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Doug Dickey

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Doug Dickey

Douglas Adair Dickey (born June 24, 1932) is an American former college football player and coach and college athletics administrator. Dickey is a South Dakota native who was raised in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida, where he played college football. He is best known as the head coach of the University of Tennessee and the University of Florida football teams, and afterward, as the athletic director of the University of Tennessee.

Dickey was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, in 1932, and grew up in Gainesville, Florida, where his father was a speech professor at the University of Florida. After graduating from P.K. Yonge High School in Gainesville, he attended the University of Florida and played for coach Bob Woodruff's Florida Gators football team from 1951 to 1953. Dickey was a walk-on after being encouraged by assistant coach Dave Fuller. Dickey began his college career as a defensive back, but he remarkably advanced from seventh on the Gators' quarterback depth chart to starter after Haywood Sullivan's early departure for the Boston Red Sox left the Gators without a starting quarterback in 1952. As a quarterback, Dickey was not a drop-back passer, but a football-savvy game manager, whom Woodruff called "one of the brainiest quarterbacks I ever saw." In January 1953, Dickey led the Gators to a 14–13 win over the University of Tulsa in the Gator Bowl, Florida's first-ever NCAA-sanctioned bowl game.

While a student at Florida, he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity (Florida Upsilon chapter). He graduated with a bachelor's degree in physical education in 1954.

After graduating from the University of Florida, Dickey served in the U.S. Army. From 1957 to 1963, he worked as an assistant football coach on the staff of Frank Broyles at the University of Arkansas.

Dickey was hired as head coach at the University of Tennessee in 1964 by athletic director Bob Woodruff, Dickey's head coach during his playing years at Florida. Many supporters of Tennessee Volunteers football credit Dickey with rejuvenating the program. When Dickey was hired, the Volunteers had not won more than six games in a season, nor been to a bowl game, since 1957. Dickey was recognized as Southeastern Conference (SEC) Coach of the Year in 1965 and 1967, and his Tennessee teams won SEC championships in 1967 and 1969. In his six seasons as head coach, his overall win–loss record at Tennessee was 46–15–4 (.738), and the Volunteers received five consecutive bowl invitations.

One of the brainiest quarterbacks I ever saw.

— Gators head coach Bob Woodruff, on Dickey's skills as a leader and game manager

Dickey is credited with starting three Tennessee football traditions that endure today. He placed the iconic "Power T" decal on the sides of the Volunteers' helmets, had the Neyland Stadium end zones painted in an orange-and-white checkerboard pattern, and originated the Pride of the Southland marching band's "T" formation through which Volunteer players enter the field. Dickey was also responsible for integrating the previously all-white Volunteers by recruiting running back Albert Davis, the first African American offered a scholarship to play for the Vols, but the university did not admit Davis. Undeterred, Dickey recruited wide receiver Lester McClain, who was admitted and became the first black Volunteer football player.

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