Wally Butts James Wallace " Wally " Butts , Jr . ( February 7 , 1905 – December 17 , 1973 ) was an American football player , coach , and college athletics administrator . He served as the head coach at the University of Georgia from 1939 to 1960 , compiling a record of 140 – 86 – 9 . His Georgia Bulldogs football teams won two national championships ( 1942 , 1946 ) and four Southeastern Conference titles ( 1942 , 1946 , 1948 , 1959 ) . Butts was also the athletic director at Georgia from 1939 to 1963 . He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1997 . Playing career . Butts was a 1929 graduate of Mercer University where he played college football under coach Bernie Moore . He is an alumnus of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity . Coaching career . Butts came to the University of Georgia as an assistant to Joel Hunt in 1938 . Hunt left after a 5 – 4 – 1 season to take over at the University of Wyoming and Butts was elevated to the position of head coach , which he held for 22 seasons through 1960 . Butts also served as Georgia ' s athletic director from 1939 until 1963 . Butts ' assistants in his first year as head coach were Bill Hartman , Howell Hollis , Quinton Lumpkin , Jules V . Sikes , Forrest Towns , and Jennings B . Whitworth . During his tenure as head coach , Georgia won its first consensus national championship in 1942 and claimed another national title in 1946 . Ralph Jordan , future head football coach at Auburn University , joined the Georgia coaching staff in October 1946 as an assistant line coach . Butts was a proponent of the passing game in an era of " three yards and a cloud of dust " . He developed innovative , intricate pass routes that were studied by other coaches . He was often called " the little round man " as he was five feet , six inches tall and had a squat body . Butts coached 1942 Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich and 1946 Maxwell Award winner Charley Trippi . The 1942 Georgia team won the Rose Bowl over UCLA , finished # 2 in the AP Poll , and was named a national championship by a number of selectors . Butts ' teams also won four Southeastern Conference championships ( 1942 , 1946 , 1948 and 1959 ) . As head coach , Butts posted a 140 – 86 – 9 record ( . 615 winning percentage ) , including a bowl record of 5 – 2 – 1 . Johnny Griffith , a former player and assistant coach to Butts , succeeded him as head coach in 1961 . Later life and honors . In the 1960s , Butts filed a libel lawsuit against the " Saturday Evening Post " after it ran an article alleging that he and Alabama head coach Bear Bryant had conspired to fix games . " Curtis Publishing Co . v . Butts " , as it ultimately became when it reached the Supreme Court , was a landmark libel case . The court ruled in his favor in 1967 , and the " Saturday Evening Post " was ordered to pay $ 3 . 06 million to him in damages , an amount which was later reduced on appeal to $ 460 , 000 . This settlement was seen as a contributing factor in the demise of the venerable " Saturday Evening Post " two years later . Both Butts and Bryant had sued for $ 10 million each . Bryant settled for $ 300 , 000 . Butts was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1966 and in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997 . Butts died of a heart attack after returning from a walk in 1973 . He was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens , Georgia . Family . Butts was the son of James Wallace Butts , Sr . ( July 9 , 1881 – January 2 , 1959 ) and wife Annie ( 1881 – ? ) . Wally married Winifred Faye Taylor ( July 12 , 1907 – June 27 , 1990 ) on February 19 , 1929 . They had three daughters , Faye , Jean and Nancy .