On the eve of the Peach Bowl, how about a Woody Hayes story from the Vince Dooley biography?
Apparently back in the 70’s Coach Hayes never travelled far south for recruiting or otherwise (he had no need too) but Woody found himself committed to a Coaching Clinic commitment that put him close-ish to Athens.
Per Coach Dooley, the two hit it off and Coach Dooley sought his counsel on some staffing/personnel decisions he had to make. Hayes agreed to spend the day in Athens with one condition, a home cooked meal. According to Coach Dooley, Coach Hayes LOATHED hotel food/restaurant food and much preferred a family table and polite family conversation. Mrs. Barbara Dooley, wonderful cook and hostess obliged and Woody was Woody. Consummate charmer, great conversationalist, dedicated listener, the whole nine yards.
Coach Dooley even remarked how thankful he was that Woody spent time listening to his children talk about their school work and sports activities, shared some stories about the Indians organization (as Dooley’s son was an avid baseball fan) and it was just an excellent evening.
Vince received a handwritten congratulations note from Woody when the Dawgs won it all in 1980 and the two remained distant friends through retirement.
Nice, long-winded way of saying our schools should play more often. I know we have dates in the 30’s on the books, but hopefully the expanded history will add some more color to this matchup.
All things considered, I am amazed at some of the total lack of trolling the boards have featured this week. Usually you guys have 4-6 “guests” drop in and immediately try to stir up trouble. This has been a remarkably quiet month imo.