Vince Dooley, former Georgia football coach and athletics director, will receive the  National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics second annual Bud Selig Mentoring Award, created in 2007 to honor a person in athletics administration who has been involved in creating equal opportunities for minorities in athletics.

Dooley, a former president of NACDA, retired as athletics director at Georgia in 2004. He coached football at the school for 25 years. In 1971, he awarded the first football scholarship to African-Americans in Georgia history. As athletics director, he promoted women within the department and hired minority coaches and administrators. His teams won 23 national championships and more than 100 student-athletes earned Academic All-American honors during his tenure.

“I had the pleasure of being recruited by coach Dooley twice – first as a student-athlete and then, 10 years later, as an administrator in the University of Georgia Athletic Association,” said Athletics Director Damon Evans. “He was one of the nation’s leaders in recruiting black athletes, especially in the South. His commitment to diversity and inclusion began a trend that saw the number of minority players increase not only in football, but in all of Georgia’s varsity sports.”

Dooley was chosen by the Division I-A Athletics Directors McLendon Scholarship Steering Committee, composed of the 15 minority Football Bowl Subdivision athletics directors. The award, named for Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, was presented to Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2007.