Just read this on ESPN...read to the bottom. More positive publicity for Tech.
Georgia will dedicate a walk-through garden to former coach and athletic director Vince Dooley on Saturday. The garden will feature a sculpture of Dooley on the shoulders of his players after they won the 1980 national championship and will serve as a focal point for the Vince Dooley Athletic Complex.
That's what the university will call the physical plant that encompasses virtually all things athletic for the Bulldogs. It's a well-deserved and overdue tribute for the man who arrived as coach in 1964 and retired as athletic director 40 years later.
But, come on, a garden?
Yes, a garden. The fact is, Dooley has become so interested in horticulture in recent years that he helped design the garden that will house his sculpture. It's another piece of a man who not only won 201 games and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, but also holds a master's degree in history.
"The great thing about being at a university," Dooley said Monday, "is that if you get a curiosity about anything, you can satisfy it. You really can. There's an expert on everything. I have taken a lot of courses, leadership courses, about war, the Civil War in particular. I took some political science courses, which I enjoyed.
"I've always been interested in horticulture. All I intended to do was take a survey course. But a great teacher inspires his students."
In Dooley's case, professors Michael Dirr and Allan Armitrage led him to a passion he didn't know he had. Since taking that introductory course a decade ago, Dooley has traveled twice to England and once to Belgium to see gardens and attend a conference on hydrangeas (no word on whether he won the conference championship).
"It's been good for the body. It's been good for the mind, and it's been good for the soul," Dooley said.
Dooley's son Derek, who has done a masterful job of coaching a rebuilding Louisiana Tech team to a 7-4 record and no worse than a second-place tie in the Western Athletic Conference, said his family has shared in his father's passion, whether they at first wanted to or not. You see, Vince Dooley is known throughout every generation of his family for cooking up "projects" when the family assembles at its lake house.
"I'm 40. My brother is 45," Derek Dooley told me earlier this season. "It would be our fifth hour of pulling weeds. We'll look at each other and ask, 'At what age do you tell your dad you're not doing this anymore?'"
Whatever that age, Derek said, "We haven't gotten there yet."
Ivan Maisel is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Send your questions and comments to Ivan at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.
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Originally Posted by HogDawg
