Football, gardening linked for Vince Dooley

By Michelle Hiskey

For the AJC

The former coach and athletics director synonymous with University of Georgia football teamed with illustrator Steve Penley on a new book, “Vince Dooley's Garden: A Horticultural Journey of a Football Coach.”(Looking Glass Books).

His zest for gardening knowledge started late but stretches across the world, unquenched. The journey sometimes grazes his football career.

Dooley covered some highlights recently as his famous hydrangeas prepared to burst forth.

By Vince Dooley

For the AJC

Gardening is my golf. I’ve never had a bad day in the garden except when a plant suddenly kicks the bucket.

Gardens are never finished, and neither are football teams. There’s always something happening that makes you a better gardener and makes you a better football coach, as long as you keep that passion and drive to learn and improve.

For years I found myself with no experience in a group -- including my mentors, UGA professors Dr. Michael Dirr and Dr. Allan Armitage -- who have devoted most of their lives to this industry [horticulture]. Yet at the same time, I had a real passion for learning, for absorbing everything I can. I’m taken more seriously now. The experts have accepted me now as one who is still a little “green but growing.”

Some people I was teammates with or competed against, like former coaching rival Pat Dye, are gardeners. Pat and I are Japanese maple brothers. I love Japanese maples, because there are endless varieties in color, size, shape and form.

There is competition in gardening. The real experts’ greatest joy is introducing new plants. They are horticulturalists who travel the world and into the wilds, to find and grow what they hope will be the next great plant. Most don’t mind sharing it with me, because I’m not a competitor. I garden for pleasure, not profit. The ones who want their label on a new introduction, that’s where the competition occurs.

Despite the competition, gardeners like to share plants, as you share football knowledge. You go to clinics and talk. But at the same time, there’s a little bit that you hold back because it may be important for the coming season in a game.

The biggest change in my garden after I retired from the athletics department was my patio. I used to entertain 100 people in the area, now I entertain 100 potted plants. Most are new. I keep them there two years until I get to know them, before I put them out to pasture.

I try to have what I call a garden for all seasons. Regardless of the time of year, something is going on in my garden. The biggest show is in the spring and end of summer, yet throughout winter and into early spring and late fall, there is something going on.

There are some similarities in gardening and coaching, such as seeing young football players and plants grow and develop. When I started out, from a landscaping standpoint, I did think unknowingly in terms of football formations. When I planted in threes, I’d look out and see a wishbone, one plant up and two in back. Or a T, two plants up and one in back. Those were the patterns already in my head.

As a consultant to Kennesaw State, I have visited Smith-Gilbert Arboretum. It’s beautiful and very close by. We have a 33-member committee, and in the fall I’ll make a recommendation to the university president as to my thoughts of starting football there.

I planted a vegetable garden, as I promised to do in my book after it was published. I’ve got a nice little variety. No corn, but tomatoes, cucumber, beans, etc. An hour or two more sunlight is tough to find in my garden, because I’ve planted all these great trees. I’ve got to rethink that, but the great thing about gardening is you live and learn.

When my son Derek was little, he wanted a vegetable garden with one of everything in it. But now he’s a very focused football coach [at Tennessee]. You won’t find a lot of people in athletics that are as focused in gardening. You don’t have time.

During my football career, appreciation for horticulture was always a pause. I took trips in the summer and regrettably, all the places we went all over Europe, I enjoyed art, history, and architecture and did not take advantage of the gardens.

My plans are to be around a good many more years working on my garden, and the fact that I’m working in my garden means I may be around a few more years than I would if I wasn’t gardening. I may pass the torch to my older son Daniel, who enjoys working in the yard. You have to start with that. I have some grandkids with some potential. I’m watching them to see their interest.

-- As told to Michelle Hiskey for the AJC