Vince Dooley talks about a “Fighting Bulldog”

book. Will Delony was the middle will sit down later mortally wounded and work through the in Virginia in 1863. His issues.” brave feats also brought Of course, this him to the attention of Bulldog couldn’t let Vince Dooley. the conversation end

“Kent Masterson without some discussion Brown, an attorney of football and his and historian in reaction to the success Lexington, Kentucky, of this year’s Bulldog wrote a wonderful book team. He said, “You can’t on the retreat from help but love this team Gettysburg,” Dooley and the job the coaches says, “and mentioned have done. Also, the Delony, who had been fact that four guys who slashed several times could have gone to the in a cavalry charge pros came back for their and wounded. He was senior year has made a placed in a 17- mile great impact physically long ambulance train and spiritually.” along with about 7,000 Both Dooley and other survivors. They wife, Barbara, will be in were being harassed attendance at the Rose by Union troops and Bowl on Jan. 1, hoping found themselves trying the Dawgs will be to cross a swollen coming back to Atlanta Potomac River and the the following week to real possibility of being play for the national wiped out before they championship. “The Legion’s could.” As we were about to Fighting Bulldog” Instead, Dooley said, hang up, I told him about is a compendium the injured Delony a couple of yakkers on of correspondence climbed out of his a sports radio show. between William Gaston ambulance, rounded One was marveling that Delony, a lieutenant up 200 able- bodied Coach Kirby Smart has colonel in Cobb’s Legion comrades still able to brought a different and his beloved wife, fight and guarded the brand of football to Rosa. Delony was a ambulance train until Georgia. Not really, said well- to- do attorney in survivors could get the other. He is simply his hometown of Athens, across the river. doing what Vince Dooley as well as a devoted Dooley quips, “When did in his heyday. husband and father. I read that, I said ‘I like Dooley chuckled at There are 167 letters this guy.’” That led to the observation and said, between them, talking five years of research, “Well, we did run the about everything from compilation and writing ball some back then and mundane household with curator Thomas. we played some pretty matters to experiences The result is a hit good defense.” Did on the battlefield and book. (The first edition they ever. In addition his opinion of some of his sold out and a second to being a historian, commanders, i.e., “I am edition is due on the prolific author and tired of being ordered bookshelves this week.) master gardener among around by jackasses.” I asked the coach/ other talents, don’t

There are also some historian about the forget that Vince Dooley very intimate moments current effort of some was a helluva football between the two. One groups to destroy all coach, too. Will Delony reviewer said you feel vestiges of Confederate would have loved this guy.attimeslikeyouarehistory.“Unfortunately, invading their privacy. it is the extremes on You can reach Dick

Delony’s bravery in both ends that get all Yarbrough at dick@ battle earned him the the attention,” he says. dickyarbrough.com; sobriquet “a courageous “They see things very at P. O. Box 725373, bulldog,” from Gen. myopically. I expect Atlanta, Georgia 31139 Wade Hampton and, the day to come when or on Facebook at www. thus, the title of the reasonable people in facebook.com/dickyarb

While the Bulldog Nation rightfully exults over possibility of a national championship, I have been talking to the man that delivered the last one in 1980, Vincent Joseph Dooley.

In addition to being a College Hall of Fame football coach, the winningest football coach in UGA history with 201 victories, including six SEC championships and a national championship, Vince Dooley is also an avid historian. ( He got his master’s degree at Auburn) and currently serves as chairman of the board of curators of the Georgia Historical Society.

Therefore, our conversation was not just about the muchanticipated clash between No. 2 Oklahoma and the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, but also about his latest book, “The Legion’s Fighting Bulldog,” a collaboration between the coach and Samuel Norman Thomas Jr., curator of the T.R.R. Cobb House in Athens. Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb was a Southern statesman and Confederate soldier who formed Georgia’s Legion Cavalry at the beginning of the War Between the States and was killed in the Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862.