Legendary Georgia football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley dies at age 90

Vince Dooley arrived in Athens in late 1963 to take over a languishing University of Georgia football program. He became a fixture over nearly 60 years as a national championship winning head coach, athletic director and then most famous retiree in Athens.

Dooley died on Friday afternoon at age 90, according to school officials.

Dooley died peacefully at his home in Athens in the presence of wife Barbara and their four children. The news came on the eve of the annual Georgia-Florida football game in Jacksonville.

Dooley was hospitalized this month for COVID-19 and pneumonia.

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He is the program’s all-time winningest coach and still stands fourth on the SEC all-time wins list with a 201-77-10 record from 1964-1988. That’s behind only Bear Bryant, Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier.

He also had a long career as Georgia’s athletic director.

Georgia in 2019 dedicated Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium to honor the person who worked for the school for 40 years and is 24th all-time in coaching wins in the FBS division.

“I remember telling Barbara, don’t get too comfortable because I don’t know how long I’m going to be here,” he said in 2019. “Don’t even unpack but I’m going to give it my best shot. To be able to stay in one place, raise a family all in one place, which is unusual in the coaching business, has been a blessing.”

Vince Dooley wasn't idle after his careers as Georgia coach, athletic director

Dooley was not one to sit on his porch and watch the sunset in retirement.

He was an avid gardener, Civil War buff and author.

He threw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field in Chicago when Georgia played at Notre Dame in 2017.

When Georgia won the national championship in January of 2022 for the first time in 41 years, Dooley and coach Kirby Smart embraced on the field.

“He's been tremendous,” Smart said in October after Dooley was hospitalized for what was said to be a “mild” case of COVID-19. “He's represented UGA for so long with such class. Just a wonderful family. He's been integral to my success just me personally from the time I was here as a player, to the times I’ve known him as a coach growing up in the profession.”

His backing was sought out by politicians. Dooley endorsed presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 at a campaign appearance and endorsed Houston Gaines for the state house, Brian Kemp for governor and Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker for the U.S. Senate.

Vincent Joseph Dooley was born on Sept. 4, 1932 in Mobile, Ala.

He was a “waterfront depression born kid,” who lived in a “hardscrabble cement environment,” his longtime friend Loran Smith wrote. He played quarterback and also basketball at McGill Catholic High and then at Auburn where he enrolled on a football scholarship and was captain of its team in 1953. He also lettered in basketball in 1952.

New athletic director Joel Eaves hired Dooley from Auburn where he was a 31-year old freshman coach in his fifth year on staff and who had served in the Marines. Eaves and Dooley had scouted opponents together at Auburn where Eaves coached basketball and football.

“All of this just came out of the blue,” Dooley said in 2004. “It was sort of like ready or not, go. It’s one the beauties of youth.”

Dooley lived on the same Five Points property at Milledge Circle east of West Lake Drive through the years after 10 major additions.

Georgia football had two winning seasons in the previous nine before Dooley was hired. Former NFL quarterback Fran Tarkenton decades later publicly said it was “in shambles.

There was instability after a Saturday Evening Post article claimed former Georgia coach Wally Butts and Alabama’s Bear Bryant conspired to fix the 1962 Georgia-Alabama game. The coaches won a libel suit.

Dooley replaced Johnny Griffith who went 10-16-4 in three seasons including losses each year to Georgia Tech.

“They were a bunch of guys as hungry as they could be that had gone through some difficult times,” Dooley said in 2019.

Dooley established “credibility,” he said by winning.

“They would do anything we asked them to do,” said Erk Russell, who Dooley hired as his defensive coordinator after they worked together at Auburn. “The direction he gave them was exactly what they needed.”

There were signature victories – beating Alabama 18-17 in 1965 in the first televised game from Sanford Stadium, defeating Big Ten and Rose Bowl champion Michigan in Ann Arbor and having fans greet them at the airport when they arrived on two Martin 404 Southern Airways prop planes.

“There must have been 10,000 at the airport,” Dooley said. “It was quite a celebration.”

During his 25 seasons as Georgia’s coach, he won six SEC titles and the 1980 national championship. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994 and is a member of both the Georgia and Alabama Sports Halls of Fame.

He was forced into retirement as AD in 2004 after a very public feud with then president Michael Adams. Dooley wanted to stay on and have his contract extended.

"Coach Dooley's many contributions to this university can be seen across the campus," UGA president Jere Morehead said in 2019 before the field was named for him, "from Georgia athletics, where he achieved unrivaled success, to the learning environment where today many academic programs and initiatives bear his name, such as the Dooley Library Endownment Fund to the Dooley Professorship in Horticulture. The university community will continue to benefit from his service and dedication for generations to come."

Vince Dooley oversaw 23 NCAA titles during his tenure as AD

Dooley took on the role of athletic director in 1979. Georgia teams won 23 national titles and 78 SEC championships during his time as AD.

He hired several coaches who went onto national prominence at Georgia including women’s basketball coach Andy Landers, swim coach Jack Bauerle, gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan and tennis coaches Manuel Diaz and Jeff Wallace.

His time as AD was scarred by charges by UGA professor Jan Kemp who was fired in 1982 after saying the school allowed athletes to stay in school and play despite failing remedial classes. She sued in 1986 and won $2.58 million in a lawsuit and UGA president Fred Davison lost his job.

Dooley pulled the men's basketball team out of the SEC and NCAA tournament with the program embroiled in an academic fraud scandal and fired basketball coach Jim Harrick.

Dooley kept a very public presence after his coaching and AD career ended, most notably with the field dedication a few years ago.

He summed up his time as coach then.

“We had a good, tough football team,” Dooley said in 2019. “They went out with a lot of pride. The things in between, some of the down years and the up years, we always were able to address crises. If you stay at a place long enough you’re going to go through a series of them and we did both on and off the field, but fortunately we were able to address them and survive them and have a great career. And to be at one place at one time, which is very difficult to do, particularly in this day and time.”

Dooley is survived by his wife of 62 years, Barbara, children Deanna, Daniel, Denise and Derek, 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Legendary Georgia football coach Vince Dooley dies at age 90