Georgia athletics plans new recognition for legendary football coach Vince Dooley
Two upgrades at Georgia athletic facilities are being made with a nod to Bulldogs legends Vince Dooley and Charley Trippi.
Plans call for the second-floor museum at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall to get a fresh look with the rotunda being called for now at least as the “Circle of Champions.” That area will be where Dooley, the former Georgia football coach and athletic director who passed away in October, will be recognized.
The rotunda would get a modernized look.
“The main focus of the project will be to honor Coach Dooley both as an AD and a coach,” athletic director Josh Brooks told the athletic board’s facilities and development committee Thursday. “We’ll have a large portion of that dedicated to his life and all he’s accomplished.”
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Georgia’s back-to-back football championships will have an area to be displayed for fans to visit and take photos there.
“I don’t want to say it will be less of a museum, but more of a place where it’s celebrating history, but also more modern and a great spot for photographs,” Brooks said.
As part of the phase one construction to Sanford Stadium to be completed by the start of the coming season, a 61st row is being added on the south 100 level where the concourse will be widened and new restrooms and concession areas will be added.
“We’re toying with calling it the 62nd row in honor of Charley Trippi,” Brooks said of the retired jersey number of the Bulldog great who also died in October at age 100. “Kind of like hotels don’t have a 13th floor. We don’t have a 61st row and just go straight to 62. It will be a special row with a seat with the back of it and it’s under the overhang so it will be very popular.”
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There will be new ADA-compliant seating for those with disabilities which will mean some current season-ticket holders will be moved. Georgia athletics will soon contact those fans who will get better or comparable seats by taking away seating that were comped to staff, Brooks said.
“When you’re dealing with an old stadium, you have situations where you have no choice but to do this,” he said.
Construction will begin on a new weight room for both the men’s and women’s basketball programs that will be on the “event level,” of Stegeman Coliseum in what used to be a training room and offices, Brooks said.
“That will take a massive stress load off of our main weight room in Stegeman which currently 20 sports are using as a central part of lifting,” Brooks said.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: UGA athletics plans to honor Vince Dooley in Butts-Mehre buidling
