Vince Dooley being honored at Sanford Stadium was long overdue

The UGA athletic board voted unanimously to name the field at Sanford Stadium after Vince Dooley, and it’s about time the Georgia legend was honored by the school.

When you meander through the picturesque football setting which is Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, you’d be hard-pressed to find anything honoring one of the most beloved Bulldogs of all, former head coach Vince Dooley.

No statue (other than the one located outside the athletic complex on Lumpkin Street). No plaque. No street name. Nothing inside, adjacent to or attached to Sanford Stadium honoring the man who put Georgia athletics — particularly football — on the map.

At long last, that’s all about to change, (cue the giant middle finger to former university president, Michael Adams).

Current UGA President Jere Morehead made the recommendation to name the field at Sanford Stadium after former head coach Vince Dooley. UGA athletic board member Bill Young made the motion official, which was then seconded by Dr. Paige Carmichael.

After that it was unanimous. The UGA athletic board had finally seen fit to find a way to honor a UGA legend.

“Coach Dooley’s many contributions to this university can be seen across campus,” Morehead said in a University of Georgia press release. “From Georgia athletics, where he achieved unrivaled success, to the learning environment, where today many academic programs and initiatives bear his name, such as the Dooley Library Endowment Fund to the Dooley Professorship in Horticulture. The university community will continue to benefit from his service and dedication for generations to come.”

The proposal must now go to a vote by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents for approval (where it is expected to be easily passed), and by the first home game of the 2019 season against Murray State on September 7, the Bulldogs will play between the hedges on “Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium”.

For the Bulldog Nation, that has a comforting sound.

It’s been a long time coming for a man who was not only arguably the greatest head football coach in school history but also its finest athletic director. In 40 years under Dooley as head coach and athletic director, Georgia athletics reached unsurpassed heights.

Dooley wanted to do more. He wanted to continue growing the athletic traditions. However, then-president Michael Adams didn’t want to extend Dooley’s contract. In fact, he showed Dooley the door as if he were a university bookstore customer lingering past closing time.

When Dooley was unceremoniously removed from his position as athletic director (six months ahead of his own scheduled retirement in July of 2004, the Bulldog Nation was on its ear. How could Adams treat the man who’d served this university faithfully and successfully for 40 years be given what amounted to the Tom Landry treatment?

The reasons didn’t matter. Michael Adams was the big-man-on-campus and he was famous for making you aware of that fact (just ask Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist, Mark Bradley). The Georgia alumni, supporters and fans endeared themselves to Dooley over Adams, and that irked his gigantic ego more than he could stand.

Once he was out of Dooley’s shadow, Adams didn’t want to hear anything about naming stadiums, streets or fields after his nemesis. Michael Adams skulked away from the University of Georgia in 2012. Seven years later, his greatest wrong is at long last about to be righted.

We’re just one step away from erasing an Adams pencil mark in UGA history which should have been wiped away long ago.

But be certain — for those of you outside the welcoming arms of Athens, Georgia and the long-memoried Bulldog Nation — this isn’t as much about Vince Dooley as it is about those who love the 86-year-old UGA patriarch. Dooley has never been a man who cared about accolades or awards.

The fans have wanted to see Dooley appropriately honored for 15 years.

His peers have wanted to see him honored.

His family has wanted to see him honored.

It’s been unanimous for quite some time.

Ring the Chapel Bell, Bulldog fans. For, at last, the time has come.

When the late Larry Munson’s voice echoes across Sanford Stadium and the Dawgs run from that tunnel onto “Dooley Field” the explosion of sound from fans will be heard in every corner of the SEC.

You may only hear a thunderous, deafening roar, but the meaning of that raucous sound will be clear…

It’s about time.