Vince Dooley won 201 games, six Southeastern Conference titles and the 1980 national championship during his 25-year run as Georgia's head football coach from 1964 to 1988.
Dooley was inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame a quarter century ago, and there has been a statue of him outside the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall athletic facility for more than a decade. Countless gatherings have been held in his honor, but the latest recognition of Dooley has still managed to pack quite the emotional punch.
Beginning with the 2019 season, the Bulldogs will play their home games on Dooley Field inside the 92,746-seat Sanford Stadium.
"It is special," Dooley said. "When you reflect on it, you think of all the people who have been involved. I think about my family and how they're going to enjoy it long after I've gone, and I had the privilege of coaching a lot of great players on that field. I was very fortunate to have a great staff when I coached and in my time as the athletic director.
"You even think about the bands. How many bands performed on that field? Same with cheerleaders. They all shared in this, so it's a very special honor."
Earlier this month, Georgia president Jere Morehead forwarded a motion to the school's Board of Regents to name the field for Dooley. The Board of Regents met Tuesday in Atlanta and gave its unanimous approval.
Dooley had no idea this latest recognition was occurring until a recent visit from Morehead and Bulldogs athletic director Greg McGarity.
"Greg called and said he wanted to stop by and run something by me," Dooley said. "When he showed up, he had the president of the university with him, so I thought either something really good or really bad was about to happen. Barbara was in the kitchen cooking for some people we had coming over that night, and when Greg told us what they planned to do, Barbara shouted, "Hallelujah!" and started crying.
"She hugged the president and hugged Greg, but she didn't hug me."
The dedication of Dooley Field will take place Sept. 7, when the Bulldogs open their seven-game Sanford schedule against Murray State. That ceremony will take place three days after Dooley's 87th birthday.
Georgia won 24 straight home games at one point under Dooley, a streak that began with a 42-0 pummelling of Texas A&M in 1980 and ended with a 13-7 loss to Auburn in 1983. Dooley is an Auburn graduate, and Auburn plays its home games on Pat Dye Field inside Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Dye is a Georgia graduate who coached Auburn to four SEC titles in a seven-year stretch from 1983 to '89.
"Pat and I share football and Japanese maples and gardening," Dooley said, "and we may be the only two in the coaching business who have been interested in gardening. We both have an appreciation for our alma maters, but we also have a love for where we wound up spending most of our time.
"All of my family grew up here, and I'm Georgia through and through, as Pat is at Auburn. We both appreciate that it's a special rivalry with a lot of crossover that has gone on for many years."
Two of Georgia's most memorable wins under Dooley transpired away from Athens. The Bulldogs won their 1980 national title with a 17-10 triumph over Notre Dame at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, and that opportunity would not have been possible without a 93-yard touchdown pass from Buck Belue to Lindsay Scott late in the 26-21 win over Florida in Jacksonville.
So what was Dooley's favorite win on Dooley Field?
"As a coach, you appreciate every win," he said," but the best spectator game was Georgia Tech in 1978, when we won 29-28 on a two-point play in the closing minutes. You had everything you could possibly have in a football game - a lot of scoring, an onside kick, a punt return for a touchdown and a kickoff return by Georgia Tech for 106 yards for a touchdown. They had a great last-minute drive that we stopped with an interception.
"The lead changed hands several times, so you can't beat that from a spectator's point of view, especially with Georgia winning."
Dooley's longest day on Dooley Field also took place against the Yellow Jackets, who applied a 34-14 throttling in 1974.
"When Pepper Rodgers came back to Georgia Tech, they were running the wishbone," Dooley said. "It started out as a rainy day, and we decided that we were going to give Tech the ball, which was a mistake. They fumbled the ball early but got back on it, and then they proceeded to drive 85 yards in about eight minutes.
"Then the rain turned into sleet, and then it turned into snow. The game got worse and worse, and we got beat pretty bad."
Georgia has won just three SEC football titles since Dooley stopped roaming the sidelines, but the most recent of those occurred in 2017, when Kirby Smart's Bulldogs avenged a November loss at Auburn in the league title game and outlasted Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl before falling to Alabama in the national championship game.
The Bulldogs held a double-digit lead in that game against Alabama and again last December, when the Crimson Tide rallied to win the SEC title, but Georgia is again a national force, which has its former coach excited about the months ahead.
"We've become a target, and we've been in that situation these last couple of years," Dooley said. "This could potentially be Kirby's best football team, so I hope the dedication during the first home game will be the start of maybe Georgia's greatest year ever.
"I'm very optimistic about the team, but they're going to have to man up and measure up, because there are going to be a lot of schools who are going to be ready to play Georgia."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.