Bill Doty attended Hamilton High School and graduated from Florence State. Doty accepted the head coaching position at Hanceville in 1951 to begin his high school coaching career. He would stay with the Bulldogs for four successful seasons before moving over to Hackleburg for one year.

In 1957, Doty accepted the head coaching job at Winston County. In 1960 his Yellow Jackets won the Wal-Win Conference Championship with a 9-1 record. The team was also named Class 1A State Champions by the Birmingham Post Herald and the Birmingham News for District 4.

In 1961, he was offered the head coaching job at Russellville and accepted it. Doty, first team finished 8-0-2 and was awarded a State Championship by the Birmingham News and the Post Herald.

In 1966 Russellville finished the season 9-1 and was named state champions by the Birmingham News. The next season proved to be more of the same as once again Russellville won the state championship but this time in the first state playoffs for Class 3A. The Golden Tigers defeated Colbert County in the title game 13-6.

In 1967, the Golden Tigers rolled to an 11-0 record and a third straight state championship. Russellville ended the season with a 32-game unbeaten streak that dated back to the first game of the 1966 season. Of the three consecutive state championship teams the 1968 squad was the only one to go unbeaten and untied.

In the 1968 state championship game, Russellville led 25-6 at halftime and then put the Saks Wildcats away early in the third quarter, claiming the state championship with a 51-13 victory.

Doty would move to Bradshaw in 1973 for six seasons before going to Muscle Shoals for one year in 1981. He would retire from coaching football in Alabama after that season with a record of 169-103-10. After leaving Alabama he headed to Collinwood, Tennessee in the early 1980s.

He is a member of the Winston County Sports Hall of Fame. Doty was inducted into the Alabama High School Athletic Associations Hall of Fame in 1992.