ATLANTA (AP) — Vince Dooley, the soccer trainer who carried himself like a professor and guided Georgia for a quarter-century of luck that integrated the 1980 nationwide championship, died Friday. He used to be 90.
The college introduced that Dooley died peacefully at his Athens house within the presence of his spouse, Barbara, and their 4 kids, together with former Tennessee trainer Derek Dooley. No reason for dying used to be given.
Dooley used to be hospitalized this month for what used to be described as a gentle case of COVID-19, however he pronounced himself totally recovered and in a position to wait his common book-signing consultation on the campus book place earlier than an Oct. 15 recreation in opposition to Vanderbilt.
Dooley had a occupation report of 201-77-10 whilst training the Bulldogs from 1964 to 1988, a stretch that integrated six Southeastern Convention titles, 20 bowl video games and only one shedding season.
“Our circle of relatives is heartbroken through the dying of Trainer Dooley. He used to be one in every of a type with an unequalled love for UGA!” present Georgia trainer Kirby Good mentioned.
Dooley is the fourth-winningest trainer in SEC historical past, trailing most effective Endure Bryant, Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier.
“Vince Dooley used to be one in every of my favourite other 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 trainer and athletics director.”
After retiring from training, Dooley persisted as the college’s AD, a role he held from 1979 till 2004. The sector at Sanford Stadium used to be devoted in his honor all the way through the 2019 soccer season.
Josh Brooks, the college’s present athletic director, mentioned the big-money program he now guides “is what it’s as of late as a result of Vince Dooley.”
Dooley used to be the second one distinguished member of Georgia’s storied soccer historical past to die previously two weeks.
Corridor of Famer Charlie Trippi, who starred at Georgia within the 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 protecting nationwide champion and ranked No. 1 within the nation, faces one in every of its greatest competitors, the Florida Gators, in the once a year “Cocktail Birthday celebration” recreation at Jacksonville, Florida.
Dooley ruled that sequence all the way through his training occupation, going 17-7-1 in opposition to the Gators. Essentially the most well-known victory got here in 1980, when Lindsay Scott hauled in a 93-yard landing go from Greenback Belue within the last minute.
The fantastic 26-21 triumph propelled Georgia to a great season and their first consensus nationwide identify.
Dooley lived lengthy sufficient to peer any other championship. When the Bulldogs defeated Alabama in closing season’s nationwide identify recreation, the previous trainer used to be in Indianapolis to cheer them on.
Dooley withstood the drive of profitable at a football-mad SEC college all the way through an technology when Bryant ran a powerhouse program at Alabama. Dooley received over skeptics early on, the use of a trick play to disenchanted the protecting nationwide champion Pink Tide 18-17 within the 1965 season opener.
The next yr, Georgia received the primary of his SEC titles. By the point Dooley stepped down from training at age 56, he used to be one in every of most effective 10 NCAA Department I-A coaches to win 200 video games.
Stoic in his demeanor and stylish with phrases delivered in a Southern drawl, a renaissance guy who dabbled in horticulture, studied Civil Battle historical past and wrote a lot of books, Dooley had his biggest run of luck after touchdown a working again from tiny Wrightsville, Georgia.
All the way through Walker’s 3 years between the hedges, the Bulldogs went 33-3, received 3 immediately SEC titles, captured a countrywide identify and just about received any other in 1982.
Walker, now working for the U.S. Senate, tweeted an image of him and Dooley at the box at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium earlier than Georgia’s season-opening victory over Oregon.
“Thanks Trainer Dooley, for being one of the crucial biggest males I’ve ever recognized,” Walker wrote. “You imply extra to me than you’ll ever know.”
Dooley used to be a graduate of Auburn, one in every of Georgia’s maximum hated competitors, and had no head training revel in when he used to be employed through the Bulldogs on the age of 32.
It used to be no longer a well-liked rent, as Dooley regularly famous over the years.
“My {qualifications} had been such there’s no manner I might’ve employed myself,” Dooley conceded in a 2014 interview with the college newspaper, The Crimson & Black.
There have been low moments, to make sure.
Close to the top of his reign as athletic director, the boys’s basketball program used to be stuck up in an embarrassing scandal that ended in the resignation of trainer Jim Harrick and revelations that his son, an assistant trainer, taught a hoops elegance with a last examination that integrated questions reminiscent of “What number of issues does a 3-point box objective account for in a Basketball Sport?”
Dooley’s four-decade keep ended unceremoniously. He used to be pressured into retirement after an uncongenial spat with then-university President Michael Adams in 2004.
Dooley by no means left Athens and remained a fixture across the soccer program, regularly sitting in on information meetings carried out through the closing trainer he employed, Mark Richt, and Good.
“Clearly one of the crucial biggest coaches of all time,” Richt mentioned. “But additionally the person who employed me and mentored me in my first head training alternative at Georgia. I owe so much to Trainer.”
Training ran within the Dooley blood, evidently.
Vince’s more youthful brother, Invoice, used to be the pinnacle trainer at North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Woodland. Derek held the highest jobs at each Louisiana Tech and SEC rival Tennessee.
When Derek returned to Athens because the Volunteers’ trainer in 2010, Vince knew he couldn’t pull in opposition to his son, however he didn’t need to be noticed rooting in opposition to the Bulldogs in their very own stadium.
So he stayed at house, gazing the sport on tv as Georgia romped to a 41-14 victory.
“In a great international, I’d quite him be farther away and no longer in the similar convention,” Vince mentioned.
At Georgia, Dooley coached a plethora of standout gamers — from Invoice Stanfill to Scott Woerner to Rodney Hampton. However his most famed recruit used to be surely Walker, a working again who possessed a virtually supernatural mixture of bruising energy and sprinter’s velocity.
Walker made his mark in his first actual faculty recreation, working 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 identify hopes seemed doomed once they trailed Florida 21-20.
Then Belue and Scott connected on possibly probably the most well-known play in class historical past. Because of any other memorable name through Munson, the sport would eternally be referred to as “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 will be the pinnacle of Dooley’s occupation, despite the fact that the Bulldogs just about received any other nationwide identify two years later. Walker received the Heisman Trophy and Georgia used to be 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 became out to be Walker’s ultimate faculty recreation. He bolted for the upstart U.S. Soccer League after his junior season.
In his first run for political place of work, Walker is locked in a decent struggle with incumbent U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. Walker won the endorsement of his former trainer in a contemporary advert.
Dooley used to be inducted into the Nationwide Faculty Soccer Corridor of Reputation in 1998, however he additionally took delight in working an athletic program that used to be a number of the country’s very best in a variety of sports activities.
From tennis to swimming, gymnastics to baseball, the Bulldogs received 19 nationwide championships beneath Dooley.
Dooley used to be born into an athletic circle of relatives in Cellular, Alabama on Sept. 4, 1932. He earned a soccer scholarship to Auburn, the place he additionally performed basketball.
Dooley used to be an excellent defensive again and captain of the 1953 workforce, a yr through which he performed within the Faculty All-Superstar Sport. He graduated from Auburn in 1954 with a point in industry control earlier than serving within the Marine Corps for 2 years.
In 1956, Dooley changed into an assistant trainer at Auburn and used to be freshman trainer on the college for 3 seasons earlier than being named head trainer of Georgia in a while after the top of the 1963 season, taking on a program in disarray after 3 immediately shedding years beneath Johnny Griffith.
Twenty-five years later, Dooley used to be carried off the sector after his ultimate recreation, a 34-27 victory over Michigan State within the Gator Bowl.
Along with his spouse and son Derek, survivors come with kids Deanna, Daniel and Denise.