Forget the main story here (h/t Jim from Duluth) – Vince Dooley still can’t get over Michael Adams, surprise, surprise – and skip down to the footnote at the end:
(One footnote for the record: I covered the Jan Kemp trial and remember people criticizing UGA’s law school when Jan Kemp won her case.
What many people apparently didn’t know was that the lawyer for the university defendants was a Mercer graduate, hired by Georgia’s Attorney General.
Jan Kemp’s two attorneys were UGA grads, one a former scholarship athlete in golf, and one taught at UGA’s law school.
As my English teacher wife would say, “Now, that’s irony.”)
Yes, indeedy.
Get The Picture 
Adams is a supreme jackass no doubt, but is Dooley doing anyone any favors by harping on this. At best he appears bitter.
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I certainly hope nobody said a cross word to the UGA grad lawyers who won the case for Jan Kemp. They did one of the biggest favors for the University of Georgia that anyone has ever done. It’s a black eye for the school, but it resulted in the cleaning up of our academic programs for athletes, and that’s a damn good thing.
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Amen. After integration of the University, cleaning up academics for athletes ranks right on up there.
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There was no defense for what Fred and Vince cooked up to deal with the academics for athletes issue at UGA. I had some classes with some of these “students”, including the infamous Andre “Pulpwood” Smith. Pulpwood had a smile a mile wide and a shiny gold tooth right up front , but he didn’t belong at any college, any where. Fred and Vince, along with coaches and admistrators at every other SEC school not named Vandy, were cheating their asses off to keep some illiterate kids on the football teams.
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Good grief Vince. Let it go.
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one point of clarification here: wasnt UGA Law School Dean J. Ralph Beaird one of the key legal advisers who helped formulate the trial strategy, including the hiring of a Mercer guy from Macon, Hale Almand, to handle the defense? My recollection is that the “brain trust” (sic) advising Fred Davison was led by, or at least, heavily influenced by, Dean Beaird.
I think Hale Almond’s opening statement, in which he suggested that UGA was not liable because by exposing illiterate athletes to smart people in college (paraphrase), it gave them a chance to perhaps be mailmen insteand of garbagemen (more or less a direct quote).
I figured UGA’s goose was cooked as soon as I heard Hale’s opener. All the brilliant trial lawyers in this state, and THAT’s what J Ralph came up with? Nice work, fellas.
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oops. I’m still angry enough 30 years later about the Almond fiasco that my second paragraph above is sort of an incomplete thought. Add a comma where the period is, and the words “was one of the dumbest utterances I have ever heard , in a courtroom or anywhere else.”
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Good grief. I can’t believe anyone thought involving law school professors in serious litigation would be a good idea, particularly at trial. Talk about bringing a knife to a gunfight.
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No kidding. The halls of a law school would be about the last place I’d look for legal advice. Their role is writing about the case when it’s done.
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It appears they weren’t the sharpest knives as well.
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It’s to Coach Dooley’s credit that he remains objective regarding Jan Kemp’s accusations and her case. But he needs to let the Adams stuff go.
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“But he needs to let the Adams stuff go”- maybe in this case it isn’t past hubris, but rather future leverage (insert idea, pry hard). To allow such implied words from a man representing our University to strike his character as flexible, Dooley makes the case to prevent Adam’s crass politics to lie crusted over by time. Adams has a resentful bunch of camp trailers instead of loyal followers. I think the finger should stay pointed until he leaves or is ushered away. Also, I think that the Dooley affair, Adam’s being responsible for Herrick being here (which he tried to paste to Dooley’s resume) and the past year’s faux pas of releasing prejudicial words from the Regent’s meeting to strike Richt’s tenure are evidence that he should keep his stubby fingers out of politicizing our sports programs. The latter affair will always be stuck in my mind as one of the reasons for the slow recruiting start and for influencing some fans to go after Richt.
His input should be limited to receiving the A.D.’s reports.
I am not being morally “holier than thou” in my remarks, only resentful that a guy who is a schemer trying to make personal money deals using my University is still in office. What does it take to rid ourselves of this barnacle?
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I agree with most of that but I’m still glad he canned Dooley.
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Ballsy, you have put your finger right on the question: How is Michael Adams still President of the University of Georgia? The answer is politics in its absolute worst and rankest form. The guy stole money from our university and should have been indicted. His actions split the alumni base literally pitting brother against brother. The Regents and the Athletic Board actually got into it over the guy–yet he is still here. Adams is not and never was an educator. He got the job because of partisan politics having been the lapdog of some very powerful political types. Every UGA alum needs to read the insightful book “Behind The Hedges” which details Michael Adams’ rise and tenure as UGA President. I am becoming more convinced each day that the State of Georgia is worse than Louisiana and Illinois. At least in Louisiana and Illinois they actually ferret out corruption and prosecute crooked politicians. In Georgia we just cover it up.
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Gosh, the moral high ground is sure getting crowded.
The developmental studies program that continues to draw the ire of some of us was, I might point out, operational for a long, long time. It was operational, for instance, in 1979,1980,1981,1982,1983 and so forth.
The program was hardly a new idea, and the one at Georgia was modeled after similar programs at places like…wait for it, Alabama and Auburn.
So, while Mrs. Kemp’s attorneys may have gotten Georgia a black eye, and as a result of the verdict and the light being shined possibly changed the academic landscape in big time college football at some institutions, nothing has changed in some places, and these folks are reaping the benefits.
Oversigning and grey-shirting are just Developmental Studies with new names.
I would also point out the Developmental Studies program was available to lots of kids who were not athletes, and who for a number of reasons, would not have qualified for admission in Athens without it.
If I seem to be drawing a correlation between success on the field in the three glory years and the Developmental Studies program, I can offer no proof that it exists, but can anyone prove that it does not?
It is easy to blame all this on Vince Dooley, since he casts the biggest shadow in the argument but for what it is worth, I know for sure that Georgia had a Developmental Studies program before Dooley got to Athens.
I was in it in the summer of 1961.
Just sayin, ya know.
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