Archives For Vince dooley

Today, November 10, 2022, is the 247th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps. All across the globe, active-duty Marines will take time to pay homage to their Corps, to its extraordinarily rich heritage, and to all of those who have gone before them, remembering especially those who have been wounded or killed in battle defending this nation. At most Marine posts, there will be a cake, a toast or two, and a reminder that the Marine Corps is an organization committed to excellence, to unselfish service, and, most importantly, to winning.  

This Marine Corps Birthday, I’d like to celebrate the life of Vince Dooley, the longtime football coach and athletics director at the University of Georgia, who died on October 28, 2022. Coach Dooley had been a Marine Corps officer in the mid-1950s, and his pride in his service in the Marines was evident to all who knew him. Dooley’s Georgia Bulldogs football teams were known for their toughness and their ability to battle and overcome—traits that reflected the character of their former-Marine leader. During his 25-year tenure as head coach, Dooley’s teams won 201 games, including six Southeastern Conference championships and one national championship. At the time of his retirement from coaching in 1988, only Alabama’s Bear Bryant exceeded Dooley in wins among SEC coaches.

In a small sampling of his many honors, Dooley was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame as well as the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame. From becoming a head coach at UGA in 1964 at the age of 31, until his death last month at age 90, Dooley became a revered figure at UGA and across the State of Georgia, not solely for his gridiron success, but also for his kindness, his integrity, and his loyalty. He will long be remembered as a focused, intelligent, highly successful man of many accomplishments, but who always remained approachable and gracious.

I had some history with Coach Dooley. He became a role model for me when I was seventeen years old. I admired him from afar for the immediate success he had in turning around what had become a moribund football program at Georgia. When soon thereafter I became a student at UGA, I could judge by the esteem he held among his football players that he was indeed the real deal. After I graduated from college and became an officer in the Marine Corps, Coach Dooley and I exchanged letters, a habit we would keep up intermittently for the rest of his life. Every time one of the four novels I have written was released, I would always make sure Coach got a copy hot off the press. He was always pleased to receive the book and generous with his comments.

He was also generous with his time. My wife and I had a chance to meet with him when he was consulting with Kennesaw State University over their ambition to start a football program. We met in a private office near the university and talked about football, the Marine Corps, and gardening which had a special attraction to him given the world-class garden he maintained at his Athens residence. I signed my latest book and gave him a copy. He signed a picture for me. We took a photograph together. He was in no hurry to conclude our session, but then again, I realized he was being paid for his time as a consultant, so I thanked him for all he had meant to me and so many others he had touched with his extraordinary accomplishments.

This Marine Corps Birthday I will think of Coach Dooley. One of the highest compliments I was paid during my business career was when a colleague referred to me as our company’s version of Vince Dooley—always calm and collected but always well prepared to take on and beat the competition. I’ll always cherish that compliment, even though I clearly knew that I could hardly compare to such a giant of a figure. Still, I was grateful that my colleague compared me to Coach Dooley rather than, say, Dog the Bounty Hunter, or some such. That would have been far less pleasing (and highly unlikely to have found its way in this or any other post).

Much like the Marine Corps he served with such pride, Vince Dooley knew how to lead, and especially how to win. He sought excellence in everything he did. He served his Bulldog football players with great loyalty and devotion, teaching them life lessons along the way that benefited so many. He donated his time to many charitable organizations, using his considerable celebrity in service to others. And he was an inspiration to countless individuals like myself who will be forever thankful for the example he provided. His was a life exceedingly well lived.

Thank you, Coach Dooley. And Semper Fi.

Happy Birthday, Marines.

TOP DAWGS!

January 13, 2022 — Leave a comment

(Full disclosure: I am a University of Georgia graduate and a supporter of Georgia football since, well, since my teen years in the Sixties.)

On Monday night, January 10, 2022, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, the University of Georgia Bulldogs defeated the University of Alabama Crimson Tide by the score of 33-18, and thus were crowned the National Champions for the 2021 season. It marked the first such championship for the Bulldogs since the 1980 season when Georgia defeated Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl in a 17-10 thriller. Behind the coaching of future Hall of Famer Vince Dooley and the on-field heroics of freshman-sensation Herschel Walker, the Bulldogs were victorious over the legendary Fighting Irish.

This year, on their way to the postseason, the top-ranked and unbeaten Bulldogs of Coach Kirby Smart lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship game on December 4, 2021, by the humbling score of 41-24. Despite the loss, Georgia was selected for the playoffs and paired with the University of Michigan Wolverines, champions of the Big Ten Conference. It was a classic matchup between two traditional powers from the South and Midwest. The game was played in Miami’s Orange Bowl on December 31, 2021, with a hard-charging Georgia thrashing the Wolverines 34-11.

And then came the much-awaited rematch this past Monday night with mighty Alabama. Georgia had not beaten Bama in football since 2007, after which followed seven consecutive losses, including an agonizing overtime loss in the 2017 National Championship game. Georgia followers were understandably wary of Alabama, with some cynically concluding that our only chance of defeating them would be in a post-Coach Nick Saban world wherein he’s left Alabama and now runs the entire country as President Saban (some might say we could do worse).

 Alabama is extraordinarily difficult to beat, and Saban’s charges know well how to win a football game. If the score is close near the end, Saban is adept at finding a way to win. Not every time, however. Bama’s not unbeatable, but it happens so infrequently that, for those who do manage to defeat them, it’s a bit akin to winning a war or walking on the moon or stunning the Russians in Olympic hockey. It’s a big thing, an emotional thing, certainly a memorable thing.

And it was big and emotional and memorable Monday night when the Dawgs took down the Crimson Tide. Our Bulldog Nation reacted accordingly, some in disbelief, some hysterical, all watching something magical unfold that grabbed at their hearts and constricted their throats and made more than a few shed some tears. We had done it, finally! Forty-one years had passed, having come so close on occasion only to let the crown slip from our grasp. But now it was ours.

It’s just another football game, you might say. Well, to a Southern football fan and more specifically to a UGA fan, that’s just wrong. It’s like claiming that a map of New Orleans’ French Quarter is the same as the actual French Quarter itself; or that pushing an old lady into the path of an oncoming bus as opposed to pushing her out of the path of that oncoming bus can all be explained away as an act of pushing an old lady around. Sorry, but again, that’s just wrong. It’s not just another football game when it comes to the Bulldogs.

By way of review, it was our first national championship since beating Notre Dame, the most heralded program in college football history and the fourth winningest program of all time.

The Bulldogs then defeated Michigan, the overall winningest program in college football history.

The Bulldogs then defeated Alabama, the second winningest program in college football history. And if that’s not enough, Alabama is the undisputed gold standard for football programs in America (at the moment, that is).

The Georgia Bulldogs are now the reigning National Champions. A nice ring to it, I think. Our splendid Coach Kirby Smart no longer has the “can’t beat Alabama” monkey on his back. Our quarterback, Stetson Bennett IV, is a former walk-on who this time outdueled the Heisman Trophy winner. Fame is quickly attaching itself to Stetson; fortune will likely follow.

The aforementioned Vince Dooley, now at age eighty-nine, was able to attend the game and witness the champion Dogs win it all. I am grateful that Coach lived long enough to experience it once again, especially since he is the most consequential figure in UGA athletics history.

Just another football game? Nah. It’s a love affair with all the inherent ups and downs. It’s a way of life that would be possible to live without, but wholly unthinkable. It’s a source of pride in ever so many ways.

And after forty-one years, it turns out to have been worth the wait.

Thanks, Bulldogs. And congratulations. You’ve made history. Let’s do it again, but a bit sooner this time!

GO DAWGS!