resulted in hiring Richt. “I am pleased that you and I were ‘in sync’ with each other during the screening and interview process,” Adams wrote. “Despite some media analysis to the contrary, I believe you and I were close to being ‘in sync’ with the decision made by the Athletic Board executive committee consensus to make a change in the leadership for the football program. In some ways, what we were probably talking about was timing and not the end result. This has been a trying time for all involved, and I look forward to beginning this new year with optimism and excitement for what lies ahead.”
Adams’s letter then got into the meat of the matter. “After much thought on the points you have raised in your letter regarding your future work here and on what direction I want to take on campus in the coming years, I have decided to offer you a contract of four years service, but I very much want to structure it so that you serve two years as Director of Athletics and two years as a Special Assistant to the President for Athletic Development,” Adams wrote. Adams said he had discussed the arrangement with some “key people” including some members of the Athletic Board. While there was a multiplicity of opinion, Adams said, “I believe it is fair to say that most of the key people with whom I consulted believe this is a fair arrangement for the University of Georgia and provides the proper and well-deserved recognition of the important role you have played here and will continue to play.”
Adams proposed that Dooley’s contract become effective July 1, 2001. He would serve as director of athletics until June 30, 2003, and then transition to the job of special assistant to the President for two additional years. Dooley’s compensation and benefits would remain the same.
“On a personal note, your usefulness and effectiveness in this contract extension will be enhanced if you feel like you are being treated fairly, and it is important to me that you indeed feel this way,” Adams wrote. “It is my sincere hope that this arrangement will give you the opportunity to conclude your service to the University on a well-deserved high note. I think the arrangement described here is consistent with the one that Georgia Tech reached with Homer Rice and is significantly more rewarding financially than that agreement.” Adams concluded by suggesting the two men get together to hash out any unresolved issues.
Dooley said Adams was flat wrong about the offer being more lucrative than Rice’s contract. He was concerned with the two-year offer as athletic director. He wrote to Adams on February 1, 2001, stating his rationale for wanting three years, especially citing his commitment to Coach Richt, which was made in Adams’s presence and with no rebuttal by the president at the time or afterwards. According to Dooley, they met February 6, 2001, and Adams offered to extend Dooley’s tenure as athletic director to two and a half years with one and a half years as Special Assistant. Dooley asked for three years. Adams said “no,” Dooley recalled.
“When I asked him why he gave me half of a year, Dr. Adams said it was not uncommon with faculty appointments,” Dooley said. “When I reminded him that this was not at all a common practice in athletics, he basically said, ‘Take it or leave it.’ I told him I was going to take it, but I also said, ‘I’m going to take the high road publicly but I’m going to tell you that I disagree with you and your decision. I don’t think you’re treating me fairly,’” Dooley recalled in his autobiography. Dooley later said that it was “vindictive Adams,” once again, using the half year to justify the commitment that he made to Richt that was not questioned by him. In other words, Adams was covering himself by extending Dooley’s contract a half year to cover the football season only and not the second half of the academic sports year. The following day, February 7, 2001, Adams wrote confirming their previous day’s agreement but couching it as a three-year deal at an annual salary of $313,425.
“Consistent with our conversation yesterday, I am pleased that we have reached an agreement for your contract renewal as Director of Athletics for three years, commencing January 1, 2001. This new contract insures [sic] service at the University through December 31, 2003,” Adams wrote. But Dooley’s contract didn’t expire until June 30, 2001, so the contract extension was really for two and a half years, not three as the letter suggested.
Dooley accepted the contract extension publicly with appreciation, but privately he was not happy. Adams had heard from some “key people” that the half-year part of the contract extension was coming across publicly as petty and vindictive, according to Dooley. But instead of going directly to Dooley, Adams addressed the issue in a Question & Answer interview with Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Tim Tucker. Asked if he would have a problem with extending Dooley’s contract by six months to complete the school year, Adams said he would not. Dooley said that Adams called him the next day to discuss the interview and told him that Tucker had asked him an interesting question about an additional six months on the contract and he told Tucker that he would not have a problem with it. Dooley said he reminded Adams how adamant he was about not granting the six months in the contract discussions. But he told Adams he would gladly accept the additional time to round out a full year, if offered, but he wasn’t going to ask. In June 2001, six months were added to the contract, which would then expire in June 2004. This didn’t settle the issue as far as Dooley was concerned. By that stage in his career Dooley had signed numerous contracts, each followed by an extension. He insists that he saw this one as no different. Adams, on the other hand, felt differently. Anxious to get his own man in that important position, Adams wasn’t about to negotiate another deal with Dooley. In early 2003, with eighteen months left on his contract, Dooley said he began thinking more about staying past his scheduled June 30, 2004, departure. He was in good health and was being encouraged by friends to stick around past his scheduled retirement. Dooley said that he wanted to finish the fundraising campaign that was off to a great start, and finish some projects that were in the initial planning stages with the stadium and the coliseum.
Adams and his top lieutenants felt Dooley was campaigning with prominent Georgians to pressure Adams for a new contract. “Adams gave Vince an extension and Vince accepted it,” said Georgia Senior Vice President Hank Huckaby, who was treasurer of the Athletic Board. “But then he began almost immediately to get people to pressure Mike to extend his contract. Vince might have been able to pull it off but he went public with it.”
Dooley said Huckaby is flat wrong.
“It’s true that about a year and a half into the new contract and not ‘almost immediately,’ as Huckaby indicated, and after the encouragement of several people, I began seeking the counsel of some longtime friends about staying on.” He went to Adams who told Dooley he would “think about it.” About a month went by and Dooley had not heard from Adams.
Dooley said Huckaby is mistaken or misinformed about his going public with the request for an extension. Dooley said that former Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports writer Mark Schlabach, an aggressive reporter, called him about a month after he had made his request to Adams that he had heard that Dooley had asked to stay on. Dooley said he knew from experience that it’s nearly impossible to keep such an issue out of news. Nevertheless Dooley said he was surprised when Schlabach called, and he asked him to hold the story for fear it would interfere with ongoing negotiations. Schlabach agreed but was understandably nervous about it, Dooley said. “Two more weeks went by without my hearing from Adams, and with rumors intensifying and the competition hearing rumors Schlabach, in good conscience, needed to run the story,” Dooley said. And although he explained the situation to Adams and Tom Landrum, Dooley said it was obvious they didn’t believe him. Schlabach told him that Landrum had called him to confirm Dooley’s story, which Schlabach did, Dooley said. Nevertheless Adams was unconvinced and felt the leak came from the athletics office, telling Dooley that it didn’t come from the president’s office. Dooley isn’t convinced.
“I know from experience that anyone he may have consulted with could have, even innocently, said things regarding the issue,” said Dooley. “That is the way rumors get started and the media picks up on it.”
By then, Adams had become convinced that many unfavorable stories about him
