In his autobiography written with AJC sportswriter Tony Barnhart and in subsequent interviews for this book, Dooley expressed his disappointment at being forced to retire earlier than he wanted. Other long-term coaches and athletic directors, like Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech, Bear Bryant at Alabama and Darrell Royal at Texas, all had a say in their retirement, he said. Dooley said Adams wanted to put his own people in every position regardless of how proficient an individual might be at his job.
In his second year as president, Adams told Dooley that unnamed “key people” were not happy with Dooley as athletic director. “He said, ‘You’ve done a good job here, Vince, but you never want to stay too long. And, you need to have something named after you,’” Dooley recalled in his autobiography. “My first thought was, now that’s a crafty way to make a change. Is he thinking that I would want to resign in order not to stay too long and to have something named after me? Is he hoping that I will comply and gracefully retire on my own?” Soon, Dooley said he started hearing rumors, especially from his wife, Barbara, that Adams wanted to replace him. Dooley said he dismissed the rumors. He should not have.
As the rumors grew more persistent, Dooley wrote Adams a letter on December 15, 2000, asking for a four-year extension of his contract. Three days later the two men had a follow-up discussion on a flight to Tallahassee, Florida, to interview Mark Richt for the head football coach’s job. Dooley said he offered a compromise of three more years as athletic director and two as a fundraising consultant after his retirement. It was an offer that Dooley didn’t really want, but he proposed it in the spirit of compromise to avoid a controversy. And while in Tallahassee, Dooley said, Richt asked him, in Adams’s presence, how long he expected to remain as athletic director. Dooley told him that he expected to remain for at least three years to help him get the program off to a good start. Adams said nothing at the time or on the return flight from Florida, Dooley said. However, on January 29, 2001, Adams responded with a “Dear Vince” letter expressing gratitude for Dooley’s hard work in the search that resulted in hiring Richt. “I am pleased that you and I were ‘in sync’ with each other during the screening and interview process,” Adams wrote. “Despite some media analysis to the contrary, I believe you and I were close to being ‘in sync’ with the decision made by the Athletic Board executive committee consensus to make a change in the leadership for the football program. In some ways, what we were probably talking about was timing and not the end result. This has been a trying time for all involved, and I look forward to beginning this new year with optimism and excitement for what lies ahead.”
Adams’s letter then got into the meat of the matter. “After much thought on the points you have raised in your letter regarding your future work here and on what direction I want to take on campus in the coming years, I have decided to offer you a contract of four years service, but I very much want to structure it so that you serve two years as Director of Athletics and two years as a Special Assistant to the President for Athletic Development,” Adams wrote. Adams said he had discussed the arrangement with some “key people” including some members of the Athletic Board. While there was a multiplicity of opinion, Adams said, “I believe it is fair to say that most of the key people with whom I consulted believe this is a fair arrangement for the University of Georgia and provides the proper and well-deserved recognition of the important role you have played here and will continue to play.”
Adams proposed that Dooley’s contract become effective July 1, 2001. He would serve as director of athletics until June 30, 2003, and then transition to the job of special assistant to the President for two additional years. Dooley’s compensation and benefits would remain the same.
“On a personal note, your usefulness and effectiveness in this contract extension will be enhanced if you feel like you are being treated fairly, and it is important to me that you indeed feel this way,” Adams wrote. “It is my sincere hope that this arrangement will give you the opportunity to conclude your service to the University on a well-deserved high note. I think the arrangement described here is consistent with the one that Georgia Tech reached with Homer Rice and is significantly more rewarding financially than that agreement.” Adams concluded by suggesting the two men get together to hash out any unresolved issues.
Dooley said Adams was flat wrong about the offer being more lucrative than Rice’s contract. He was concerned with the two-year offer as athletic director. He wrote to Adams on February 1, 2001, stating his rationale for wanting three years, especially citing his commitment to Coach Richt, which was made in Adams’s presence and with no rebuttal by the president at the time or afterwards. According to Dooley, they met February 6, 2001, and Adams offered to extend Dooley’s tenure as athletic director to two and a half years with one and a half years as Special Assistant. Dooley asked for three years. Adams said “no,” Dooley recalled.
“When I asked him why he gave me half of a year, Dr. Adams said it was not uncommon with faculty appointments,” Dooley said. “When I reminded him that this was not at all a common practice in athletics, he basically said, ‘Take it or leave it.’ I told him I was going to take it, but I also said, ‘I’m going to take the high road publicly but I’m going to tell you that I disagree with you and your decision. I don’t think you’re treating me fairly,’” Dooley recalled in his autobiography. Dooley later said that it was “vindictive Adams,” once again, using the half year to justify the commitment that he made to Richt that was not questioned by him. In other words, Adams was covering himself by extending Dooley’s contract a half year to cover the football season only and not the second half of the academic sports year. The following day, February 7, 2001, Adams wrote confirming their previous day’s agreement but couching it as a three-year deal at an annual salary of $313,425.
“Consistent with our conversation yesterday, I am pleased that we have reached an agreement for your contract renewal as Director of Athletics for three years, commencing January 1, 2001. This new contract insures [sic] service at the University through December 31, 2003,” Adams wrote. But Dooley’s contract didn’t expire until June 30, 2001, so the contract extension was really for two and a half years, not three as the letter suggested.
Dooley accepted the contract extension publicly with appreciation, but privately he was not happy. Adams had heard from some “key people” that the half-year part of the contract extension was coming across publicly as petty and vindictive, according to Dooley. But instead of going directly to Dooley, Adams addressed the issue in a Question & Answer interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Tim Tucker. Asked if he would have a problem with extending Dooley’s contract by six months to complete the school year, Adams said he would not. Dooley said that Adams called him the next day to discuss the interview and told him that Tucker had asked him an interesting question about an additional six months on the contract and he told Tucker that he would not have a problem with it. Dooley said he reminded Adams how adamant he was about not granting the six months in the contract discussions. But he told Adams he would gladly accept the additional time to round out a full year, if offered, but he wasn’t going to ask. In June 2001, six months were added to the contract, which would then expire in June 2004. This didn’t settle the issue as far as Dooley was concerned. By that stage in his career Dooley had signed numerous contracts, each followed by an extension. He insists that he saw this one as no different. Adams, on the other hand, felt differently. Anxious to get his own man in that important position, Adams wasn’t about to negotiate another deal with Dooley. In early 2003, with eighteen months left on his contract, Dooley said he began thinking more about staying past his scheduled June 30, 2004, departure. He was in good health and was being encouraged by friends to stick around past his scheduled retirement. Dooley said that he wanted to finish the fundraising campaign that was off to a great start, and finish some projects that were in the initial planning stages with the stadium and the coliseum.
Adams and his top lieutenants felt Dooley was campaigning with prominent Georgians to pressure Adams for a new contract. “Adams gave Vince an extension and Vince accepted it,” said Georgia Senior Vice President Hank Huckaby, who was treasurer of the Athletic Board. “But then he began almost immediately to get people to pressure Mike to extend his contract. Vince might have been able to pull it off but he went public with it.”
Dooley