Vince Dooley achieved football immortality for his 25-year stint as the head football coach at Georgia, winning one national title and six SEC championships. If there were a Mt. Rushmore of SEC coaches, the face of Vince Dooley would be etched on it. But to think of him merely as a coach does disservice to the man he is.
In 1980, Vince Dooley received a phone call from a group of Mobile nuns. The call came on the eve of the national championship game pitting Dooley’s Georgia Bulldogs and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The nuns, whom Dooley had known since childhood, were effusive in their praise for the Mobile, Ala., boy who had grown up and was now standing on the precipice of glory.
“Oh we’re so proud of you, Vincent!” the nuns gushed.
Then the nuns wondered if Dooley might score them tickets to the game.
“So I said, ‘Of course!’” Dooley recalls. “I wasn’t going to turn the nuns down.”
Arriving the morning of the game, the Sisters ran in the room and threw their arms around Dooley in adulation. He gladly handed over the tickets as the nuns said their goodbyes and began for the door.
‘Now Sisters, don’t forget,” Dooley said, stopping them for one small request. “Say a little prayer for the Bulldogs!”
“Oh no,” the nuns replied, clasping their tickets. “We’re praying for Notre Dame!’”...