Coach Bill Dooley has passed

[HeelFan58]

He was the coach when I first became a Tar Heel fan in 1967. He was the only UNC coach to win multiple ACC Football championships 1971, 1972, and 1977.

http://bobleesays.com/2004/03/27/stepping-back-today/

a fairly long read but worth it , if you are interested in the history of UNC football. Pretty nostalgic for me because it was the beginning of my long Tar Heel journey that is still in progress.

 

[WoadBlue]

Coach Dooley set standards for UNC football that I will always carry with me: running backs, offensive line, and defense. He arrived when Tar Heel football was down, way down, and he made first the conference and then the region and country take notice.

RIP

 

[WoadBlue]

To be fair - our last ACC championship was in 1980 under Dick Crum. But the seniors were Dooley Boys.

 

[HeelFan58]

To be fair - our last ACC championship was in 1980 under Dick Crum. But the seniors were Dooley Boys.

yeah that is right. fixed it.

 

[WoadBlue]

I hope this year's team wears a Dooley patch. We have only 5 ACC championships in football, and Bill Dooley coached 3 of them - and the seniors on our last ACC championship were his last freshmen class. That's history we need to honor.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

He was the coach when I first became a Tar Heel fan in 1967. He was the only UNC coach to win multiple ACC Football championships 1971, 1972, and 1977.

http://bobleesays.com/2004/03/27/stepping-back-today/

a fairly long read but worth it , if you are interested in the history of UNC football. Pretty nostalgic for me because it was the beginning of my long Tar Heel journey that is still in progress.

If you love UNC sports, you won't link a Bob Lee article again...

 

[WoadBlue]

If you love UNC sports, you won't link a Bob Lee article again...

That was my first thought, but then I decided to read it. BobLee is a UNC guy from those days. He was there as a student when Dooley got things turned around. So I guessed that BobLee's sentimental side would win the day on this, and he would not allow his smart-alecky side to rule.

It is for him a good piece. Of course, as I was reading I kept thinking, 'if this were about what Mack or especially Butch did to toughen up a down program,. BobLee would be waxing furiously about the perils of 'big time', 'professionalized' football.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

That was my first thought, but then I decided to read it. BobLee is a UNC guy from those days. He was there as a student when Dooley got things turned around. So I guessed that BobLee's sentimental side would win the day on this, and he would not allow his smart-alecky side to rule.

It is for him a good piece. Of course, as I was reading I kept thinking, 'if this were about what Mack or especially Butch did to toughen up a down program,. BobLee would be waxing furiously about the perils of 'big time', 'professionalized' football.

He wrote it in 2004, according to the link in HeelFan's post. I'm not clicking on that shit to verify it.

 

[HeelFan58]

UNC 1970 football roster , check out the size of the Guards and Tackles.

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He wrote it in 2004, according to the link in HeelFan's post. I'm not clicking on that shit to verify it.

Yes. It is an older article and yes Bob Lee is a turncoat and a wuffpecker azz kisser now and he is also naive as hell for a man of his advanced age. I just posted it to honor Coach Dooley and older Tar Heel fans will recognize the names of the players. I can understand at your age there is probably not much of a connection. I often read works by authors who I don't agree with politically or who I think are jerks but that's just me. Bob Lee chose to estrange himself from UNC and that's his problem and I doubt anyone is really mourning his decision.

 

[HeelFan58]

That was my first thought, but then I decided to read it. BobLee is a UNC guy from those days. He was there as a student when Dooley got things turned around. So I guessed that BobLee's sentimental side would win the day on this, and he would not allow his smart-alecky side to rule.

It is for him a good piece. Of course, as I was reading I kept thinking, 'if this were about what Mack or especially Butch did to toughen up a down program,. BobLee would be waxing furiously about the perils of 'big time', 'professionalized' football.

You and I both know there has always been that faction at UNC that has railed against "big time professionalized football". Hell TDTH editorialized that very topic when Jim Taum was brought back home to UNC in 1956.

 

[Archer2]

I hope this year's team wears a Dooley patch. We have only 5 ACC championships in football, and Bill Dooley coached 3 of them - and the seniors on our last ACC championship were his last freshmen class. That's history we need to honor.

Couldn't agree more.

RIP Coach!

 

[WoadBlue]

You and I both know there has always been that faction at UNC that has railed against "big time professionalized football". Hell TDTH editorialized that very topic when Jim Taum was brought back home to UNC in 1956.

Yep. He was a UNC alum and had won a national title, and that second part scared that faction. So no matter how great a man he was - and by all accounts, Tatum was an ideal coach who intended that his players stay on the straight and narrow and work to earn the degree - they feared him because they did nor want UNC to have football as we had in the days of Choo Choo.

BobLee always had some of that in him, but the hiring of Butch sent him totally over the edge of the cliff. He is as bad as they come now.

 

[WoadBlue]

Couldn't agree more.

RIP Coach!

Coach Dooley is a source of a half joke between the wife and myself. She is an Ole Miss girl, and naturally she will eventually get around to saying that nothing good can come from Mississippi State. And I reply right on cue: except Bill Dooley.

 

[WoadBlue]

Nice read on Bill Dooley.

I learned something from it - beside the fact that Bill and Vince as boys hopped trains. Bill and Vince were scheduled to be honorary captains for our game. Hopefully, one of Bill's children will stand in for him.

 

[randman1]

One of the dumbest things we ever did as a program was to fire Dooley. Crum was a disaster for the program, imo, that was masked by Dooley's recruits. I truly believe had we kept Dooley, at least for 2 more seasons, we had the personnel to make a run at the national title and actually win it.

Guess it's not best to bash Crum here. The main point is Dooley had amassed a fearsome team that matched his approach to the game. That was not the time to bring in a new coach with a different philosophy.

 

[HeelFan58]

One of the dumbest things we ever did as a program was to fire Dooley. Crum was a disaster for the program, imo, that was masked by Dooley's recruits. I truly believe had we kept Dooley, at least for 2 more seasons, we had the personnel to make a run at the national title and actually win it.

Guess it's not best to bash Crum here. The main point is Dooley had amassed a fearsome team that matched his approach to the game. That was not the time to bring in a new coach with a different philosophy.

I don't think Dooley was fired. VT offered him HC and AD positions but at the time a lot of Heel fans did welcome the change because of Dooley's brand of offense. Crum had a few good years with Dooley recruits but overall was a disaster. He preferred taking PSU and the Ohio State's sloppy second recruits rather than hitting the Carolina's and South hard. I think he may have been the one who coined "Carolina wants to be Harvard 6 days of the week and Bama on Saturday". The school may not have been Bama but you get the point.

 

[WoadBlue]

I don't think Dooley was fired. VT offered him HC and AD positions but at the time a lot of Heel fans did welcome the change because of Dooley's brand of offense. Crum had a few good years with Dooley recruits but overall was a disaster. He preferred taking PSU and the Ohio State's sloppy second recruits rather than hitting the Carolina's and South hard. I think he may have been the one who coined "Carolina wants to be Harvard 6 days of the week and Bama on Saturday". The school may not have been Bama but you get the point.

Correct. This was well before coaching salaries skyrocketed. Then, you got the big pay raise by doing what Vince Dooley did: AD as well as HC.

VT wanted its football to rise. Dooley not only won 3 ACC championships, but had recruited VA well. So VT made an offer UNC would not make him: AD and HC.

 

[WoadBlue]

One of the dumbest things we ever did as a program was to fire Dooley. Crum was a disaster for the program, imo, that was masked by Dooley's recruits. I truly believe had we kept Dooley, at least for 2 more seasons, we had the personnel to make a run at the national title and actually win it.

Guess it's not best to bash Crum here. The main point is Dooley had amassed a fearsome team that matched his approach to the game. That was not the time to bring in a new coach with a different philosophy.

As noted above, you are wrong about the firing. Bill Dooley would not have been fired at UNC. But you are correct that some fans and boosters were fine with the move. They found Dooley's offense boring, and failed to realize what killer Ds do for a program. They also knew that Crum had made Miami of OH into a MAC juggernaut. He beat at least 2 Big Ten teams and 2 SEC teams, as well as SoCar in a bowl.

To the UNC crowd that was, shall we say, wary of football, Bill Dooley was the type of boogeyman: raised in SEC country, played in the SEC, coached in the SEC. They saw Dooley as a good ole boy, and they despised good ole boys. They might chew tobacco or tell unpleasant truths.

In contrast, Crum was from OH and played at D2 Mount Union. And Miami of OH had been accorded Public Ivy status. And unlike Dooley, who was Old School, Crum was the modern coach, interested in graphs and charts and headphones. Crum seemed socially acceptable.

 

[HeelFan58]

As noted above, you are wrong about the firing. Bill Dooley would not have been fired at UNC. But you are correct that some fans and boosters were fine with the move. They found Dooley's offense boring, and failed to realize what killer Ds do for a program. They also knew that Crum had made Miami of OH into a MAC juggernaut. He beat at least 2 Big Ten teams and 2 SEC teams, as well as SoCar in a bowl.

To the UNC crowd that was, shall we say, wary of football, Bill Dooley was the type of boogeyman: raised in SEC country, played in the SEC, coached in the SEC. They saw Dooley as a good ole boy, and they despised good ole boys. They might chew tobacco or tell unpleasant truths.

In contrast, Crum was from OH and played at D2 Mount Union. And Miami of OH had been accorded Public Ivy status. And unlike Dooley, who was Old School, Crum was the modern coach, interested in graphs and charts and headphones. Crum seemed socially acceptable.

do you remember the old moo bumper sticker "I rather have jock itch than Dick Crum"?

 

[Archer2]

As noted above, you are wrong about the firing. Bill Dooley would not have been fired at UNC. But you are correct that some fans and boosters were fine with the move. They found Dooley's offense boring, and failed to realize what killer Ds do for a program. They also knew that Crum had made Miami of OH into a MAC juggernaut. He beat at least 2 Big Ten teams and 2 SEC teams, as well as SoCar in a bowl.

To the UNC crowd that was, shall we say, wary of football, Bill Dooley was the type of boogeyman: raised in SEC country, played in the SEC, coached in the SEC. They saw Dooley as a good ole boy, and they despised good ole boys. They might chew tobacco or tell unpleasant truths.

In contrast, Crum was from OH and played at D2 Mount Union. And Miami of OH had been accorded Public Ivy status. And unlike Dooley, who was Old School, Crum was the modern coach, interested in graphs and charts and headphones. Crum seemed socially acceptable.

Unfortunately, I believe there's a lot of truth in this. PC was becoming an issue even back then.

 

[randman1]

At the time, I just recall talk of he was fired more or less. But maybe they just didn't want to come up with more money. UNC still extended Crum's contract in a hurry.

Whatever it was, it was a dumb move and agree with some of the comments others have posted, including a sort of PC reference although wouldn't say it was exactly that. We just didn't seem to have sensible football people in charge or perhaps as the fan base and so they had no clue.

Dooley's style wasn't the most exciting. But still, he had amassed a very talented team capable of winning a national title and then you fire him? At least wait awhile, please.

Crum wrecked the program, imho. We've really struggled ever since with ups and downs. Hopefully Fedora is here to stay and we finally emerge.

On a separate note, most don't realize one of the main reasons the SEC evolved into such a football conference while the ACC, which back then loved football, fell behind. Sadly, part of it was the 800 rule. You had to make at least an 800 on the SAT to be admitted and play in the ACC.

The NCAA scholarship limit has helped. There's more parity now, and I expect to see the ACC come on strong. Hopefully the fan base does too.

 

[WoadBlue]

do you remember the old moo bumper sticker "I rather have jock itch than Dick Crum"?

I never saw one, but I heard tell of them. Those of us who watched as Crum oversaw the major decline of the program with apparently no clue felt the same way. When Howard Schnellenberger was hired at Louisville, he started with a team that won maybe 3 games. That was '85. Crum had his 1st 5-6 team after going 5-5-1 in '84. I sent a letter to AD Swofford suggesting that he trade Dick Crum to Louisville for Schnellenberger, so Louisville could have 2 Crums.

I never received a response.

 

[TarHeelNation11]

. . . We just didn't seem to have sensible football people in charge or perhaps as the fan base and so they had no clue . . .

We STILL didn't all the way through 2011 :/

 

[franklin street]

i disagree about whether dooley would have been fired or not.
dooley left for va tech when he saw the writing on the wall.

RIP Coach Dooley.

 

[WoadBlue]

i disagree about whether dooley would have been fired or not.
dooley left for va tech when he saw the writing on the wall.

RIP Coach Dooley.

Why do you think he would have been fired?