens because the Volunteers’ coach in 2010, Vince knew he couldn’t pull towards his son, however he didn’t wish to be seen rooting towards the Bulldogs in their very own stadium.
So he stayed at dwelling, watching the sport on tv as Georgia romped to a 41-14 victory.
“In an ideal world, I’d fairly him be farther away and never in the identical convention,” Vince mentioned.
At Georgia, Dooley coached a plethora of standout gamers — from Invoice Stanfill to Scott Woerner to Rodney Hampton. However his most well-known recruit was undoubtedly Walker, a operating again who possessed an virtually supernatural mixture of bruising energy and sprinter’s velocity.
Walker made his mark in his very first faculty sport, operating proper over Tennessee defensive again Invoice Bates for a landing that helped the Bulldogs rally for a 16-15 victory.
“My god, a freshman!” longtime Georgia radio announcer Larry Munson screamed over the air.
Walker rushed for 1,616 yards and 15 touchdowns that season, however the Bulldogs’ nationwide title hopes appeared doomed once they trailed Florida 21-20.
Then Belue and Scott attached on maybe essentially the most well-known play in class historical past. Thanks to a different memorable name by Munson, the sport would perpetually be often called “Run, Lindsay, Run.”
Georgia capped its 12-0 season with a 17-10 win over Notre Dame within the Sugar Bowl to clinch the nationwide championship.
That season could be the top of Dooley’s profession, although the Bulldogs almost received one other nationwide title two years later. Walker received the Heisman Trophy and Georgia was ranked No. 1 heading into the Sugar Bowl after an undefeated common season.
However No. 2 Penn State captured the championship with a 27-23 victory in what turned out to be Walker’s remaining faculty sport. He bolted for the upstart U.S. Soccer League after his junior season.
In his first run for political workplace, Walker is locked in a decent battle with incumbent U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. Walker received the endorsement of his former coach in a latest advert.
Dooley was inducted into the Nationwide Faculty Soccer Corridor of Fame in 1998, however he additionally took pleasure in operating an athletic program that was among the many nation’s greatest in a variety of sports activities.
From tennis to swimming, gymnastics to baseball, the Bulldogs received 19 nationwide championships underneath Dooley.
Dooley was born into an athletic household in Cellular, Alabama on Sept. 4, 1932. He earned a soccer scholarship to Auburn, the place he additionally performed basketball.
Dooley was an excellent defensive again and captain of the 1953 group, a 12 months through which he performed within the Faculty All-Star Sport. He graduated from Auburn in 1954 with a level in enterprise administration earlier than serving within the Marine Corps for 2 years.
In 1956, Dooley grew to become an assistant coach at Auburn and was freshman coach on the faculty for 3 seasons earlier than being named head coach of Georgia shortly after the top of the 1963 season, taking up a program in disarray after three straight shedding years underneath Johnny Griffith.
Twenty-five years later, Dooley was carried off the sphere after his remaining sport, a 34-27 victory over Michigan State within the Gator Bowl.
Along with his spouse and son Derek, survivors embody youngsters Deanna, Daniel and Denise.