Doug Dickey
Director of Athletics
The celebration of Doug Dickey's career in college athletics continues at full pace.
Over the past three years, accolades recognizing a job well done have been directed on the longtime football coach and administrative leader. The awards have been granted with increased frequency as the full measure of his achievements has received national attention.
Saluted for his exceptional success in the sports world, Dickey has humbly accepted a string of prestigious honors that point to his immense contribution in the field of college athletics.
Four years ago, he was selected as first recipient of the John H. Toner Award, bestowed on a top athletics director by the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. The presentation took place at the organization's annual gathering at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
Then in 2000, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, holding its winter banquet in Nashville, named Dickey Tennessean of the Year. The most recent addition to the bulging Dickey resume came last April when he received the Robert R. Neyland trophy for his work as head coach at Tennessee and Florida. The award was especially meaningful to Dickey because of the coach's unquenchable love for the sport of football. The most recent addition to the bulging Dickey resume came in April 2001 when he received the Robert R. Neyland Trophy for his work as head coach at Tennessee and Florida. The award was especially meaningful to Dickey because of the coach's unquenchable love for the sport of football.
Dickey, who as University of Tennessee athletics director has shepherded one of college sports' most successful programs for 17 years, joined such previous Neyland recipients as Paul (Bear) Bryant and Eddie Robinson.
His 104-58-6 overall coaching mark embraced two Southeastern Conference championship seasons at Tennessee and 19 All-America stars who played under his tutelage with the Vols or Gators.
As a player, assistant coach, head coach and administrator, Dickey has been involved with 29 bowl games beginning with the 1952 Gator Bowl in which he played quarterback for Florida.
Over a span of 38 years, Dickey has been the principal force in University of Tennessee sports, first as a coach and since 1985 directing a Vol athletic department that has been a model of consistent performance.
Keenly aware of a continuing goal to keep Tennessee in the forefront of collegiate competition, Dickey responds to the desire of fans for a strong presence on the national scene. In the most recent sports season, 2000-2001, UT's achievements were of storybook proportions: NCAA champions in track and field, College World Series in baseball, NCAA finalists in tennis, NCAA third place in swimming and diving and the Cotton Bowl in football. In addition both the basketball and golf teams participated in NCAA tournaments.
As athletic director, the 69-year-old coach-turned-administrator has been heavily involved in policy-making on the national level. For example, in a six-year term with the football rules committee, he served as chairman from 1992 through 1994. Since 1992, Dickey has been a member of the board of NOCSAE, the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment. On the statewide level, Dickey has employed his administrative skills to play a key role in the building of a Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in a wing of the Nashville arena. He was the SEC representative to the NCAA's Football Issue's Committee. In addition he is on the Strategic Planning Committee of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA).
Dickey's service at UT encompasses responsibilities as head coach for six seasons (1964-69) and as athletics director since 1985. As coach, he put Tennessee back on the national football map with a string of productive seasons that included league championships and bowl appearances. As athletics director, he has overseen a huge facilities construction and renovation program.
UT under Dickey has completed building projects that brought its physical plant to the top among major colleges and universities. A landmark development was the opening four years ago of an expanded north end of Neyland Stadium, bringing capacity to well over 100,000. A UT record crowd of 108,768 saw the 2000 Tennessee-Florida game in Knoxville.
Among other additions to the campus sports scene in recent years have been the Thompson-Boling Assembly Center and Arena, Lindsey Nelson baseball stadium, renovated Gibbs Hall dormitory, the Goodfriend tennis complex, Tom Elam press box and executive suites at Neyland Stadium and Neyland-Thompson Sports Center, the name given to the Vol football complex. Construction of 78 new skyboxes at Neyland Stadium, on the east side, was completed in time for the 2000 season. The Thornton Athletic Student Life Center was opened last spring.
The arena, begun under the administration of previous athletics director Bob Woodruff and completed after Dickey's appointment, has proved a magnet for basketball tournaments and other events attracted by its 24,500-seat capacity.
Other honors have come Dickey's way in recognition of his continuing contributions to college athletics. He has been inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, the Gator Bowl Hall of Fame and the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame.
When Dickey succeeded Woodruff as athletics director in 1985, he put a top priority on bringing UT's facilities to a level that would enable Vol coaches and athletes to compete on an even plane with their Southeastern Conference rivals. The multi-million dollar building program was a must on his agenda.
One of his first steps was the implementation of a well-orchestrated scholarship fund-raising drive, which has increased UT's level of giving from approximately $800,000 to more than $15 million annually. Contributions have increased dramatically under Dickey's astute leadership and have been instrumental in financing the ambitious building program.
A college football coach for 22 years before moving onto the business world in 1980, Dickey became only the fourth athletic director in UT history when he was chosen to the job of overseeing Tennessee's success-oriented sports program.
Always mindful of the role athletics plays within the framework of the university's educational mission, Dickey has taken particular satisfaction in allocating athletic department funds, as available, to academic scholarships such as the Robert R. Neyland grants, university library and the more recent Peyton Manning Scholarships. Over the years of Dickey's administration, the athletic department has supported academic programs in a tangible manner.
Douglas Adair Dickey brought to the athletics director's job the qualities the university was searching for in a replacement for Woodruff. He had long-standing ties with Tennessee, he had been involved with college athletics for more than two decades, he had participated successfully in business and he enjoyed a reputation for total integrity.
Before taking the Tennessee post, Dickey had been for four years general manager of the Florida Tile Ceramic Centers, with headquarters in Lakeland, Fla. He previously had served the firm as its Southeast regional sales manager.
One of Dickey's five children, Daryl, was the starting quarterback and the most valuable player in the Sugar Bowl after Tennessee's 1985 team won the Southeastern Conference championship. But the current athletic director's ties to UT were forged in the 1960s when he took a football program that had happened onto lean times and turned it into a national powerhouse with all the accoutrements of success--SEC championships, high national rankings, a bevy of All-America stars and annual bowl game appearances.
Six years after he came to Tennessee, a youthful head coach taking on the established greats of his fiercely competitive profession, Dickey left Knoxville. He answered a call from his alma mater, the University of Florida, and moved to Gainesville as head coach after the 1969 season. His nine-year record at Florida was 58-43-2, which combined with his six-year mark at Tennessee of 46-15-4, left him with overall totals of 104-58-6. Dickey closed out his coaching career by spending the 1979 season as assistant head coach at the University of Colorado.
It was Woodruff, then only a year into his athletic director's job at Tennessee, who brought Dickey, age 31 at the time, from an assistant's post at Arkansas to the demanding assignment as steward of the Big Orange football program before the 1964 season.
Woodruff had kept close tabs on Dickey from the time of the latter's undergraduate days at Florida, where Woodruff was the Gators' head coach. He detected in the lanky quarterback of his 1953 team traits that would prove invaluable if Doug were to pursue a coaching career. "Dickey was one of the brainiest quarterbacks I ever saw," Woodruff told newsmen when the announcement was made in December of 1963 that Dickey would replace Jim McDonald at the Tennessee helm.
Except for the five years he spent in business, Dickey has been around college campuses almost his entire life. He was born in Vermillion, S. D., where his father, the late Dallas Dickey, was a speech professor at the University of South Dakota. His father later was on the faculty at Louisiana State University and at the University of Florida.
Young Dickey, after playing high school football at Gainesville, accepted a scholarship to the University of Florida from Woodruff. After graduation he coached for a year at a high school in St. Petersburg, Fla., and coached at Fort Carson, Colo., while in the service. Then came an opportunity to join the staff of Frank Broyles at the University of Arkansas. Over the next six years, Doug acquired a wealth of knowledge under Broyles, coaching defense four years and then serving as head offensive coach his final two seasons.
Doug is married to the former JoAnne Beville. They have four sons---Donald, Daniel, David and Daryl-- daughter, Mrs. Jaren Anne Wells, and 12 grandchildren. | DICKEY'S CAREER HIGHLIGHTS | | AS A PLAYER | | * Quarterbacked 1953 Florida team that defeated Tulsa in the Gator Bowl | | * Inducted into Gator Bowl Hall of Fame | | AS A COACH | | * Head coach six years (1964-69) at Tennessee and nine years (1970-78) at Florida | | * His Tennessee record, 46-15-4, combined with his Florida record, 58-43-2, for a mark of 104-58-6 and a .637 winning percentage | | * Vols teams won SEC championship in 1967 and 1969 | | * Southeastern Conference coach of the year in 1965 and 1967 | | * Coached 19 first-team All-Americas at Tennessee and Florida | | * Involved in 25 bowls at Fla. and Tenn. as player, coach or athletics director | | * The 1967 Vols were selected as national champions by Likenhous and were so recognized in the NCAA record book | | * Named 2001 winner of Neyland Trophy by Knoxville Quarterback Club | | AS ATHLETICS DIRECTOR | | * For 17 years has directed Tennessee's balanced and highly competitive program with a current budget of $57,000,000 | | * Has overseen building projects that have brought Tennessee's physical plant to the top among major colleges and universities, including five expansions of Neyland Stadium that have increased capacity to 104,079 | | * Inductee of both the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame | | * First recipient of John H. Toner Award, the highest honor bestowed on an athletics director by the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame | | * Named Tennessean of the Year by the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame | | * Past chairman of the NCAA football rules committee, has served on NCAA football issues committee and serves on NCAA strategic planning committee | | DICKEY'S PERSONAL DATA | | BORN: June 24, 1932, at Vermillion, S.D. | | HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION: P.K. Yonge, H.S., Gainesville, Fla., 1950 | | COLLEGE EDUCATION: University of Florida 1954 | | COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Quarterback, Florida 1950-53 | | COACHING CAREER: St. Petersburg High School 1954, Ft. Carson 1955-56, Arkansas 1957-63, Tennessee 1964-69, Florida 1970-78, Colorado 1979. | | WIFE: JoAnne Beville Dickey | | CHILDREN: Donald, Daniel, David, Daryl, Mrs. Jaren Anne Wells | |
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