Where I Come From: How I Became A Tennessee Fan

My story begins with my granddaddy sitting in his kitchen with his radio on the counter listening to his beloved vols. He was a true vol fan, he could tell me all the players names as well as where they were from. This my friends was in the sixties when our vols were rarely ever on TV. He never made it to Neyland stadium even with a local doctor offering to take him to a game. I could always count on him to keep me informed on the vols. I have followed the vols ever since I can remember. My first college game however was at Vanderbilt when they played Alabama,yes Alabama (yuck). I tell you this because this is where I remember my can’t stand attitude of Alabama starting. As we were leaving the game I started talking to a Bama fan and betting him Tennessee would beat them, and if memory serves me correctly we did win that game. I was twenty two the first time I got a chance to go to a game in Knoxville. The year was 1980 and it was the first game of the year against Georgia. For you younger Vols fans you can go to youtube to see “THE PLAY” from that game. A true Freshman named Herschel Walker running over a great vol Bill Bates. I have been to several games since then but that is how I remember becoming a true vol fan. By the way to prove to you that my grandaddy was a true vol fan, my uncle’s real first name is UT!

The story of my sports allegiances is a long and twisting road, so I guess I’ll start from the beginning. In October 1982 in Milwaukee, WI the Brewers were making their one and only run to the World Series and my mom was 7 months pregnant with me. She would get mad at my father for listening to games on his transistor radio during lamas classes to which he replied, “We can always have more kids, but the Brewers might never be this good again.” His words would prove to be prophetic, as they would have more kids (albeit, not together) and the Brewers would never again reach the World Series.

Let’s fast forward to 1991, my mom is on her second marriage, living in a small town my 9-year-old self had never heard of, Knoxville, TN. I had been living in Wisconsin with my dad, rooting on the Packers, Badgers, and my first love, the Brewers (who coincidentally ended up in a pennant race with the Blue Jays this year, I would have to wait again until 2008 for the next one). So I was visiting mom for Christmas vacation and two important things would happen on this trip: I saw Neyland stadium for the first time, and I would watch my first Vol game—a loss to Penn St. in the 1992 Fiesta Bowl. As many of you know, Tennessee Orange is absolutely infectious, but my fandom had a long way to go.

I know I had started following Tennessee in the early 1990s, but something happened in 1995 that would forever change me: Peyton Manning vs. Florida. I was still living in Wisconsin, but this game was on National TV and epic. I was living in Big Ten Country, and scores weren’t supposed to reach double digits…let alone such scores such as 62-37. Yes, I was devastated from the loss to the hated Gators (especially after holding a 16 point lead in the first half), but that was the key—it was the first time I felt something, any emotional connection, to the Vols. And even as a pre-teen, I realized what an amazing talent Peyton Manning was, and in sports, star power helps.

I finally moved to what I consider to be “home sweet home to me” in 1996. I lived in North Knox, watched us win the SEC Championship in 1997 and the repeat en route to our NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP in 1998. Um, welcome to Big Orange Country, Zach. In 2001 I officially became a Volunteer, enrolling in the University of Tennessee. Our opening game was against Syracuse, also my first time in Neyland Stadium. I’ll tell you, the first time walking through the tunnels and stepping out into the stands was breathtaking. I was almost frozen by the sight. Casey Clausen had a great day as we rolled the other Orange 33-9. I won student lottery tickets to the Swamp two weeks later, but would never make it. On a Tuesday morning, Freshman year, I watched with my roommate in Clement Hall as terrorist hijackers flew a jet into the second twin tower.

Football would be postponed until the September 29th match up with LSU. Neyland Stadium was electric that night, and I fought to hold back tears as The Pride of the Southland Marching Band played the “Star Spangled Banner.” That night, not only was I a full blooded Volunteer, but I think it was the first time I understood what it meant to be an American.

It is strange for me to say that; he was a Vanderbilt fan, and he died before my fifth birthday. I have no memory of him, yet I know for certain that if he had not rooted for Vanderbilt, I would not be a Tennessee fan today.

Let me explain: my dad is Tennessee fan because his dad was a Vandy fan. It was one of a very few acts of defiance my grandfather would allow in his house, and my dad took advantage of it. Consequently, my early memories of my dad in the fall feature Big Orange.

I was born and raised in Nashville; I still live here today when I’m not in school. My first in-person college football game was Tennessee’s 1992 victory against Vanderbilt in Nashville. But I wasn’t All Vol until I witnessed my first game in Neyland Stadium in 1993.

Nothing will make an impression on a 7 year old like John Ward’s voice calling the game and tens of thousands of screaming humans clad in orange. I miss listening to Mr. Ward on Saturdays in the fall. I realize now that I was spoiled. We all were.

I couldn’t call myself a committed fan until 1997. As a belated present for my tenth birthday, my dad and I flew out to California. On September 6, we paid a visit to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, where our Vols, led by fifth-year senior Peyton Manning, were taking on an underrated UCLA Bruins team, led by Cade McNown.

I remember very little of what took place on the field; only the weather. Southern California was in the grip of El Niño, so instead of sunny and pleasant, it was hot and humid. It felt about like it has here in Nashville through the entire month of June. Fortunately, via the magic of the interwebs, we can relive the highlights of that wonderful game on YouTube, complete with John Ward calling.

Everyone knows about 1998. My most vivid memory of that year was the season opener against Syracuse. 1998 was also the year that the Tennessee Oilers played their home games at Vanderbilt. So began my love affair with the eventual Tennessee Titans. That love affair would consume my football interests for the next six years.

In August of 2004, I enrolled in the only school I could imagine attending: the University of Tennessee. What a year. I’ve had the great fortune of witnessing some incredible football games in person; I watched the Music City Miracle from the northeast club section of Adelphia Coliseum.

On a beautiful September evening in 2004, I sat halfway up the second deck along the 45 yard-line and watched James Wilhoit break the hearts of Gator Nation, send Big Orange into euphoria, and “Totally Redeem [Him]self!”. Like my experience with the Music City Miracle, I hugged more complete strangers than I thought possible.

After I finally made it out of the stadium and back to Hess Hall, I and my fellow dorm-mates heckled the crap out of every Florida fan we could find. I suppose that was a good thing; we haven’t had cause to do it since.

I would only spend two semesters at UT before my extra-curricular activities would get the better of me. Fortunately, I returned to the university in August of 2009 in time to watch the circus that was the Kiffin Chimera live and in living color. I’m still All Vol, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I grew up in Memphis, and since none of my family was functionally from the South*, I didn’t really follow college football when I was young. (I instead followed baseball, which was – and in a lot of respects still is – my first sports love. In a related story, as I was getting into baseball everyone I knew loved the Braves; this, coupled with the ‘94 strike season, turned me into an Expos fan.) However, Memphis’s local paper spent a lot of ink talking about Tennessee – and with my contrarian nature, this didn’t make a ton of sense to me. Why does The Commercial Appeal care about what’s going on all the way on the other side of the state? It just didn’t make any sense. Why cover this team way over there when there’s a college right here? So I started to follow Memphis – although even at this relatively young age, I realized that there was no way I was actually going there for college.

Fast-forward to late high school. I’m applying to get into schools, and on a last-second whim I figure I might as well apply to Tennessee. I get accepted (of course I get accepted; they just take everyone, right?) and this makes for a pretty good backup plan. And then money from Georgia Tech falls through. Well, nuts. Now what? I don’t really have much of a choice, do I? I guess this means I have to ….like ….the ….Vols. Sigh. Fine.

My first year on campus was 2002, and the second game I went to was Five Minutes of Doom against Florida. (The seats I were in for that game don’t even exist any more; I think a press box expansion got rid of them; fortunately, they were dry. That was the only good thing about that day.) That was countered by the 6 OT game against Arkansas that gave me my first gray hairs – and a sense of claustrophobia, as the seats I had for that game you couldn’t get for a few years** thanks to Orange Nation. I really didn’t go to as many games as I rightfully should’ve when I was there, but that was due to other activities keeping me out of town during football and basketball season. And in all of this, I realized The Commercial Appeal was a rag, Memphis fans have a perpetual little brother syndrome, and a host of other things. But that still doesn’t quite tell the tale.

Quite frankly, if the teams Tennessee had fielded over the last eight years were good I suspect I wouldn’t follow them as closely as I do now. I think that’s a function of the other teams I follow, who can charitably be called also-rans for the better part of their existence. When you follow a team that just isn’t any good, you can grow with the team. That’s why I want to see Pearl succeed here (and why it drives me nuts when students act like 20+ wins is a God-given right). That’s why I want to see the Glory Kids do Pat Summitt proud. And that’s why I want to see Derek Dooley raise hell and raise trophies. But the victories of yesteryear really don’t mean a lot to me, because that wasn’t my history. The titles from here on out are. And, well, that’s why I’m here.

*Tampa / St. Pete is not in any way the south.

**you could get these seats after halftime

I grew up a fan of . . . Van Halen. Journey. REO Speedwagon. Bon Jovi and all of those 80s bands. I was in a rock band, and I was going to be a rock star. Didn’t much care for sports unless it meant we could play for the game. (Yes, mostly it was marching/pep band stuff, but I do remember once playing (attempting to play is probably more apt a description) Rush’s YYZ at a basketball game. I also got into the ‘85 Bears as they were on their Super Bowl run, mostly because I grew up in Illinois and that’s what was happening. I wonder how much the Super Bowl Shuffle played into that. Hmm.

Anyway, after the band thing flamed out, I took a long and winding road during which those dreams died a slow death and sports sort of gradually filled the void. I moved to Ft. Lauderdale to become an audio engineer and ended up managing a record store. A couple of the guys I worked with were sports fans: One a Bulls fan during Jordan’s time of dominance (so I became a Bulls fan), another a Hurricanes fan, and another a Florida State fan. I think I went to one of the "wide right" games in the Orange Bowl with the ’Canes fan.

Anyway, I became a Seminole fan down there because I liked Bowden and his program (Charlie Ward et al) better than the ’Canes, just watching games on TV, and I stayed one when I moved to Nashville, usually watching on my future brother-in-law’s big screen in St. Charles, MO, where my future wife was staying until we got married. She’d sleep on the sofa, and I’d watch the game and eat the cookies she’d made for me.

After graduating from Belmont, I applied to two law schools: Vandy and UT as a backup. I was accepted at UT and wait-listed at Vandy and eventually got in, but by then all the scholarship money was gone, and my wife and I had just had our first child and were in dire financial straights, so we headed east to Knoxville.

The very first semester, I remember hanging out with a bunch of folks before class, and they were talking about Saturday’s game. I’d never really experienced a game day, but you could feel it in the way they talked, and it was only Tuesday or something. We didn’t know anyone who we trusted to take care of our infant and I didn’t want to just leave my wife at home, so I didn’t go right away, and I’m not sure really how long it took me to get to a game, but I do distinctly remember the first time walking out of the tunnel into the bowl and being astounded at the size of the open space in Neyland Stadium. It was awe-inspiring, like the whole world just opening up before you, some massive thing you just didn’t expect to see after winding your way through the innards of the thing. One of my friends from law school then told me what to watch for: the band forming the Power T, the drum major high-stepping through the band as it closed around him, and, of course, the team running through the T. I don’t remember what game it was, but it was really just the atmosphere that hooked me. Of course, it didn’t hurt that it was 1996-1999 and all of the vibes were good. One of those good-vibe times, of course, was when Peyton announced he was coming back for his senior year and half of our class celebrated the news having heard it on headphones during class. The noise they made was nothing, though, compared to the pockets of shouts and applause that erupted all over campus.

I didn’t go to as many games as I wish I would have been able to, but even after school, I just couldn’t get enough of game day in Knoxville, when the entire city is abuzz with the anticipation of the game and you know exactly why your townhome neighbors are yelling their heads off across the wall because it’s in perfect synch with your own celebration.

I could go on and on, but I feel like I’m rambling, so I’ll just look for a place to land.

I’m not from East Tennessee, but there is no zeal like that of a convert, and I’ve been wholly, utterly, and irreversibly changed for the better by this place. The football team has been a large part of that. That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I started writing online about the Vols nearly six years ago when literally no one but me was reading. I just had to. I just have to.

With Joel on this one. I was born in the Seattle area and moved to the Pittsburgh area when I was very young. When I was 5 or 6, we looked into moving to a nicer climate. If I have the story straight, Montrose, CO, Albuquerque, NM, and San Antonio, TX were all on the initial shortlist, but through a contact in San Antonio, we learned about Johnson City, TN. Dad tells the story that while we were still living in Pennsylvania, he was watching a bowl game involving the next big thing (Heath Shuler) and I walked in and declared that that was my favorite team. He asked why, and I said because they were orange, and orange was my favorite color. I didn’t know, at the time, that that team was Tennessee, and I still didn’t know soon after when we made our move to Johnson City in January of 1994.

I was 7 years old for the 1994 season, and I didn’t know anything about college football or watch any of the games. I remember seeing the rankings in the sports section of the newspaper and asking why Tennessee wasn’t in them. Dad said it was because they weren’t good enough. I also remember happily checking a box score on New Year’s Eve to find that Tennessee had demolished Virginia Tech. But I still didn’t know what it meant.

The first game I remember watching was the 1995 Florida game. The only specifics I remember were being excited that we led at halftime—despite Dad having told me that Tennessee wasn’t going to win the game—and being horribly depressed about the second half. Who wouldn’t be? The first individual play I remember watching (from only the second game I remember) was the first play from scrimmage in the 1995 Alabama game. Joey Kent will always have a special place in my heart. And yes, we won the first seven Alabama games I saw. I vaguely remember having watching the Carolina game that year, but I saw no others until the postseason, when the 4th Tennessee game I watched was the win in the rain over Eddie George and the vaunted Ohio State Buckeyes. My only vivid memory from that game was Ohio State’s epic fail at drowning a punt inside the five.

From there, I was hooked. There was even a period of a couple years from 1998 until 2000 (or possibly 2001) where I never went more than 24 hours without wearing something orange. My heart was broken at the ’96 loss to Memphis and failed comeback against Florida, but there were no moments of pure joy until 1998. None of the wins before that were big, because I expected to beat everyone except Florida. Even the SEC title against Auburn was business as usual. I will say, however, that Charles Woodson has been classed in my book since I was 10 as the lowest, most despicable human being on earth.

And then ‘98 came. I remember the sigh of relief at the escape against Syracuse and then the pure joy and disbelief when the kick went wide and we had our first victory over the Gators in my period of fandom. I remember seeing it all disappear in the first half against Arkansas, only to see Clint Stoerner and Travis Henry bring it back. And I remember my Dad telling me before the ’99 Fiesta Bowl that the sun would rise even if we lost. I didn’t understand. How could we lose? And we didn’t. My girlfriend’s birthday, out of interest, is January 4th. It’s destiny.

Clint Stoerner got his revenge in ‘99, and ’01 provided what is still the most up and down football season of my memory (a heartbreaking loss to Georgia, an amazing victory in the Swamp, and then the most depressing day of my fandom against LSU in the SECCG), but I was behind the Tennessee Volunteers, win or lose. The Texas game in 2005 started me looking towards basketball, and by the end of the year, my basketball fandom almost reached the level of football (although it will never fully get there). Because my undergrad took me to South Carolina and grad school to Massachusetts, I haven’t been able to get out to Neyland much (‘97 Ole Miss, ’98 Houston, and ’03 Marshall were it), but I did see a road win over the ’Cocks in ’06 and jumped for joy in a sea of blue at Montario’s continuation of the streak in ‘09. I’ve seen the BasketVols thrice, with a home win over Auburn in 2010 and a pair of March Madness victories in Providence, RI at the end of this season. All in all, I’ve only been to one game in which UT lost: the 2009 Chick-fil-A Bowl against Virginia Tech. I’d like to keep that number low, but whatever happens, it’s great to be a TENNESSEE VOL!

I was just your typical kid who grew up in east Tennessee… I’d play football in the back yard and have to be Andy Kelly, write fake sports articles on my computer, and develop a weird fascination with Eric Still(1989 All American OG) despite mainly playing out wide in organized football.

I was a weird kid… now I’m a weird adult.

The first home game I can remember attending would be Homecoming 1988 vs. Boston College. I remember nothing of the game, but remember all the banners the fraternities and sororities hung up. There is a really vague recollection of the 1987 Peach Bowl, but nothing more than it being unreasonably cold and snowing.

I’m going to stop right now, because if I wanted to I could turn this into a book… and no matter what there is always going to be one more thing I’ll feel I need add, so I’ll add nothing and just say, “ditto” to all of the emotions expressed above.

No time for elloquent details, so here are the important facts:
- Born and raised in Big-10 country, following the likes of the Fighting Illini simply due to proximity.
- Family relocated to Knoxville over the summer of 1996, right at the onset of my Jr. year of high school.
- A group of my new HS friends (who were themselves born with orange blood) invited me to a game during the 1996 season. I’d heard about this “Peyton Manning” guy on ESPN and knew that he played for the Vols, my new ‘hometeam by proximity’, so I figured I’d tag along to the game with the guys.
- I have no idea who the opponent was that fall afternoon, but I was hooked before I even set foot in the stadium. My new buddies treated me well to all of the great pre-game traditions, culminating in the Pride of the Southland’s march to the stadium and the Spirit of the Hill outside of Gate 21.
- Needless to say, the passion of the fans inside Neyland Stadium, not to mention the game play of that year’s team, drove me to complete fandom! Hook. Line. Sinker.

extremely exciting, but I think represents a lot of Tennessee fans. My granddad is a lifelong Knoxvillian, even serving as county mayor of Knox County in the 90’s. My dad then grew up in Knoxville and was hooked for life. Even though he did not attend UT, he attended Tennessee Tech where he met my mom, his passion for UT was eventually carried down to myself. Even though I am quite a bit younger than a lot of people on here, my passion for UT is already set in stone. My first memory of watching UT play was Jeff Hall beating Syracuse in the Carrier Dome in ’98. I attended my first game at Neyland Stadium later that season when Arkansas came to town. My stay did not last very long. As everyone knows that game was played in a rain storm, and as a 5 year old kid watching UT get beat by Arkansas in the pouring rain was not a fun experience. Needless to say my mom, my 3 year old brother, and myself convinced my dad to leave at halftime. As we got back to my grandparents house and watched the 2nd half unfold, I quickly wished I had stayed and watched.

Though I have not seen quite as many games as others I have witnessed my share of thrilling victories and crushing defeats. Overtime victories over South Carolina in ‘03 and ’07, victories over Alabama in ’00 and ’06, Dane Bradshaw’s buzzer beating tip in against Oklahoma State in 2006, the infamous Chris Lofton-Kevin Durant game in ’06, and the victory over the Gators in ’04 all are personal highlights I will never forget. On the same token the ’02 loss to Florida, both SECCG losses to LSU, and losing to Vanderbilt in basketball 3 days after beating Memphis to go to #1, are all losses that stung long after I left the stadium.

So now as I sit here 17 years old, and preparing for college in a year or two, I really can’t imagine not being a Vol. Even if college does not take me to Knoxville I know that whatever happens I will be a Vol for life.

I was born in Atlanta, but attended high school in Brentwood, TN. I chose to attend UT for the simple reason that I had to pay my way through college after the Army and UT was the most affordable option at the time. My freshman year was in ‘89 and that first game in the student section changed my life. I did not miss a game throughout my five years at The University of Tennessee and graduated proudly in the summer of ’94. I lost touch with my orangeness after moving back to Georgia after graduation and especially after The Vols conquered the world in ’98 and the retirement of John Ward. It was particularly hard to catch most of the games back then living in Georgia again and I had become a father and Falcons season tickets holder. Also, I couldn’t stomach the Clausens(or dumb and dumber as I refer to them).

However, I returned when I met my second wife, a die hard UGA fan, who coincidently had season tickets to all the games here in town since she works for UGA. I tried desperately to try to cheer for her Dawgs with her, but the Orange blood coursing through my veins began to emerge yet again as it did in ’89 and I returned in the fall of 2005 to Neyland Stadium for the first time in 11 years only to watch us fall to The Dawgs in a painful second half display of poor defense. I realized in the pain of that loss while sitting in my bleacher seat, head in my hands, in the North endzone that I was back for good…… Now I, my son, and my friends attend at least one game a season and vow never to leave again.

  I discovered Rocky Top Talk and The Sports Animal last year by accident after responding to a friends post on the Dawg SB Nation website by attempting to antagonize him with my screen name, coincidentily-Rock Top. I had no idea at the time it was actually a blog! Your blog does so much for a guy like me who is somewhat “trapped behind enemy lines” and can go days without hearing the perspective of a fellow Vol. It keeps me somewhat sane until the next I hear those beautiful words uttered over internet radio, “It’s football Time In Tennessee!”

But I have a very similar story…born and raised in Knoxville to parents who had attended UT. My mother was 7 months pregnant with me when the Vols spanked Vinny Testaverde and Co. in the ‘86 Sugar Bowl. There was a tape made of that game that floated around my house for years. I don’t remember this, but my parents tell me that I would watch the game over and over, and after every Vols’ TD, I would run upstairs to announce, “They scored again!” I also learned my multiplication tables by putting them in terms of football scores. Clearly, I’ve been obsessed for a long time.

My first game was against Temple in 1990. Until I left for college in 2004, I probably went to about 60% of the home games and a handful of Georgia and Alabama road games. There are so many poignant, powerful memories that it would take much too long to express them (and likely exceed everyone’s tolerance for my ramblings). So here are a handful of high and low moments rattled off the top of my head: David Palmer’s 2-point conversion ‘93; Peyton to Joey Kent in ’95; screaming at my mother every time the Vols played like crap against Vandy because I was convinced she was secretly supporting her alma mater (which is now my alma mater, too…so next time we play crap against Vandy, maybe it’ll be my fault); the entire ‘98 season (pacing around the room at the end of the Syracuse game, resisting the urge to run on the field at the end of the Florida game, heckling Corso and Fowler after the underdog Vols beat up on UGA, Peerless’ kickoff return against Alabama, crying in the first half against Arkansas, blathering like an idiot at the end against Arkansas); Jabar Gaffney (he didn’t catch it and it was the first loss I witnessed in person); UGA ’01 (heartbreak); Florida ’01 (pure joy); LSU #2 ’01 (more tears as a sophomore in high school…). I failed in my attempts to keep that short, but such is the passion that I have for the Big Orange.

And that’s really what it’s about…the passion and the camaraderie of those shared experiences. That’s what I love about sports in general. It’s one of the few things that serves to bring people together in the face of all the divisiveness that exists in the world (a fact that was driven home as 50 of us crowded around the TV at work and cheered wildly when Landon Donovan drove home the winner against Algeria). Even though I now live in Richmond, VA, I’m still able to appreciate that passion for UT via Rocky Top Talk. I stumbled upon the site last summer during the 50 greatest games of the Fulmer Era and I was hooked. I may now be 400+ miles from home, but being able to come here and share the ups and downs with you guys…it helps me feel like a little bit of Knoxville is here with me. And I thank you all for that.

Growing up in Oklahoma, I was not that interested in sports. My family would watch the Indy 500, or Wide World of Sports on ABC, and the occasional olympics, but that was about it. When I was 10, we moved to Nashville, and that was the first exposure I had to UT – I vividly remember (other people’s) excitement about the 1985 Sugar Vols, but it was still something for other people.

When I came to UT for college in 1990, I was still unswayed, and remained that way for a few years. Eventually a friend of mine who is a huge Vols fan convinced me to go to a game – with a student ticket it was free entertainment, and anything thats free is always sought after in college. It was the season opener in 1993, Louisiana Tech, who we demolished 50-0. I guess at that point i was hooked, and became emotionally involved enough that 5 years later I bawled like a baby when we won the National Championship. My sports tastes have grown a bit more – I’ll watch the occasional baseball game until football starts, and I’m still a fair weather UT b-ball fan – but UT football is my overriding passion. I’ve been lucky enough to attend some amazing wins, and unlucky enough to attend some of the most heartbreaking losses. I still live in Knoxville (been here over half my life, as I just realized) and last year had the great honor of taking my daughters to their first UT football game. And on our vacation last week, my eight year old showed me what she’d been drawing with her colored pencils – a stylized, detailed, orange and white “UT”. The next generation picks up the torch.

And thats what it’s all about

I grew up, and still live, in the Memphis area. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s my father worked as an Auto Mechanic, but was also a Drag Racer on the weekends. On Saturday afternoons during the fall he would be out in our carport tuning up the racecar for that nights racing while listening to John Ward call that day’s game. I was only about 4 or 5 years old at the time but I’d be out there with him, fetching tools and such. I can still remember him being under the racecar during ‘The Catch’ play against Clemson. When John Ward said, “…I see Seivers open in the end zone…”, my Dad was banging on the carport floor with a Crescent Wrench and shouting, “Dammit, Connie (Holloway), THROW IT!!!”

He and I never attended a game in Knoxville together, but we went to a few in Memphis during the mid and late ’70s. He was a Vol fan for sure, but he was a much bigger Cowboys fan and took me to several of their games in Dallas instead. He passed away in the Spring of ’99 about 3 months after the Vols National Championship game. However, in the 2005 season I was able to return the favor by taking my son to Knoxville to see the Vols play UAB. It was the first experience of a Vols home game for both of us and we had a great time!

These days, every Labor Day weekend I pay a visit to Dad’s gravesite and place a fresh ‘Blue Star’ decal and a ‘Power T’ decal on his Headstone.