Coach Vince Dooley: An Appreciation
By Stephen Davis · Originally published December 2022 · pp. 1–4
Coach Vince Dooley: An Appreciation by Stephen Davis Legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley passed away on October 28. He was ninety years of age. Those of us in the Civil War community knew Coach Dooley—for that is what we all called him—as a committed Civil War enthusiast. A few years ago, when I was about to address the Atlanta Civil War Round Table on my What the Yankees Did to Us, I was thrilled when he bought my book and stood in line to have me inscribe it. “Coach Dooley bought my book!” I cried when I got home that night to my wife. Vincent Joseph Dooley was born in Mobile on September 4, 1932. He attended McGillToolen Catholic High School there. Admitted to Auburn University with a football scholarship, Dooley played when “Shug” Jordan coached the team (the coach’s nickname came from his love of sorghum sugar cane— and by the way, it’s pronounced JERRdun). Dooley graduated in 1954 with a business degree, served two years in the Marines and returned to Auburn, which awarded him a master’s in history in 1963. For several years he was offensive coordinator for Auburn football. He was then hired as Georgia’s head coach, the position he held from 1964 to 1988, leading the university’s Bulldogs. He stayed on as Georgia’s Athletic Director until 2004. During those twenty-five seasons at Georgia he compiled a record of 201-77-10. Down here, the Southeastern Conference is known by all as “the S.E.C.,” and it’s a tough football league. Yet Dooley was one of the winningest
James “Bud” Robertson Jr. and Vince Dooley at the November 2008 Civil War Round Table of Atlanta meeting. Coach Dooley attended the meeting to hear his friend Robertson speak to the membership.
Barbara and Vince Dooley at the Civil War Round Table of Atlanta meeting October 2008. Coach Dooley was a longtime member.
American Battlefield Trust Chief Historian Garry Adelman with Board of Trustee Vince Dooley.
Football Coach (2010). But it’s as a Civil War enthusiast that most of us appreciated him. Dooley liked to visit historic sites and even helped to memorialize battlefields. In 2012 he participated in the dedication of a roadside marker in Crow Valley, the Dalton area held by Johnston’s army in the winter of 1863-64. He served three terms on the Board of Trustees of the Civil War Trust. Even more notably, with Samuel Thomas, Jr., the coach co-wrote The Legion’s Fighting Bulldog: The Civil War Correspondence of William Gaston Delony, Lieutenant Colonel of Cobb’s Georgia Legion Cavalry, and Rosa Delony, 1853–1863 (Mercer, 2017). “The letters in themselves are a true treasure,” trilled one reviewer of Dooley and Thomas’ work, “but they have done an excellent job portraying the feelings and attitudes of those
Greg Ton Buying and Selling the Finest Confederate, Obsolete and Southern States Currency in this time period.” Coach Dooley lived out his years in Athens, the university’s home. He died there in the presence of his wife Barbara and their four children. He was a Bulldog to the very end. When Georgia beat ‘Bama in last season’s national championship game, Vince was in the Indianapolis stadium, cheering his team on.