When Bill Curry was informed Friday evening of the passing of Vince Dooley, his memories did not return to the two coaches’ seven on-field bouts that their teams engaged in while they both led Georgia Tech and Georgia, respectively.
Rather, it was private conversations between the two gentlemen following a few of those contests when some sort of incident had flared up. One happened at Grant Field, when Curry said that a fan threw a beer can from the stands that hit a Georgia team doctor. Dooley responded by calling Curry directly, and they worked it out privately. One response was for Tech to declare that such actions would result in being banned from the stadium.
“And we never had another problem,” Curry said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “A big reason is because Vince communicated like a professional instead of making it public, which he could have easily done.”
Another was after Tech’s 1984 win at Sanford Stadium, which ended Georgia’s six-game winning streak in the series and its four-game winning streak in Athens. After the game, Yellow Jackets players tore off pieces of the famed hedges, which Curry said he had told them not to do. Curry said he apologized to Dooley, and he accepted, and that was it.
“And, in coaching, you remember those things because it’s so easy to take them public and make them into huge controversies, and then they never go away, ever.”
As Tech’s coach for seven years (1980-86), Curry was Dooley’s longest adversary in the Tech-Georgia rivalry. Dooley also faced off with Bobby Dodd, Bud Carson, Bill Fulcher and Pepper Rodgers before Curry and Bobby Ross after in his 25-year tenure in Athens (1964-88). The College Football Hall of Famer’s record against Tech was 19-6.
Interestingly, he ended a three-year losing streak to Tech and Dodd when he took the job and then the Jackets won the first two after his retirement, including in the 1990 national championship season.
“The rivalry is not me,” Dooley said of the Tech-Georgia series in 1987. “And it doesn’t make any difference who’s coaching there. It’s still Georgia Tech. It will always be that way.”
Curry said he and Dooley were connected by the perspective that the rivalry, while dubbed “Clean Old-Fashioned Hate,” should not inspire actual hatred.
“We wanted to win on Saturdays in the worst way, but hatred’s not a part of the equation,” Curry said. “I think that’s what (Dooley’s wife) Barbara and Vince – I don’t think – I know that they agree with that.”
Curry and Dooley’s relationship, which went far past annual late-November meetings or competition on the recruiting trail, certainly illustrated that respect. They became friends through trips for college coaches sponsored by Nike. Dooley and Curry’s wife Carolyn bonded over a shared love of history and gardening.
The two “always had interesting conversations,” Curry said. “We (Curry and Barbara Dooley) were allowed to listen.”
Both of their sons, Bill Curry Jr. and Derek Dooley, both walked on at Virginia before earning scholarships, with the latter preceding the former.
“And Derek was wonderful with Billy,” Curry said. “He took him under his wing and helped him. They both had very successful experiences. Both of them ended up earning scholarships and being starting players for Virginia. We’ve always been indebted to Derek.”
When Curry returned to coaching at Georgia State, the Panthers played Tennessee, then coached by Derek, in 2012. And when Kennesaw State tabbed Vince Dooley to chair a committee to explore the possibility of starting a football team – an aspiration realized in 2015 – one of the first people he sought out was Curry, who had led the football launch at Georgia State.
When Carolyn Curry wrote her first book, published in 2014, Barbara Dooley hosted a book party for her.
“And she didn’t have to do that,” Curry said. “It just turned out to be a special relationship, and I’m so sorry – so sorry – that we’ve lost him.”
Credit: Georgia Tech Archives
Credit: Georgia Tech Archives
About the Author
