Georgia football announced earlier this year that Sanford Stadium’s field would have a new name to honor one of its greatest coaches, Vince Dooley.
It won’t just be Sanford Stadium for much longer as Georgia football plans to honor Vince Dooley on Saturday and name the field after him.
Now instead of Sanford Stadium, it’ll be Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium.
According to a Georgia Sports Communication press release, during the pregame festivities on Saturday against Murray State, there will be a ceremony dedicating the field to Dooley.
That same press release said this decision came after a May 2 proposal made by the University of Georgia to the University System Board of Regents. The board approved it on May 14.
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University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead, athletic director Greg McGarity, Board of Regents chairman Don Waters, and team captains from Dooley’s 25 years of coaching will join him and his family during the ceremony.
Dooley has a long list of accomplishments including being the head coach to win the national championship back in 1980.
He served as Georgia’s head coach from 1963 to 1989 and was the athletic director from 1979 to 2004.
Dooley was a pioneer and made so many things happen while at the University of Georgia, especially in female athletics.
According to the press release, he is the only person ever to hold the presidency of both the American Football Coaches Association and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
Dooley’s also won a ton of lifetime awards for his positive influences on the many lives he’s been around. Some of those awards include:
- the John Wooden Citizen Cup Award
- the Bear Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award
- the Duffy Daugherty Memorial Award
One way the university already honored him was with the statue unveiling in 2008 with the dedication of the Vince Dooley Athletic Complex. The statue sits just below the Butts Mehre building.
That honor was one thing, but now I feel like the university is finally properly honoring him. If anyone deserves to get the field named after them, it’s got to be Dooley.
He is the most successful head coach in the Bulldogs history as he finished his coaching career with 201-77-10. As the head coach, he led teams to one national title, six SEC championships, and took his teams to 20 bowls game. Dooley also had 50 First-Team All-Americans and 10 Academic All-Americans.
Those achievements are what happened while he was the head coach, as the athletic director, that success continued.
According to the press release, while he was the athletic director, Georgia won 23 national championships, ten of which happened in his final six years. In that time frame, he had four teams win national titles in 1998-99 in gymnastics, women’s swimming, men’s tennis, and men’s golf.
Georgia also had 78 SEC team championships and multiple individual national titles in men’s and women’s sports during his time as the athletic director.
Dooley’s also authored multiple books and gone on to do hundreds of speaking engagements and appearances throughout the years.
There isn’t much that Dooley hasn’t done at the University of Georgia and that he continues to do. You can find him in Athens, and if you speak to him, he will carry on a conversation. He will go down as one of the most memorable Georgia people ever.
Like I said before if anyone deserves to have this field named after them, it’s Dooley. He’s the reason Georgia’s on the map like it is now and he’s the one who laid the foundation of the success McGarity’s currently having.
Don’t forget to get to the game early on Saturday, so you don’t miss this ceremony. It’ll be a class act and something that we all will remember as Georgia fans.