"I think the fans were downright depressed," Dooley said. "Fortunately for me, I never knew it."

Two years later, Dooley would win his first of six SEC titles, and today, he's the enduring symbol of the Bulldog athletic program, which rose to new heights under his leadership.

"When I first came here, our stadium held 43,000 people," said Dooley. "Today, our stadium seats 93,000. We have 77 Sky Suites; we had none of those when we started here. Our budget was $2 million back when I started, and now it's $65 million. One of the more impressiv we changes was an increase of service personnel. We had a guy, Dan McGill, who was a legend in Athens. He was our tennis coach, our sports information director, and the secretary of our Bulldog Club. Today, there are 34 people that handle the duties that Dan did when I started."

Though Dooley has a plethora of memories, it's the players he coached that mean the most to him.

"Winning championships is what you pkay for, so winning six SEC titles was a great moment," Dooley said. "Winning the whole thing, the national championship, was really special, so I was fortunate to do everything I wanted to do as a coach. As an athletic director, I was thrilled with the great progress we made here at Georgia. We won 20 national championships when I was athletic director, which was very rewarding. But the players, and the relationships you have with the players when they graduate...that's what you remember the most. That's the greatest moment of satisfaction."

Some of his favorite memories involve two other UGA legends: football great Herschel Walker, and beloved radio announcer Larry Munson.

"Herschel was not a great player, but he's a great person as well," Dooley said. "He's in demand because of the person he is. He was a coach's dream. He used to say that 'my only desire was to please my coaches and my teammates.' So, even with all the attention he was getting, his teammates respected him as an athlete and as a person. As for Larry, he came to fame thanks to a team we had in 1978, called the 'Wonder 'Dawgs". It seemed like that year we'd get in close games every time, and find a way to win. Well, Munson would come with sayings we'd never heard before, like 'our team', and 'we're driving down the field'. That made him unique and popular with our fans."

There are few things in the entire UGA athletic program that Dooley hasn't had an effect. Even the famous Georgia "G", similar to the G of the Green Bay Packers, came to be thanks to Dooley.

"When we came here in 1964, we wanted to change the headgear," Dooley said. "We went to the red headgear, with the forward-looking, current G, much like the Green Bay Packers, and with the red and black being the most harmonious colors, it became very popular with the fans. Of course, we won a conference title in our third year, and that helped the new uniforms catch on. Had we been losing in those years, we'd have had to go back to the old styles, and the G you see now at Georgia wouldn't be there."

Dooley's legacy at Georgia is simple: Be successful, but do it the right way.

"I want a player to say he/she was proud to be a Bulldog, not only for the success, but for the way we did it," he said.

Dooley's mark on college football didn't stop in Athens. As a chairman of the NCAA Football Rules Committee, Dooley worked hard to maintain, and improve, the game of college football.

"Safety was always a big issue with us," Dooley said. "But the biggest strides we made were with sportsmanship rules. We were getting to a point where it was more 'look at me', than football being a team sport, which is what it's all about. We had to deal with sportsmanship rules, taunting and excessive celebration. Even the pros, who are known for not liking to change, are adopting some of the rules that we made here."

Contrary to many SEC coaches, Dooley supports the NCAA rule to shorten games by running the clock on first down.

"The games were too long, especially TV games," he said. "We tried hard to find ways to shorten the game without cutting plays. This year, it's the first time they've decided to cut plays, about 10-12 plays a game. I maintain the thought that offensive coaches hate the new rules because it takes away plays, while the defensive coaches are in favor of it."

Dooley believes that the era of long-term coaches, of which he was a legendary part of, is coming to an end.

"Coaches are becoming rich in 10 to 15 years, so they don't need to coach so long," he said. "Not only am I talking about head coaches, but also assistant coaches. With those high salaries, expectations run higher and patience runs lower. So, there won't be many long-term coaches like there were in the past."

Since retirement, Dooley hasn't slowed down at all. He travels to small towns over Georgia, talking football. He's written three books, including a new children's book "How 'Bout Them Dawgs!". He has an office in the Smith Student Academic Center, where he can watch football practice from his window every day.

Dooley has high praise for current UGA coach Mark Richt.

"He's doing well," Dooley said. "Just done great. I'm very pleased with him. He's not only a fine coach, but a great person with great moral leadership. He's also got a great knack of coaching great quarterbacks. The team is doing very well. To win in Columbia, which is tough, and shut them out, which is a bonus, is just a great thing."

With everything Vince Dooley has seen and done, the passion for UGA and SEC football still burns deeply inside of him.

"SEC fans have a great passion for the game," he said. "I don't think anywhere else in the United States is the sport more unifying than it is in the South. There are so many great in-state rivalries, Alabama and Auburn being one of them, and we have one with Georgia Tech, though they're not in our conference. We also have great border rivalries with Florida and Tennessee. And, in the SEC, you find stadiums that hold so many more people than anywhere else. I think seven of 11 of the biggest stadiums in college football are SEC programs."

And those stadiums are as big as they are, and fan bases are as avid as they are, because of living legends like Vince Dooley, who created a state of euphoria in a state that loves its football.