Vince Dooley Biography, Wikipedia, Cause of Death, Career, Wife, Networth

Vince Dooley Biography

Vincent Joseph Dooley was an American college football coach at the University of Georgia from 1964 to 1988. He was born on September 4, 1932, and he died on October 28, 2022. (UGA). During his 25 years as head coach at UGA, Dooley had a record of 201-77-10. His teams won six Southeastern Conference titles and the 1980 national title. After the 1980 college football season, Dooley was named “Coach of the Year” by a number of groups, including the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, whose annual award is now called the Paul “Bear” Bryant Award.

Early life and education

Dooley was born in Mobile, Alabama, on September 4, 1932. He came from Ireland and Italy. Brother of the Sacred Heart ran the McGill Institute, where he went to school. He was on McGill’s sports teams, which were called the Yellow Jackets. For a few years, he thought basketball was his best sport. [3]

Dooley went to Auburn University on a football scholarship. There, he played for Ralph “Shug” Jordan and later coached under him. In 1954, he got a bachelor’s degree in business administration and joined the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity. After being an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1954 to 1956, he went back to Auburn and eventually got a master’s degree.

Coaching career

After spending the first ten years of his coaching career as Auburn’s offensive coordinator, Dooley was appointed as Georgia’s head coach.

In his 25 seasons, he won six Southeastern Conference titles (1966, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1981, and 1982) and one National Championship (1980). Fob James, a former Auburn teammate and the governor of Alabama, asked Dooley to be the head coach at Auburn after the 1980 team won the national championship.

Dooley eventually turned down the job, which went to Pat Dye, who went to Georgia. In his first three years at Georgia, Dooley beat Bobby Dodd of Georgia Tech every time they played. Dooley was the first person to win the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. Dooley’s style and approach to the game were influenced by Dodd’s. At the time he retired, he was the second-most successful coach in the SEC, after Bear Bryant.

Post-coaching career

Dooley retired as head football coach after leading UGA to 201 victories, six SEC championships, and one national championship. He had served as athletic director since 1979. Dooley helped Georgia become one of the most successful athletic programs in the country. During his tenure as athletic director, he hired former Florida State University football coach Mark Richt.

In 1986, Dooley ran for the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate. In 2002, his wife, the former Barbara Meshad, ran in the Republican Party primary for U.S. House. Dooley belonged to the Gridiron Secret Society. Kennesaw State University hired Dooley on December 2, 2009, to work as a consultant in the school’s drive to achieve accreditation.

Dooley’s other hobby was gardening, about which he wrote a book. Dooley also collaborated with Mascot Books to release two children’s books about the University of Georgia mascot, How ‘Bout Them Dawgs! and Hairy Dawg’s Journey Through the Peach State. From 2016 to 2018, Dooley was the Chairman of the Georgia Historical Society’s Board of Curators.

Personal life

Dooley got married to Barbara Meshad in March of 1960. They met at Auburn, where they were both students, and were married until he died. Together, they have four kids. Derek Dooley was the head football coach at the University of Tennessee and Louisiana Tech University[15]. He was also an assistant coach for the Miami Dolphins, the University of Georgia, Missouri, and LSU, and a position coach for the New York Giants.

Dooley’s younger brother, Bill Dooley, worked as a football coach for the Georgia Bulldogs before becoming a famous college head coach at the University of North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest.

During the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida, in December 1971, the two brothers were on different sides of the field. Dooley died on October 28, 2022, at his home in Athens, Georgia. He was 90 years old, and a month before he died, he had gotten over some mild COVID-19 symptoms.

Awards and honors

In 1978, Dooley was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, 1984 into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and 1994 into the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 2001, he received the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association. Dooley received the Carl Maddox Sport Management Award from the United States Sports Academy in 2004, an award given annually to an individual for contribution to the growth and development of sports through management practices. Dooley was also inducted into UGA’s Circle of Honor in 2004, the school’s highest honor for former athletes and coaches. Dooley received the Homer Rice Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association, in September 2007. Dooley was born in 2007.

In 2011, Dooley was elected as a Georgia Trustee. Individuals whose accomplishments and community service reflect the ideals of the founding body of Trustees, which governed the Georgia colony from 1732 to 1752, are recognized by the Georgia Historical Society in collaboration with the Governor of Georgia. He was inducted into the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame on January 25, 2013.

In Dooley’s honor, the Georgia Historical Society established the Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Fellows Program in 2018. The Dooley Distinguished Fellows Program is intended to achieve two goals that are consistent with Coach Dooley’s life and legacy: recognizing senior historians and mentoring and developing emerging historians. Author Rick Atkinson and historian David Blight have been named Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Teaching Fellows.

The football field at the University of Georgia was renamed “Dooley Field” in honor of the coach on September 7, 2019.
The Vince Dooley papers were donated to the Georgia Historical Society in 2009. From the 1950s to 2004, the papers contain correspondence, memos, clippings, financial records, football schedules and calendars, applications, contracts, speeches, photographs, audiovisual materials, and publications.