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Vince Dooley’s decades-long spirit of uplifting others celebrated on and off UGA campus

The heart of the University of Georgia Bulldog nation, legendary University of Georgia football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley, died Friday.

ATHENS, Ga. — During his nearly 60 years as a resident of Athens, Georgia, Vince Dooley--the heart of the Bulldog nation, the winningest football coach in University of Georgia history—inspired and led young people and the university, and the City of Athens and beyond.

Dooley’s death in Athens Friday at the age of 90 saddened multitudes across the country: those who never had the chance to meet him, those who vividly remember even the briefest handshake with him, and those who were his closest friends.

On that quiet Friday night in Athens, with so many thousands of students, faculty and alums away for Saturday’s Georgia-Florida football game, Vince Dooley stood tall and larger than life in Dooley Plaza on campus; the statue of Dooley--depicting him as forever triumphant, at the moment he was carried on the shoulders of his football players, celebrating the 1980 national championship that they had just won. Memorial markers surround the statue, detailing Dooley’s lifetime of accomplishments.

At the base of the statue, where people were beginning to leave fresh floral bouquets, Daniel DeWitt of Athens knelt in prayer.

“I wanted to honor his memory,” DeWitt said

DeWitt remembers the impact Coach Dooley had on him simply because DeWitt had once asked for Dooley’s autograph. He remembers Dooley's renowned, down-to-earth, engaging personality, the way Dooley would communicate with humor, warmth and respect, never hurried, taking his time in conversation as if that person were the most important person in the world.

“And he asked me what my name was,” DeWitt said, “and he said, ‘Thank you for being a Dawg and thank you for actually caring about me.’ I was honored.”

“He impacted multiple people’s lives,” said Dilon Gresham, a high school student in Athens, saying Dooley was not just a football coach but a life coach, “taking people from high school and bringing them through the college experience, from being a teenager to an adult, that helped so many, a lot, it helped them and their families for generations.”

Gresham and his friend, Jaylien Thomas, eating dinner together at one of the restaurants on College Avenue, just down the street from the UGA arch, spoke of how they grew up learning about Dooley, how they grew up admiring him.

“When he came here,” Thomas said, “he just brought a whole different vibe to the whole team, to everybody; he gave everybody spirit, hope. He was a big inspiration to a lot of the city, and I feel like this is very upsetting... because of all he stood for and meant.”

Athens resident Franchesca Ferguson, walking with a friend downtown, said she admires Dooley and his family for the way they have worked hard to support the city of Athens through the years after Dooley retired from UGA.

“On up there with Larry Munson,” the late, revered UGA football play-by-play announcer, Ferguson said.

Dooley “and his family, they’ve poured their heart into the community. It really saddens me that he’s not with us anymore,” she said.

Daniel DeWitt said he was able to meet Dooley in person one other time, a couple of months ago, in a chance encounter on campus. DeWitt recalled showing Dooley the tattoo that DeWitt has on his leg commemorating the Dawgs’ 2021 national football championship. He said Dooley admired it and smiled, and suggested that DeWitt get a second tattoo on his other leg, commemorating the team’s 1980 championship.

DeWitt said Friday night that that’s exactly what he will do now.

“Just being able to meet a legacy,” DeWitt said, “a great legendary coach like Vince Dooley-- there will not be any other one here at the University of Georgia who will live up to what Vince Dooley did. He’s forever etched in stone as one of the greatest in Georgia football.”

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