University of Georgia Athletics
Dooley Receives 2009 Auburn Lifetime Achievement Award
April 10, 2009 | General
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Former UGA Coach, AD Vince Dooley Receives 2009 Auburn Lifetime Achievement Award
ATHENS---------Former University of Georgia head football coach and athletics director Vince Dooley was recently presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at Auburn University.
Each year, the Auburn Alumni Association recognizes extraordinary accomplishment by Auburn alumni. To be selected for the award, nominees must have attained prominence in their professional careers, and they must be persons of integrity, stature and demonstrated ability.
Dooley was an All-Star at Auburn in both basketball and football, playing under Shug Jordan. He earned a bachelor’s in business in 1954 and a master’s in history in 1963. Dooley also served as an assistant football coach for Auburn’s 1957 national championship team.
In December, 1963, Dooley was named head football coach at the University of Georgia and for the next 25 years, led the Bulldogs to a career record of 201-77-10, becoming only the ninth coach in NCAA Division I history to win more than 200 games. He retired as head coach in January 1988. Dooley also served as athletics director for 25 years from 1979-2004.
He took his teams to 20 Bowl games and coached a Heisman Trophy winner (Herschel Walker, 1982), a Maxwell Award Winner (Walker, 1982), an Outland Award Winner (Bill Stanfill, 1968), 40 First Team All-Americans and 10 Academic All-Americans.
Dooley is a seven-time SEC Coach of the Year, six-time NCAA District Coach of the Year, and was 1980 NCAA National Coach of the Year. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994. He’s also a member of both the State of Alabama and State of Georgia Halls of Fame.
Under his watch as athletics director, Georgia teams won 20 national championships (ten in his final six years) including an unprecedented four during the 1998-99 year (women’s swimming, gymnastics, men’s tennis, men’s golf). During Dooley’s tenure Georgia athletic teams won 78 SEC team championships and numerous individual national titles in both men’s and women’s sports. In the annual Directors’ Cup national all-sports competition, Georgia teams earned top ten finishes in five of his final seven years as Director of Athletics.
