Athens — Any question of how much Bill Hartman meant to the University of Georgia — and how much his school meant to him — is answered in a Vince Dooley tale about what happened when the NCAA decided to ban voluntary football coaches.

Hartman, a former Bulldogs player and assistant, had been in the insurance business full time when Dooley asked him to return to the field as his voluntary kicking coach in the early 1970s. From that time forward, Georgia boasted some of the best kickers in history of the SEC: Allan Leavitt, Rex Robinson, Kevin Butler, John Kasay, Todd Peterson.

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So when the NCAA eliminated positions like Hartman's in 1992, Dooley became frantic. Finally, he decided to ask Hartman to become a graduate assistant coach. Which meant Hartman would have to return to college to attend grad school.

Never mind that he was 77 at the time.

"Oldest G.A. [graduate assistant] student in the history of the game," Dooley said with a laugh. "He wanted to stay on, and he was such a valuable asset, I didn't want him to go. And he did some great things in the classroom, I understand. I mean, the man had been in the business world for years. So he made some significant contributions to those classes, too."

Hartman's eligibility as a student grad assistant expired three years later. Grudgingly, his gridiron career ended at 79.

Bulldog Nation lost one of its all-time favorites Thursday when Hartman — All-America football player, longtime assistant coach, successful businessman and lifelong student — died after a short illness at Athens Regional Medical Center. Today would have been his 91st birthday.

"I don't think anybody has done more for the university from both the academic and athletic standpoints," said Dooley, who'll be one of Hartman's pallbearers.

In addition to his sideline contributions, Hartman was a University of Georgia Foundation trustee, president of the university's alumni association and co-chairman of the Tech-Georgia Development Fund. In 1960, he became chairman of the Georgia Student Educational Fund, which was formed to raise private funds for athletic scholarships.

Founder of the Hartman Insurance Agency (now the Hartman-Clifton Agency), Hartman served the Athens community as president of the Athens Jaycees, Athens Chamber of Commerce, Athens Country Club and Athens Community Chest.

He was awarded the first Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Business in 1965 and the Alumni Society's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1963-64. Today, the Bill Hartman Award goes to former UGA student-athletes who distinguish themselves as alumni.

But more than anything, Hartman was a football man.

"You can't tell me there's been a better kicking coach — ever," Butler said.

A Stone Mountain native who later went on to star for the Chicago Bears, Butler was the first kicker inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He wouldn't have gotten there, he said Thursday, without Hartman's help.

"He made me into the kicker I was," Butler said. "He coached confidence. He used to always talk about the jewel. He said you have one chance to make the perfect cut of the diamond. Be ready to do it."

Former Bulldogs player Leroy Dukes visited Hartman in the hospital earlier this week and asked him what he wanted done at his funeral.

"He said, 'I want the first 15 minutes to be blocking and tackling,'?" said Hartman's son, WSB-TV sports anchor Bill Hartman III.

Top playing honors earned

Hartman was born in Thomaston on March 17, 1915. His football career began while attending public schools in Madison. He eventually played for Wally Butts at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville.

Hartman followed Butts to UGA in the 1930s, when he became one of the Bulldogs' greatest fullbacks, linebackers and kickers. As team captain in 1937, he was named both All-SEC and All-America.

Hartman holds the Georgia record for the longest punt, an 82-yard boomer against Tulane in 1937. Two weeks later against Georgia Tech, he fielded a second-half kickoff and, after initially fumbling the ball, gathered himself and raced 93 yards for the tying touchdown.

Hartman moved to Green Bay, Wis., following graduation to begin work for Coca-Cola. But all the while, he was continually recruited by NFL teams. He finally signed with the Washington Redskins — for $250 a game — to back up Sammy Baugh at quarterback.

After Baugh was hurt before the Redskins' opener, Hartman started the first six games of the season. He won the first pro game he'd ever seen — 24-22 over Philadelphia — by throwing an 87-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

Hartman turned his back on the NFL the following year, opting to return to Georgia as backfield coach under his old friend and mentor, Butts, for $2,800 a year.

Hartman helped lead Georgia to victories in both the Orange and Rose bowls before entering World War II as an Army counter-intelligence officer.

Named to Sports Illustrated's "Silver Anniversary All America Team" in 1962, Hartman was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the College Football Hall of Fame three years later.

His first wife, the former Ruth Landers of Savannah, preceded him in death in 1996. He is survived by his second wife Mary; daughters Laura Hartman Ciucevich (61) and Barbara Hartman Howell (55); son Bill III (57); six grandchildren and one great grandchild. All three of Hartman's children graduated from UGA's Grady School of Journalism, a fact of which he was particularly proud.

Hartman's visitation is scheduled for 7-9 p.m. Saturday at the Athens First Methodist Church. Funeral services will held at First Methodist at 2 p.m. Sunday.