[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 91 (Tuesday, July 6, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H5169-H5170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1930
TRIBUTE TO VINCE DOOLEY
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gingrey). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Isakson) is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Vince Dooley
upon his retirement as Athletic Director at the University of Georgia.
I could use the time to recite the countless achievements of this great
Georgian as a Coach and Athletic Director, but I will not. Instead, I
will submit for the Record a 4-page resume outlining Coach Dooley's
lasting contributions to the University of Georgia.
I prefer to use this time telling America about the man who made such
a difference in so many lives, including my own. I first met Coach
Dooley in 1961, when he was the guest speaker at my high school banquet
for our football team. He was the freshman coach at Auburn and friends
with our coach, Jim Loftin. That night, he made a three-win team feel
like national champions, just like Vince Dooley always did, always
encouraging and always motivational.
Three years later, he arrived in Athens, Georgia, as the new football
coach for the Georgia Bulldogs, and Athens would never be the same
again. He took a three-win team from the previous year and molded it
into a 7-3-1 team, defeating Georgia Tech and winning the Sun Bowl
Championship over Texas Tech.
In the years to follow, Vince Dooley led Georgia to intersectional
victories over Michigan, Texas, Notre Dame, UCLA and Michigan State. In
his 25 years as head coach, he led the Bulldogs to six Southeastern
Conference championships, 20 bowl games and the 1980 National
Championship.
His tributes, however, do not lie in the trophies he collected, but
rather in the lives he molded; men like Tommy Lawhorne, an undersized,
over-achieving linebacker, now a leading surgeon in Columbus, Georgia;
and Billy Payne, an all Southeastern Conference end, responsible for
convincing the world to come to Georgia for the Centennial Olympic
Games; or the greatest player ever to play for Georgia, or, I would
submit, for any other university in the country, Hershel Walker. Only a
coach like Vince Dooley could instill the character and humility for
which Hershel is known.
There are thousands more I could mention. They may not be in a Hall
of Fame, but they played for Vince Dooley. They all represent the
character, humility and work ethic that Vince Dooley instilled in all
that came his way. We know them as Bucky Kimsey, Clayton Foster, Fred
Barber, Andy Johnson and Frank Ros. Their communities know them as
leaders.
There is no greater tribute to a man's career than the success of
those who learned under him. It is only fitting that the man replacing
Vince Dooley as Athletic Director is Damon Evans, just one of many who
played for Georgia's greatest coach, Vince Dooley.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Nebraska
(Mr. Osborne), the former national championship coach of the Nebraska
Cornhuskers.
Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. It is a
pleasure to be able to speak for a few minutes here on Vince Dooley.
I first met Vince in 1969, when he was coaching at the University of
Georgia and I was an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska, and
I was impressed by his humility, his willingness to talk to a lowly
assistant coach. Of course, 24 years as a head coach and 25 years as
Athletic Director is unprecedented. Many people say one year in
coaching is like a dog year, so Vince is about 175 years old by that
figure.
I thought that Vince was just an excellent representative of college
football. He was a leader in regard to the Rules Committee, he worked
on the College Football Association, was a very good person as far as
compromise, keeping people on an even keel, because sometimes things
got a little heated.
Of course, Vince, I guess nobody knows for sure what his politics
are, but his wife ran for Congress as a Democrat and then again as a
Republican. So he obviously is a man who has a very even keel. I think
Barbara was a great asset to Vince, they are a great team. Of course,
Vince has been a tremendous asset to the University of Georgia, to
college football, and, of course, the State of Georgia.
So it is a pleasure for me to have a couple of minutes to talk about
Vince. We wish him well in his retirement.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the profile on
Vince Dooley I referred to earlier.
Vince Dooley
head football coach: 1964-1988; athletic director: 1979-2004
For the past 40 years, Vince Dooley has had an enduring
impact on the University of Georgia, Southeastern Conference,
and collegiate athletics across the country. He has been a
man of great foresight in times of charting the future,
stability in times of change, and vision in critical times
that have shaped the path of college athletics. His national
stature was reinforced when he was chosen from athletic
leaders around the country to chair a national sportsmanship
summit in the spring, 2003.
There is no stronger indicator of Georgia's overall
athletic prominence than its recent success in the annual
Sears Directors Cup which includes a second place finish in
the 1998-99 season, third place finish in 2000-01, and top
ten finishes in four of the past five years. Sears Directors
Cup competition annually recognizes the top athletic programs
in the country. Under his watch as athletic director (since
1979), Georgia teams have won 18 national championships (nine
in the past five years) including an unprecedented four
during the 1998-99 year (women's swimming, gymnastics, men's
tennis, men's golf). Since Dooley became athletic director,
Georgia athletic teams have also won 75 SEC team
championships and numerous individual national titles in both
men's and women's sports.
He has also been a standard-bearer for academic excellence.
Under his leadership, more than 100 Georgia student-athletes
have been named first team Academic All-America, 43 have
received NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarships, seven have been
named recipients of the SEC's Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete
of the Year award, seven NCAA Top Eight Award winners, three
NCAA Woman of the Year recipients, and well over $275,000 has
been awarded to the University's general scholarship fund
through performances by Georgia student-athletes.
In 1985, Dooley was also instrumental in fostering the
pledge which has resulted in $2 million being contributed by
the Athletic Association to the University--the principle
being used for non-athletic scholarships and the interest
used in the recruitment of top students and other nonathletic
programs. These funds also provided private matching
[[Page H5170]]
money which made possible the construction of the chemistry
building expansion and the Performing and Visual Arts Center.
And as part of the University's Third Century Campaign, he
also initiated the Vincent J. Dooley Library Endowment Fund
which was created with Coach Dooley's personal gift of
$100,000 to the University library. Under his leadership, the
Fund raised over $2.3 million.
In addition to his commitment to Georgia's athletic
facilities, he was instrumental in the Athletic Association's
participation in the University's Ramsey Student Activities
Center, a facility rated by Sports Illustrated in 1997 as the
top student physical activities building in America. It cost
more than $35 million, over $7 million of which was funded by
the Athletic Association including $2 million in advance to
begin the project. The complex, which hosted the 1999 NCAA
Women's Swimming and Diving Championships and the 2002 NCAA
Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, includes competition
facilities for varsity swimming and volleyball and practice
arenas for basketball and gymnastics.
His community service and charity work is extensive and
includes work with the Heart Fund, Multiple Sclerosis,
Juvenile Diabetes, Boy Scouts, the homeless, and he is
currently serving on the Advisory Board of the Salvation
Army. He has served 28 years as the long-standing chairman of
the Georgia Easter Seals Society and in 1987 was named
National Volunteer of the Year for his service. For his many
contributions, a new Easter Seals facility in Atlanta was
built and named for him in 1990. He and his wife, Barbara,
are currently co-chairing a fund-raising campaign to
establish a Catholic high school in the Athens and northeast
Georgia area. Dooley, who was instrumental in the
University's campus being designated as an arboretum, was
presented with the Georgia Urban Forest Council's 2001
Individual Achievement Award given for significant
accomplishments in promoting urban forestry in Georgia.
He served six years on the Advisory Committee to the
Atlanta Olympic Organizing Committee and was in Tokyo with
his former player, ACOG president Billy Payne, when Atlanta
won the bid to host the 1996 Games. Through his efforts and
association with Payne, Dooley helped secure for Athens and
the university three Olympic venues (soccer, volleyball, and
rhythmic gymnastics) which was the largest number of events
in a city outside Atlanta. Dooley was selected as a flame
bearer in the 1996 Summer Olympics torch relay receiving the
flame from Payne in Sanford Stadium. He also chaired a $1.5
million fund raising campaign for new Salvation Army
facilities in Athens.
Another honor came Dooley's way in June, 2001, when he was
named the Division 1-A Southeast Region Athletic Director of
the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors
of Athletics (NACDA) and award sponsor Continental Airlines.
Dooley was born into an athletic family in the Alabama
coastal city of Mobile, September 4, 1932. His younger
brother Bill, former head football coach at North Carolina,
Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest, was an All-SEC guard at
Mississippi State in 1954. After graduating from McGill High
in Mobile, Dooley accepted a football scholarship to Auburn
where he was an all-star football and basketball player. He
received his Bachelors Degree in Business Management ('54)
and Masters in History (1963). After serving in the Marines
and as an assistant coach at Auburn, he was named head coach
of the Bulldogs in December, 1963, at the age of 31. Dooley
still maintains his academic and continuing education
interests by auditing classes at the University in such
disciplines as history, political science, art history, and
horticulture.
Dooley is married to the former Barbara Meshad of
Birmingham. They have four children; Deanna (Mrs. Lindsey
Cook), Daniel (married to the former Suzanne Maher), Denise
(Mrs. Jay Douglas Mitchell), and Derek (married to the former
Allison Jeffers). The Dooleys also have ten grandchildren:
Patrick, Catherine and Christopher Cook; Michael and Matthew
Dooley; Ty, Joe and Cal Mitchell; and John Taylor Dooley and
Peyton Dooley.
FAST FACTS ON VINCENT DOOLEY
Program success--In NACDA's Director's Cup Competition that
recognizes the top athletic programs in the nation, Georgia
has finished as follows over the last five years: 2001-02--
7th; 2000-01--3rd; 1999-2000--12th; 1998-99--2nd; 1997-98--
8th.
Standard bearer for academic excellence--over 100 Academic
All-Americans; 43 NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship recipients;
seven NCAA Top Eight Award winners; seven SEC Boyd McWhorter
Scholar-Athlete of the Year winners; three NCAA Woman of the
Year winners, more than any school in the country.
Hall of Fame Football Coach--Inducted into College Hall of
Fame in 1994; 25 seasons (1964-88); 20 bowl games; 201
victories ranked third nationally among active coaches at
time of his retirement; 1980 National Championship; six SEC
Championships (1966, 68, 76, 80, 81, 82); 1980 and 82 NCAA
National Coach of the Year; SEC Coach of the Year seven
times; State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame; State of Alabama
Sports Hall of Fame; Sun Bowl Hall of Fame; Georgia-Florida
game Hall of Fame; Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl Hall of Fame.
Award winning athletic director--2000 Georgia Trend
Magazine Top 100 Georgians of the Century; 2001 Amos Alonzo
Stagg Award from American Football Coaches Association for
lifetime contributions to the sport of football; 2001 NACDA
Division 1-A Southeast Region Athletic Director of the Year;
1984 ``Georgian of the Year'' by the Georgia Association of
Broadcasters; 1984 ``Sports Administrator of the Year'' by
the State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.
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