When I started SouthEastern Sports Blog in June of 2006, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to compile a list of UT's greatest victories that I had experienced in my lifetime. The history major and storyteller in me has always found a great deal of joy in looking back, which to me helps frame the way we look forward. When I sat down to come up with the Top 10 games I had ever seen, I quickly discovered that a list of just ten was leaving a lot out. And even when I tried to keep the list at 25, there were so many other stories I felt needed to be remembered. So I ended up with a list of the 50 best wins from 1989-2005, which I compiled mostly during the final months of the summer of '06. SESB had about a dozen readers back then, but I really enjoyed putting that initial list together.
As the blog grew and new opportunities presented themselves, I longed for the chance to revisit that list in greater detail with a wider audience. And in moving to RockyTopTalk last December and watching the Phillip Fulmer Era come to a close, I knew this offseason would be the best time to take one last look at our finest moments.
We started this exercise here on January 15 with the goal of finishing by fall practice, and have spent the last six and a half months getting it all out there. If you've enjoyed reading them, let me just say that I've had equal or greater pleasure in putting them together.
The full list will be preserved here - you can also check out "The VOLult" section of this site, where they've all been categorized. Anything historical like this we do in the future will also go there.
This countdown, for me, has been a pleasant reminder of the good times we had under Fulmer's watch...and as this offseason has been the best time to do it, it's also really been the only time. Next week, Lane Kiffin will open his first fall camp, and with every passing moment it becomes less about looking back, and more about looking forward under the new administration. And I'm ready. I think we're all ready.
Fulmer will certainly not be forgotten. But the immediate connections from what happens in 2009 to what happened under his administration will be harder to make than before. This will be a different Tennessee team and program, for better and for worse. And so we turn the final page on Fulmer's career and legacy, remembering the best of times we shared...and eager now for the best of times to find their way back to Knoxville again.
As always...thanks for reading.
Complete list, with all the links, after the jump...
The 50 Best Games of the Fulmer Era
- 1998 - Tennessee 23 Florida State 16 - The National Championship
- 1998 - Tennessee 20 Florida 17 (OT) -No Sir Ree
- 1995 - Tennessee 41 Alabama 14 - At Last
- 1998 - Tennessee 28 Arkansas 24 - Oh my goodness, he stumbled and fumbled!
- 1997 - Tennessee 30 Auburn 29 - A Ring For Peyton
- 2001 - Tennessee 34 Florida 32 - We Believe
- 2004 - Tennessee 30 Florida 28 - From Goat to Hero in Three Minutes
- 1996 - Tennessee 20 Alabama 13 - Turning The Tide
- 1992 - Tennessee 31 Florida 14 - In The Downpour
- 1998 - Tennessee 24 Mississippi State 14 - Surviving Upset Saturday
- 2004 - Tennessee 19 Georgia 14 - 12 Point UnderDawgs
- 1995 - Tennessee 20 Ohio State 14 - Eddie Who?
- 2007 - Tennessee 52 Kentucky 50 (4OT) - Sixty Minutes and Four Overtimes to Atlanta
- 2005 - Tennessee 30 LSU 27 (OT) - The Rally at Death Valley
- 2003 - Tennessee 51 Alabama 43 (5OT) - The Longest Third Saturday
- 2002 - Tennessee 41 Arkansas 38 (6OT) - A Six Overtime Heart Attack
- 2006 - Tennessee 51 Georgia 33 - The Perfect Fourth Quarter
- 2003 - Tennessee 10 Miami 6 - Kellen Winslow is a Soldier
- 1998 - Tennessee 34 Syracuse 33 - The Thin Line Between 13-0 and 0-1
- 1998 - Tennessee 22 Georgia 3 - No Jamal, No Problem
- 2007 - Tennessee 35 Georgia 14 - Backs to the Wall, One More Time
- 1998 - Tennessee 35 Alabama 18 - A Big Orange 100 Yarder
- 1992 - Tennessee 34 Georgia 31 - The Shape of Things to Come
- 1995 - Tennessee 30 Georgia 27 - Jeff Hall, Freshman from Winchester
- 2001 - Tennessee 45 Michigan 17 - And you can keep your stupid trophy
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31. 1996 - Tennessee 35 UCLA 20
32. 1999 - Tennessee 37 Georgia 20
33. 2001 - Tennessee 28 Notre Dame 18
34. 1997 - Tennessee 38 Georgia 13
35. 1999 - Tennessee 38 Notre Dame 14
36. 1999 - Tennessee 21 Alabama 7
37. 2007 - Tennessee 27 South Carolina 24 (OT)
38. 2001 - Tennessee 35 Alabama 24
39. 1997 - Tennessee 17 Vanderbilt 10
40. 2007 - Tennessee 34 Arkansas 13
41. 2000 - Tennessee 17 South Carolina 14
42. 2008 - Tennessee 28 Kentucky 10
43. 2006 - Tennessee 31 Air Force 30
44. 1993 - Tennessee 38 Georgia 6
45. 2001 - Tennessee 17 South Carolina 10
46. 1996 - Tennessee 29 Georgia 17
47. 1999 - Tennessee 24 Auburn 0
48. 1996 - Tennessee 48 Northwestern 28
49. 1994 - Tennessee 41 Georgia 23
50. 1994 - Tennessee 45 Virginia Tech 23