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How time flies. Vince Dooley, the University of Georgia's winningest football coach and one-time athletic director, turns 80 on Tuesday, Sept. 4.
Dooley, now retired and living in Athens, won 201 games from 1964-88. He also was successful as athletic director from 1979-2004, wearing two hats as football coach and AD during some of that time.
-- What are your favorite memories of Vince Dooley's coaching career? What are your special birthday wishes? Tell us in the comments below.
He is best known for the 1980 season, when a freshman tailback named Herschel Walker led Georgia to the national title, capped by a Sugar Bowl win over Notre Dame. In all, Dooley's teams won six SEC titles.
As athletic director, he hired current football coach Mark Richt, who has won the school's first SEC titles since the Walker era. And Dooley's son Derek is the head football coach at Tennessee, one of Georgia's top rivals.
Since retiring as AD, Vince Dooley, an Alabama native, has become well-known for gardening. His lectures include one in Gwinnett in 2010.
"I've been bitten by the gardening bug, and there is no cure for the infection," he said at a speech at Gwinnett Tech.
See also:
Steve Burns
9:00 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
As a student journalist at UGA and later in the real world, I found Coach Dooley to be very professional in his dealings with the media, whether it be good news or bad. Happy birthday, Coach!