20 Facts About Doug Dickey

Douglas Adair Dickey was born on June 24,1932 and is an American former college football player and coach and college athletics administrator.

Doug Dickey is best known as the head coach of the University of Tennessee and the University of Florida football teams, and afterward, as the athletic director of the University of Tennessee.

Doug Dickey was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, in 1932, and grew up in Gainesville, Florida, where his father was a speech professor at the University of Florida.

Doug Dickey was a walk-on after being encouraged by assistant coach Dave Fuller.

Doug Dickey began his college career as a defensive back, but he remarkably advanced from seventh on the Gators' quarterback depth chart to starter after Haywood Sullivan's early departure for the Boston Red Sox left the Gators without a starting quarterback in 1952.

Doug Dickey graduated with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1954.

Doug Dickey was hired as head coach at the University of Tennessee in 1964 by athletic director Bob Woodruff, Doug Dickey's head coach during his playing years at Florida.

Many supporters of Tennessee Volunteers football credit Doug Dickey with rejuvenating the program.

When Doug Dickey was hired, the Volunteers had not won more than six games in a season, nor been to a bowl game, since 1957.

Doug Dickey was recognized as Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year in 1965 and 1967, and his Tennessee teams won SEC championships in 1967 and 1969.

Doug Dickey is credited with starting three Tennessee football traditions that endure today.

Doug Dickey was responsible for integrating the previously all-white Volunteers by recruiting running back Albert Davis, the first African American offered a scholarship to play for the Vols, but the university did not admit Davis.

Undeterred, Doug Dickey recruited wide receiver Lester McClain, who was admitted and became the first black Volunteer football player.

Rumors swirled that Doug Dickey was planning to return to his alma mater to replace retiring Ray Graves as head coach.

Doug Dickey became the head football coach at the University of Florida in 1970.

Notably, Doug Dickey gave the Gators' former Heisman-winning quarterback Steve Spurrier his first coaching job, as the Gators quarterbacks coach, in 1978.

Doug Dickey returned to the University of Tennessee, where he served as athletic director from 1985 through 2002, leading one of the premier intercollegiate athletic programs in the nation.

Doug Dickey was honored as "Tennessean of the Year" by the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Doug Dickey is the recipient of the National Football Foundation's John Toner Award recognizing his abilities as a sports administrator and the Robert Neyland Memorial Trophy recognizing his contributions to college football, and is a member of the Gator Bowl Hall of Fame, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, and the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame, and was recognized as a "Distinguished Letter Winner" by the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame.

Doug Dickey later blamed it on a punt that was run back earlier in the game.