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Matthews half-pleased with honoring of Dooley

• South Georgia Bulldog Club president Dee Matthews likes UGA honoring Vice Dooley, but thinks more can still be done.

Scott Chancey

ALBANY — While the University of Georgia makes strides in honoring former football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley, South Georgia Bulldog Club president Dee Matthews is mostly happy with the progress.

The school will erect a 14-foot bronze statue of Dooley being carried on the shoulders of players Jeff Harper and Tim Morrison from the 1980 national championship season in the middle of a garden plaza on the corner of South Lumpkin Street and Pinecrest Drive, adjacent to the Butts-Mehre Athletic Heritage Hall. An area of the South campus that makes up most of the school’s athletic facilities also will be named the “Vince Dooley Athletic Complex.”

The projects honoring Dooley — a College Football Hall of Famer who also won 201 games in 25 years at Georgia, including six SEC titles — are expected to be completed before the season opener Aug. 30 against Georgia Southern.

“I think that’s a great tribute to him, it is because of him that all this success started,” Matthews said. “He and (his wife) Barbara worked so hard on the design. She and other members of the staff and coach Dooley went around the country trying to put something together that would be even better than what everybody else had, and they did a great job. I think that’s a real tribute to him.”

However, Matthews does feel the school still can do more in Dooley’s honor, especially when it comes to Sanford Stadium.

“I had hoped they would leave it Sanford Stadium and name the field, ‘Dooley Field,’ ” Matthews said. “I don’t know what the reasoning is behind that, whether it’s a state law; it could be, that it would have to go through the legislature. But I don’t think that would be a problem, considering the service that coach Dooley has given to the University of Georgia.

“You have ‘Pat Dye Field’ at Auburn, and other places haven’t named their stadiums for folks but they have named the field.”

Dooley’s statue will be located more than a mile away from Sanford Stadium, and that also brought up a concern with Matthews.

“My thought is they’ve got five bulldogs buried at the stadium (UGA VI, the current mascot, has been that since 1999), why not have a statue of coach Dooley some place around the

stadium?,” Matthews said. “My fear is not that he will be forgotten; people always will come in and out of the Butts-Mehre building, but if it were by the stadium, I could take my my family there and say, ‘Hey, this is coach Dooley and what he did,’ instead of having to get in a car and drive up there. A lot of people come up and drive for the day and they certainly wouldn’t get in all that traffic just to see a statue of coach Dooley or anybody else.”

LATEST COMMITMENT

Valdosta High School linebacker Michael Gilliard became the Sugar Bowl champion Georgia Bulldogs’ 11th verbal commitment for 2009 last weekend, according to Rivals.com. Gilliard had more than 20 schools to choose from, including Georgia Tech and the past two national champions, Florida and Louisiana State.

“I never thought I would have all of the offers to choose from — it does not happen every day to everyone out there, so I know my heard work paid off,” the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Gilliard told the Web site. “The offer from Georgia was like a dream come true, and now I can’t even believe I get to play for them.”

Last season with the Wildcats, Gilliard made 112 tackles, 18 of which for loss, eight sacks, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. When Gilliard joins the Bulldogs in fall 2009, star linebacker Rennie Curran and fellow Akeem Dent will be juniors. The other starting linebacker for this fall, Dannell Ellerbe, is a rising senior. Now that Gilliard has made a verbal commitment, he added he won’t change his mind although the choice doesn’t become official until National Signing Day in early February.

“To me, committing is like a marriage,” Gilliard joked with Rivals. “My word is my bond and we have committed to each other now. I am definitely committed to Georgia and it feels great.”

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