As he exits UGA, Adams should rename stadium for Dooley
Vince D. and Mike A., good buddies of long standing, share a hearty laugh. (AP photo)
Michael Adams is set to leave the University of Georgia in June 2013, which would mean he’ll have outlasted Vince Dooley by nine years. In the overheated summer of 2003, it wasn’t clear who would lose (or win, depending on your slant) the race to be last out the door.
At an institution of higher education, there was little edifying about their bitter struggle. Dooley, the athletic director, wanted to stay a little longer. Adams, who could never give a compelling reason as to why Georgia needed a new AD, wanted this one gone. Two smart and powerful men were reduced to bickering over half-years.
Dooley loyalists rallied, and such was their outrage that it seemed possible the president would be forced out before Dooley. But Adams managed to hold his job, mostly because he was, as a college president, delivering the goods. Dooley left quietly on June 30, 2004, to be succeeded by Damon Evans, and the bizarre saga reached its end.
Dooley lost his job but claimed overwhelming victory in the court of public opinion. He stamped himself as the wronged party, and when he gave the nod for his supporters to cool it — the 2003 summer convocation of the Bulldog Club of Greater Atlanta had been an embarrassment of pro-Vince overkill — he came away as statesmanlike. In the years since, Dooley has taken solace in having weakened his nemesis on campus and off. (If not for the memory of the Dooley feud, Adams might have received greater consideration to succeed Myles Brand as NCAA president.)
To say that the two men hated one another would not be overstating. Dooley considered Adams a meddler and a hothead, and Adams resented Dooley for trying to use a moment of presidential weakness — the AD asked for a contract extension not long after Adams had run off football coach Jim Donnan — as personal leverage. To suggest that either man has forgotten, much less forgiven, is a stretch.
Asked by colleague Chip Towers for a reaction to Adams’ announced departure, Dooley offered this beautifully meager kiss-off: “First of all, I commend President Adams on his retirement, his service and his contributions to the University of Georgia. I do believe it is time for a change and I look forward to the Bulldog Nation uniting under new leadership in the near future.”
Note that commendation for Adams’ “retirement” came two spots ahead of any note of his “contributions.” Note also that “time for a change” came in Sentence No. 2.
Dooley has always taken pains to note that Adams’ doctorate is in political communication, as if the only game the president had ever mastered was one that valued style over substance. But here’s where Dr. Adams can spring the ultimate bit of political jiu-jitsu: As a parting gift, he can name the football stadium after his adversary.
There were those of us who believed that should have happened a decade ago, but there was no way Adams would grant that favor at a time when Dooley’s forces were trying to get him fired. But now it’s 2012, and there could be no gesture more statesmanlike that this.
The school did affix Dooley’s name to the facilities on the southwest corner of campus in 2008, but that was thin gruel: It involved little more than transporting a statue someone had already made and holding a dedication ceremony on the morning Georgia played Tech. (Further indignity: Tech won the game.) Asked back then about naming the stadium for Dooley, Adams sniffed that the stadium “already has a name.”
But few Bulldogs fans would recoil at the notion of Sanford Stadium becoming Sanford-Dooley Stadium. (I’m of the opinion that “Dooley-Sanford Stadium” would sound funny. But maybe that’s just me.) It would be the right way to honor the greatest figure in the school’s athletic history, and it would be the right political move for a president who hasn’t always been seen as presidential.
Honoring his enemy would be a way for Adams to show that, this once if not always, he’s capable of being the bigger man. It would enhance Dooley’s legacy, but it would burnish Adams’ more. If this president left today, he’d be known as the guy who was right on academics but wrong in his handling of a popular AD. If he leaves after renaming the stadium for that AD, he’d become the guy who, in his final act, was wise enough to admit he’d gotten one big thing wrong.
That would, as even Dooley would be forced to admit, be one heck of an exit line.
By Mark Bradley
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529 comments Add your comment
Jay Dawg
May 5th, 2012
9:24 am
Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium but I agree 1 NC might not be enough to warrant that. Go Dawgs!
Dirty Dawg
May 5th, 2012
9:40 am
Clearly, particularly after Vince’s ‘congratulations’ comments on Adam’s retirement, he, Adams, won’t bet naming anything after Mr Dooley – I mean they don’t build out-houses anymore and the ‘treatment plants’ would be way too petty even for Michael. But if the ‘powers’ contemplate re-naming the stadium at anytime they need to decide how to go about it that is historically rooted as well as anticipates future success. Further, decisions should be made about how, and where, to place the emPHAcis. If we think Vince will be ‘the’ man forever and ever then make it, like Tech did for Bobby Dodd, Vince Dooley Stadium and use Sanford Field (as I understand it that was the original name of he place where Georgia played ball). On the other hand you want to hold onto Sanford, then make it Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium with Sanford being the core ‘brand’ identity. That way you could readily add Richt and make it Dooley-Richt-Walker Field after Mark wins a couple of NCs and the real reason we’re contemplating using Vince’s name in the first place…see?
Dr. Phil
May 5th, 2012
9:52 am
The buyout for Adams is obscene. I did not realize that the Chancellor of the BOR was an Adams lacky at UGA. That explains things.
I dropped my fried twinkie
May 5th, 2012
10:00 am
Dr. Phil…..that lackey on the BOR is Leebern. Leebern is the married man that lives in sin with ex-Gym dawg coach Yoculan, owns a liquor distributorship, and is a huge UGa donor.
Sideline Dude
May 5th, 2012
10:03 am
Why not Sanford-Dooley-Muson-Walker-Sinkwich Stadium? Don’t want to leave out anybody who has done great football things at UGA.
al
May 5th, 2012
10:07 am
This is a ridiculous article. Michael Adams has done amazing things for our university. His leadership has been outstanding. The decision on Dooley was correct. DO NOT rename the stadium. Sanford Stadium is a tradition and a legacy to man who started the traditions between the hedges. Dooley has been a huge asset as coach and ambassador for UGA, but he is not the namesake. Sanford did more than Dooley, and we should continue to honor his legacy and contributions.
Dirty Dawg
May 5th, 2012
10:13 am
Hey, sideline dude, who is this Muson guy…some future Heisman winner? Sorry…you have ‘hit on’ the issue…How you gonna do something without pi$$in off somebody’s family by leaving ‘em off somewhere down he line. For example, what’re they gonna do about Saban when the time comes?
WnE
May 5th, 2012
10:18 am
Give Dooley a nice statue somewhere, but you don’t name a Stadium after the guy.
Even though he coached during an era of 11 game seasons, he was basically a 7.7 games(wins) per year kind of HC, with one great 4-yr. run that produced a MNC.
When you balance that with the horrible academic track record, and the NCAA investigations, naming a Stadium after Dooley is a bit much.
Go back and look Dooley’s Graduation rates for players and the Jan Kemp mess, kinda hard to name a Stadium after a HC that benefited from all that , and just because that’s what the rest of the SEC was doing also doesn’t make it acceptable.
Do something nice & permanent like a Statue for CVD and leave it at that, but you don’t name a Stadium after the guy.
Herschel Walker deserves it more than Dooley does, Herschel was the main reason that Stadium got expanded from 62K(?) to 82K (first modern big expansion) that led to UGA’s increased FB revenues that made them them the type of Athletic Program that they are today.
Flo- Ri- Duh
May 5th, 2012
10:31 am
Name it “Erk Russell Stadium” after the greatest football coach in UGA history.. Dooley screwed Erk Russell over when he didn’t allow him to become the next UGA head coach. Erk was loyal to Dooley for many years and was the main reason Dooley won games and he deserved better. Can’t feel sorry for Adams sticking it to Dooley.
Flo- Ri- Duh
May 5th, 2012
10:34 am
Quit bringing up Jan Kemp. She’s dead. She deserted her husband and her family and she was an insane bitty. Quit trying to make her out to be a hero – she wasn’t. She was pronounced INSANE.
GDAWG65
May 5th, 2012
10:34 am
Mike Adams doesn’t deserve a nickel severance and certainly no place on the University’s faculty. Coach Vince Dooley is a real man. Mike Adams is an overblown self absorbed egomaniac.
bubba4dawgs
May 5th, 2012
10:35 am
Wait until he’s gone, then name the stadium anything you want! Why involve him with anything as nice as naming anything after Dooley/ Besides, he’s apparently not a very good listener, he wants everything his way! The Bulldog Nation will honor Dooley the way they should…..always!!
zeke
May 5th, 2012
10:39 am
Moron should have been fired years ago!!
Pitbull
May 5th, 2012
10:40 am
Lets name the stadium after every successful Coach. Give it four or five names. Dooley won one Nat. Champ account of HWalker. That’s all. What is so great about that. Bama beat us like a red headed step child. Grow up and leave the name the it is. You wanna change a name? Change your on!
dmr
May 5th, 2012
10:52 am
Sanford Stadium. That’s the name. IT SHOULD BE DOOLEY-MUNSON FIELD @ SANFORD STADIUM. End of story.
Ted Striker
May 5th, 2012
10:53 am
I’m opposed to it
Arby
May 5th, 2012
11:07 am
Don’t name the stadium or field after him ! Build a new complex and name it after him ! They already have names after great coaches. The AJC likes to ruin UGA’s traditons any way they can !
rod
May 5th, 2012
11:09 am
name it Dooley Field. Dont forget that while Dooley might have missed on some other championship opportunitites, he did one hell of a job building all of Georgias programs and profits. He should be recognized for all of his successes at Georgia. Adams is a typical Presdient who is high and mighty and too petty to do something like this.
Tom
May 5th, 2012
11:27 am
glad Adams is leaving.
Keep it Sanford. I love ya Vince, but Dooley field or Sanford-Dooley just doesn’t sound right.
dawg tired
May 5th, 2012
11:32 am
Better yet, rename Stegman as “Adams-Harrick Coliseum”.
GeorgiaDuck
May 5th, 2012
11:34 am
Dooley without Herchell Walker is just an average coach. How about Jan Kemp Field at Sanford Stadium?
ugab
May 5th, 2012
11:40 am
What about Hershell Walker?? Walker made Dooley!!! Without Walker Dooley is nothing!!! Who cares about Dooley.. ?????Change the darn Drug testing policy.. Please
ugab
May 5th, 2012
11:42 am
Walker deserve a huge statue!! Put a lil midget statue of Dooley in Walkers Shadow.. lol Dooley Stadium.. The fans need to have say on this subject.
ugab
May 5th, 2012
11:43 am
Dooley held Uga back as AD.. He sucked.
ugab
May 5th, 2012
11:47 am
Do something for Munson, but NOT DOOLEY
Courtney
May 5th, 2012
11:49 am
I hate Dooley. He was a below average coach and an Auburn graduate. His son is currently at UT. He has been overpaid for years.
Harry Dog
May 5th, 2012
12:00 pm
No Way Name it Russell Field
For Erk Russell, The real Coach and motavator
Dooley got out just in time!!
May 5th, 2012
12:02 pm
1. These comments prove just how desperate UGA fans are to pretend they are among college football royalty. The poster who suggested that Dooley belongs being mentioned with names like Bear Bryant, Bo Schembechler, Bobby Bowden, Tom Osborne, etc… just proves how delusional your fan base is. Dooley coached 25 years. Has 201 wins for a 71% winning percentage, including a national championship. That is a great career no doubt. With that said it puts him in the company of Mack Brown and Lou Holtz. Do Mack Brown and Lou Holtz deserve to have stadiums named after them? Of course they don’t . Don’t give me this “he was a statesmen and one of the best athletic directors of all time” nonsense either. Dooley is a politician who never met a camera he wouldn’t knock someone to the groud to get in front of. His success as an AD came on the backs of non-revenue sports, and if not for the 1990 baseball team Vince Dooley’s record as the AD in the 3 major men’s sports is absolutely abysmal. The guy made millions and millions of dollars because of UGA and still had the nerve to have the university pay for his vehicles and remodeling his home in the name of “entertaining”. Don’t get me started on his wife and the friggin ice buckets. Dooley was a good coach and has been appropriately honored at UGA as such. He got out right before Spurrier would have made him look as foolish as the UGA program is.
2. To the guy at 1:54pm who said that the new buildings and the endowments that have come about at UGA because of Dooley: You couldn’t possibly be more wrong if you tried. The money that comes in because of academic grants, endowments, research funds, etc… absolutely DWARFS the money that the athletic department brings in. Due in a VERY VERY large part to Michael Adams, UGA has increased its academic endowments to the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Dooley had absolutely ZERO to do with that. It was Adams who brought UGA from a place that fell way behind several schools in their own state in the terms of academics to a top notch research institution that is clearly one of the top educations in the SEC (behind Vandy and UF). The new buildings on campus? Funded by those research endowments. He went and got rid of the good ‘ol boy network and brought in top notch deans. He started to attract top notch students and raised the overall level of academic achievement at the University. Hell it was Damon Evans who was the brains behind the financing of the stadium expansion and most of the other improvements made to the athletic facilities. More than 1/2 of them didn’t even happen until after Evans took over……and he was a philandering drunk.
You UGA fans kill us. Sensationalist wanna be’s. Yes Florida was an underachieving program before Spurrier took over. We will all admit that. At least we went out and did something about it instead of being a bunch of self-righteous pretenders living off an average coach and a transcedant running back from 1980. Since your magical season, 32 years ago, Florida has become one of the 3 best programs in college football with 3 national championships, 8 SEC titles, and 2 Heisman winners…..and we spotted you the 10 years between 1980-1990. Don’t worry though. I’m sure Richt will find a set of marbles and get you past the real SEC powers any year now.
HammondB3
May 5th, 2012
12:07 pm
At least the Tech Nerds can write and spell there name correctly
JW
May 5th, 2012
12:15 pm
Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium is the way to go.
Dunwoody Jacket
May 5th, 2012
12:17 pm
I am a Tech fan, and I bleed white and gold. I don’t know if my opinion will be welcome here, but I think UGA should change the name of the stadium, just like we did for Bobby Dodd. Vince Dooley is a good man, and a coaching legend. I don’t think we will ever see coaches like Dooley or Dodd again; those legends are of an era that is now long gone, where school tradition and pride meant more than money.
Alphare
May 5th, 2012
12:28 pm
If CMR wins a NC, his achievements would easily surpass Dooley. So I’d say leave the stadium name alone.
Alphare
May 5th, 2012
12:31 pm
BTW, can Mike Adams make the name change by himself? as far as I know, UGA is a public university supported by tax money.
South Carolina DAWGS
May 5th, 2012
12:54 pm
Mark
As much as I admire and respect your writing in this paper Or weekly wipe – I DO NOT AGREE with this stadium change. Am VERY PLEASED to see ADAMS GO but keep it SANFORD STADIUM for my lifetime please
Stinger 2
May 5th, 2012
1:05 pm
Does anyone have a close to accurate count of the yes and no vote to change the name and include Dooley in some way?
Mark should have addded a vote option when he released the blog.
My guess is a lot more no votes than yes.
New Name
May 5th, 2012
1:40 pm
Adams is an egotist and may order the stadium named after him when he leaves. Adams-Sanford Stadium, in big letters!
EgoMania
May 5th, 2012
1:43 pm
who has a bigger ego: adams, vince dooley, barbara dooley?
Poopdawg
May 5th, 2012
2:47 pm
New name, that has a much greater chance of happening than Bradley’s thought. Adam’s is an attention grabbing kid of guy.
collegeballfan
May 5th, 2012
2:48 pm
Adams raised the University of Georgia from an academic embarrassment to one of the top state universities in the nation. He deserves every dime he gets in his retirement package,
81Dog
May 5th, 2012
2:54 pm
I’d say there’s more of a chance the Joke By Coke will be renamed Vince Dooley Field than Sanford will. Michael Adams has lots of class…..it’s just all low. Adams probably had his butler throw a vase against a wall when his personal secretary read him this article while his personal chef was poaching him a couple of dinosaur eggs and caviar for breakfast. Officious little self important weasels like Czar Mike are giving sycophancy a bad name. Good riddance, your Czarship.
81Dog
May 5th, 2012
2:55 pm
to be fair, though, Vince had a higher winning percentage at the Joke than he did at Sanford. And, Tech fans probably like him better than Adams does.
81Dog
May 5th, 2012
3:02 pm
as for the members of Czar Mike’s family who want to trumpet his heroic drive to drag UGA from pre-literacy into the ranks of the Ivy League, that tired trope remains hilarious. If the Czar had majored in economics instead of political wankery, or whatever it was, he’d understand the effect of supply and demand on the pool of smart kids on HOPE who decided a free ride in Athens was a much better deal than 40 grand a year for private or out of state tuition.
Adams might also have learned the difference between “cause and effect” and the logical fallacy of “post hoc ergo propter hoc.” He and his minions are like roosters taking credit for the sunrise, because it happens every day after they crow. Most of what Adams has done is to cause the price of attending UGA to skyrocket, which in turn has caused HOPE to outspend the revenue it recieves, which leads to cuts in HOPE. But hey, Mikey gets a big severance after living like a pasha on UGA’s dime for the last 15 years. Super!
Kentucky Derby party starts early on infield – Atlanta Journal Constitution | The Time of Press
May 5th, 2012
3:37 pm
[...] As he exits UGA, Adams should rename stadium for Dooley [...]
Sam
May 5th, 2012
4:25 pm
Michael Adams is a complete jerk. He is a typical politician .He says one thing and does another. Vince Dolley is a class act and a gentlemen. He was treated badly and did more for Ga that anyone I can name. Good riddance Michael Adams ! You can go back to the trailer park from where you were raised.
Just up the Street
May 5th, 2012
4:34 pm
call it Ron Jirsa stadium
Buzz2011
May 5th, 2012
5:29 pm
How about Damon Evans Field at Jim Harrick’s hangout???
edog
May 5th, 2012
5:32 pm
UGA’s “academic reputation” is no better now than when adams started. Check the rankings.
Nauti-Dawg
May 5th, 2012
5:53 pm
Really.., no, really?
Don’t gt me wrong
I don’t like Adams meddling with Doodle.
I like Doodle, but he was a just an above average Coach.
I’m against renaming for political reasons and hate it when as soon as someone dies or retires they start renaming things for then (i.e. Hartsfield-Jackson Airport). On this point I agree with Adams – “…it’s already got a name”.
IMHO there should be a 10 year wait after someone dies before they rename anything after someone – if we still remember them then in such high regard – only then start to think about it.
I take this as a Bradley easy, cheap effort to stir the pot and dare to Adams rather than a serious column. Really Bradley….really?
Archie@Arkham Asylum
May 5th, 2012
6:17 pm
Stadium, schmadium! Why not name the University for him? I think the “University of Vince Dooley” has a nice ring to it!
joseph
May 5th, 2012
7:53 pm
if cd could not stay one more year, adams should not be allowed to stay either.