ATLANTA – Herschel Walker’s football coach is going to bat for the former University of Georgia standout’s U.S. Senate campaign.
Former University of Georgia football Coach and Athletic Director Vince Dooley endorsed Walker Thursday in a campaign ad released by the Republican’s campaign.
Dooley alludes to a campaign theme Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock has been repeating often: that Walker isn’t qualified to represent Georgia in Congress.
“Herschel has always been challenged about doing things that people thought he wasn’t capable of doing,” Dooley says in the ad. “Falls sometimes along the way. But he gets back up, and with his incredible drive, determination, and self-discipline, he has achieved mighty things.”
The ad goes on to show footage of running back Walker battering opposing defenses while leading the Dawgs to the national championship in 1980 and winning the Heisman Trophy two years later.
Dooley, who recently turned 90, coached UGA football from 1964 through 1988, then served as the school’s athletic director from 1979 to 2004.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.