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Title: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: MIAUTIGER on August 23, 2011, 03:04:53 EDT What's the background? Family were UT fans? You're an alumnus? Pushed into it by friends? And who was your first UT hero?
For me, I grew up in Alabama around my Dad's side of the family, 99.9% of which were rabid, mentally deranged bammer fans. A few of them even talked to the Bahr on a regular basis. They tried to get me on their side. They took me to the Bahr's gravesite the day after he was buried and made me pay homage to him while they beat their chests and wailed uncontrollably. They were fizzleing crazy. I became an Auburn fan just to piss them off. And one Vincent Bo Jackson became my first Auburn hero when he went over the top to beat those nasty rednecks. I was true Orange and Blue from 1983 on (my family moved to Alabama from Florida just before this). I always find it interesting how people chose sides and teams. bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: EmerilVOL on August 23, 2011, 03:14:27 EDT What's the background? Family were UT fans? You're an alumnus? Pushed into it by friends? And who was your first UT hero? For me, I grew up in Alabama around my Dad's side of the family, 99.9% of which were rabid, mentally deranged bammer fans. A few of them even talked to the Bahr on a regular basis. They tried to get me on their side. They took me to the Bahr's gravesite the day after he was buried and made me pay homage to him while they beat their chests and wailed uncontrollably. They were fizzleing crazy. I became an Auburn fan just to piss them off. And one Vincent Bo Jackson became my first Auburn hero when he went over the top to beat those nasty rednecks. I was true Orange and Blue from 1983 on (my family moved to Alabama from Florida just before this). I always find it interesting how people chose sides and teams. bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes........bammer suxes I am a UT Fan cause my Dad brought me up right and introduced me to the ghosts of Vols past...from Neyland to George Cafego and the boys to Peyton Manning and Tee Martin to today's future stars I have always wanted to emulate a certain RB ffrom Crossville TN who was my first hero in Orange to a large degree. Yes I am speaking of the Crossville Comet Mr Curt Watson. I have met Curt (I went to high school with his sister) and always thought Curt was the best fullback/rb for short yardages that has ever played at UT. He got behind Chip Kell and got you that yard when you needed it. Title: Re: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: ReVOLver on August 23, 2011, 03:27:40 EDT Dad is a fairly rabid UT football fan and that's where I got it from. My first game was 1983 vs LSU. The hook was firmly set the night of January 1 1986. To a 10 year old kid, Miami was IT and we smoked them.
Over the years I developed a burning passion for it that he didn't have. For him it has always been something to pass the time and bond with me. My childhood will always bring memories of me, dad, and John Ward. My first UT hero was RB Johnnie Jones. After that QB Tony Robinson and WR Tim McGee. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: Stogie Vol on August 23, 2011, 03:31:44 EDT Maybe you started this thread because you are wondering what YOUR story will be when you become a Vol fan?
I really know no other way than being a UT fan. Like Emeril, my daddy brought me up right, I guess. My first UT hero was Johnnie Jones. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: 10EC on August 23, 2011, 03:36:31 EDT As what would be the lakebed for Tellico lake was being cleared of debris, they pushed trees into massive piles and allowed anyone to come and gather as much firewood as they could cut and carry. That Fall, we must have made 20 trips back and forth from our house to those piles. I remember listening to John Ward call a UT/Bama game which we lost in a close one. Ever since then, it has been about the crisp East Tennessee mornings in October when you just "feel" football. Oh, and beating Alabama.
Oh, and my first hero was Craig Puki. MLB in the mid 70s. I thought his name was uber cool. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: Inspector Vol on August 23, 2011, 03:41:18 EDT Well growing up in rural West TN were you spent most Saturdays working it was listening to John Ward on the radio. TV broadcast were rare and the time to sit and watch rarer so listening to him and watching my older brothers react to it I learned we are from Tennessee and as a proud Tennessee boy I didn't want any other state to beat us so my love for the Vols was born. Listening to Ward describe the artful dodger, he painted a picture of the game. I learned what a pirouette was from John Ward. :thumbup:
Title: I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my dad while he listened to Post by: VOLMAN on August 23, 2011, 03:59:08 EDT the Vols, at the time you were lucky if UT was TV once/twice a year. He never attended UT, or any college for that matter, so it was a state pride thing for us...us (Tennessee Volunteers) against them (The Enemy). I loved it and still do!
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: VinnieVOL on August 23, 2011, 04:05:58 EDT Dad graduated from UT in the early 60's, and he's been rabid ever since he attended his first game there. My dad's always been the type to pour himself into fully whatever he's involved in. As many here know, he's not missed a UT home game since he was a freshman there in the late 50's. So that's his and my thing together. So naturally, growing up there was no other way. Once as a young boy, after watching the movie "Rudy" I walked up to my Mom and said "I wanna play football for Notre Dame" and she silenced me with her hand and said "you better not let your Dad hear you say that". :laugh:
He even found his father's diary, and it has journal entries about going to games in the first half of the 1900's. I was simply born bleeding orange. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: LouisVOL on August 23, 2011, 04:53:39 EDT By the grace of God!
From an old timer, my first in person UT game was the 1959 LSU game, Billy Cannon, #1, defending National Champs, etc. Therefore, my first heroes were Jim Cartwright and Bill Majors. Coach Majors later recruited me (lightly recruited) and was at my high school game on Oct 1, 1965. I remember to this day what a thrill it was to shake his hand. The next game was bama (yes, we had off week before bama even back then, I am sure bama fans complained about it since that has become part of their tradition) and that was the infamous Snake to the chains pass that allowed us to get out of B'ham with a 7-7 tie. Two days later, Coach Majors, Bob Jones, and Charlie Rash were in the crash that cost all three their lives. The next game was Houston with Warren McVea, the black cross game, and all I remember is we won, but there was no joy. Later Charlie Fulton went down against Ole Miss, and the legend that is the Swamp Rat began. Dewey Warren is one of my favorite Vols to this day. At the Georgia Tech game, I had a visit, and my Vol Hostess later became my first wife (not every Vol memory has a happy ending). In Jan 1999, I called my Dad and my first words were "I didn't know if it would happen in my lifetime". His were, "I just hoped I would live long enough to see another one". My hope is that we both live long enough to see yet another. But if we don't, doesn't matter, we are Vols! By the grace of God! Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: 101stDad on August 23, 2011, 04:57:49 EDT Born just across the river from Neyland Stadium in November of 1958. I really am a Volunteer by birth.
I grew up 4 miles from Neyland, and went to games there (sitting on the hill next to the old temporary green bleachers) when I was about 6 years old. I began selling watered down Cokes in those old nasty waxy paper cups at about age 8 just so I could get in to the stadium. I "graduated" in to selling those hot dogs that they made on Thursdays before games - the ones that had just a little dab of chili on them and a packet of Guilden's brown mustard inside the paper wrapper. I sold those rancid until about age 14, when we finally got season tickets and I didn't have to be a vendor to get inside the stadium. I have had my own season tickets since 1983. I haven't been to as many games personally in the last 10 years or so, since I have been broadcasting high school football on Friday nights and doing a Saturday morning radio show. My tickets do get used every game, however, and I pull for the Vols just as hard from my recliner in front of the big screen as I do from section T when I am there in person. Although I never went to UT (attended a juco in North Carolina then Western Carolina University) I am still a born and bred Volunteer, and always will be. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: MIAUTIGER on August 23, 2011, 05:00:33 EDT Maybe you started this thread because you are wondering what YOUR story will be when you become a Vol fan? Blech.....no way. I mean, I like the Vols, especially with your mutual hate for all things bammer. But Vol orange does not look good at me at all. I actually started the thread to get ideas on sneaky ways you guys may use to corrupt my little girls' minds. I have to be vigilant in my protection of their brains, especially since I will be down there. :angel: Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: Inspector Vol on August 23, 2011, 05:13:30 EDT Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Your child will have friends that are Vol fans. She will have sleep overs where they will sing Rocky Top and cheer GO VOLS! Seeing the true color of Orange all around her she will slowly be indoctrinated into the Vol faith. As a good Auburn parent you will try to keep her from it but as nature would have it she will rebel against her parents and embrace the THE GREAT VOL NATION as her own.
:dielaughing: :dielaughing: :dielaughing: Blech.....no way. I mean, I like the Vols, especially with your mutual hate for all things bammer. But Vol orange does not look good at me at all. I actually started the thread to get ideas on sneaky ways you guys may use to corrupt my little girls' minds. I have to be vigilant in my protection of their brains, especially since I will be down there. :angel: Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: Volznut on August 23, 2011, 05:14:12 EDT We moved to the US in 1978 from India. I was 9 at the time. My dad, who is a physics professor, got a 2 year visiting professor position at UT. We lived in the Laurel apts in Ft Sanders area. I noticed kids throwing around a football, but I had no clue what the sport was. remember we moved in September, so I saw Saturdays were always crazy, with lots of people in town wearing orange. Being from India, I knew sports like Cricket, soccer, and field hockey. So I watched some games on TV, and tried to play it with some school friends as well, but still did not understand the game for a while. I wanted to go to a UT game, but my parents were struggling to make ends meet and couldn't afford tickets. The late 70's were tough times.
Long story short, my dad's 2 years were over, we moved to Mexico in 1980. We came back in the summer of 81 and my dad got a job in Morristown, and a local college sponsored his green card. In 1982, I was invited to my first game by a friend's dad and it was the 1982 Alabama game. Nice game to be introduced to the big orange, although I started being a fan of UT by the beginning of the 1982 season, and followed them the whole year. I didn't really develop a full understanding of the intricacies of the game till I was in college. I became an American in 1989, long after I was a Vol fan. Went to UT in 1986-1991. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: eVOLved on August 23, 2011, 05:16:52 EDT As my handle states I am an eVOLved fan. I couldn't care any less about sports in Jr. High and High School. My parents were/are not big sports fans, thus I was not. If I ever went to any sporting event, it was with a friend's family.
The first college football game I attended was in Oxford, MS in 1999. Ole Miss was hosting Vandy. It was a high scoring, close game, that Ole Miss eventually lost. That same season I was in a band that was invited to march in the Fiesta Bowl parade. Little did I know Tennessee would be playing, making UT the second college football game I ever attended. At the time, I was still not into sports. It took a girl (and her father "a fairly rabid UT fan" and her brother who "over the years developed a (deeper) burning passion") to eVOLve me to the fan I am today. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: RipleyVol12 on August 23, 2011, 05:19:54 EDT My dad and grandfather have always been diehard love fans so I get it from them. I think one of my proudest moments is when my dad said he thought he was a bad football fan til I came around still makes me smile. My hero would be Al Wilson the way he played on defense just dont see that anymore.
GO VOLS! :powert: Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: EmerilVOL on August 23, 2011, 05:21:42 EDT What's the background? Family were UT fans? You're an alumnus? Pushed into it by friends? And who was your first UT hero? For me, I grew up in Alabama around my Dad's side of the family, 99.9% of which were rabid, mentally deranged bammer fans. A few of them even talked to the Bahr on a regular basis. They tried to get me on their side. They took me to the Bahr's gravesite the day after he was buried and made me pay homage to him while they beat their chests and wailed uncontrollably. They were fizzleing crazy. I became an Auburn fan just to piss them off. And one Vincent Bo Jackson became my first Auburn hero when he went over the top to beat those nasty rednecks. I was true Orange and Blue from 1983 on (my family moved to Alabama from Florida just before this). 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Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: tnflower on August 23, 2011, 06:09:28 EDT This will sound like a crazy reason, but I'm a female, so crazy is okay. When my husband was in Viet Nam, he asked me to send him the week-end sports pages so he could see how UT was doing. After looking for the items to send him, I found myself being pleased when UT did good because it meant I would have something positive to send him. When he came home, we watched all the UT games together and he would tell me how much he appreciated the articles I had sent. Been a fan ever since. Believe it or not, Johnny Majors was Mr Football to us, and he's the one I remember the most from those days.
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: Model 12 on August 23, 2011, 06:09:49 EDT Grandfather graduated UT in 36. Parents graduated UTM in 61 (dad played BB and was always a fan). I graduated Missouri-Rolla in 87 and was never a fan. Growing up in West TN, a lot of us had a bit of a backlash against UT, so I was more Memphis State and Oklahoma...until 1990. I was in STL working when my father in law came up with a pair of tix to the UT-ND game, so my "Auburn 87" buddy and I drove down for the game and I was hooked forever. My first "hero" was born at that game in the form of Andy Kelly. DAMN THAT INT IN THE SOUTH END ZONE!!!! Became a season ticket holder in 92
Wasn't forced on me...totally by choice. So much so that we moved back to Tennessee, partially to go to games! Oh how I love the Big Orange game experience. Looking like my HS senior daughter is becoming a strong UT lean (Ole Miss and Auburn are giving me and my bank account a scare). She's been in PP, row 6 since before her first birthday. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: RIPLEYVOL on August 23, 2011, 06:24:21 EDT I've always like the VOLS since I was a kid but....Jeremy Lincoln's unforgettable block in South Bend sealed the deal! That was the life changing play that made me bleed orange!
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: MIAUTIGER on August 23, 2011, 07:08:28 EDT Sorry, Emeril. All I heard was "Alabama's Nick Saban is the Devil Alabama's Nick Saban is the Devil....." then there was something unintelligible that I could not understand.
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: BigOrange Maniac on August 23, 2011, 07:36:54 EDT Revolver's and 10EC's experiences are quite similar to my own, particularly 10EC's.
Revolver likes to give me hell because I'm curmudgeonly when it comes to change. It isn't that I'm a curmudgeon; it's that I'm a hopeless nostalgic. (If being nostalgic in and of itself makes one a curmudgeon, I guess that defines me.) Like Revolver, memories of my childhood revolve around three things: my father, John Ward and UT football. But for those of us who grew up in rural East Tennessee, it's really much more than that. Around here, you're a Tennessee fan just because you're an East Tennessean. If you're a housewife who doesn't know the difference between a touchdown and a fumble, you still don the orange on Saturdays in the fall and become a vocal supporter of the Vols. That's not so much different than what you find within certain radiuses of other schools across the country, except it is. Around here, there are no other major D-I schools. There are no pro teams. Tennessee football is IT. And that's what makes our fan base so rabid. It's very similar to football in Alabama and basketball in Kentucky. Still, I guess it goes back to the fact that we cut our teeth on Tennessee football. The first game I actually remember was in the late 1980s, riding with my parents in the Cumberland Mountains above Anderson County. The fall colors were peaking and Dad was always a dedicated foliage-watcher. As we bounced along old coal haul roads high above the Tennessee Valley, John Ward's voice came in loud and clear from the radio station in the valley below. I don't know how many Saturdays we spent doing that, but it was plenty. There were Saturday afternoons lounging across my grandmother's easy chair, eating apples stolen from the orchard out back while John Ward called the action on an old AM radio that was missing the knob to change the frequency. Saturday afternoon football games in the front yard, where we pretended we were Jeff Francis, Reggie Cobb, or Alvin Harper as the radio played from the front porch. John's voice would pick us up — "45, 40, 35, 30" — as we broke free for our own touchdown run, racing for the big oak tree at the end of the yard that served as our goal line. Later, there were deer hunts where we'd come out of the woods and eat our lunch of saltine crackers, Vienna sausages and Beanie Weanies at my grandpa's battered old Dodge Ram pickup and listen to part of the game on the radio before heading back in. I remember old coal trucks bouncing along the road where we were parked, as the coal boom was just dying in the mountains of the Cumberland Plateau, and those drivers would have the game playing on their radio, too; the sounds of John and Bill calling the action drifted through their open windows. On one occasion, our math class took a trip to UT. Some buddies and I slipped away from the rest of the group and headed to Neyland Stadium. None of us had ever been to a game before. We wanted to see what a place that would hold 95,000 people looked like. As luck would have it, the gates were open, as workers prepared for the next day's game. We decided to head down to the field and grab a blade of grass, just 'cause. We almost got to the bottom when a big, burly guy yelled at us. We were busted. Except we really weren't. He sounded mean, but once he found out that we were just seeing Neyland Stadium for the first time, he led us on a tour of the place. It wasn't until I picked up my Football Time magazine a few weeks later and saw his picture inside that I realized we had been given a tour of the stadium by John Chavis. I remember being at a fall festival in Oneida with my grandmother. She made crafts and sold them. The festival coincided with Tennessee's muzzleloader season for deer, so my grandfather would be hunting and she needed my help setting up and taking down her displays. The highlight of the festival was a steam train arriving from Chattanooga, loaded with people who would ride up the Norfolk-Southern Railroad, enjoying the colors, and stop at the festival for a couple of hours to eat and shop before heading back down the tracks. I had my Walkman on, listening to the UT-Alabama game. I lost count of the number of people walking by who stopped me and said, "What's the score?" So is it a given that if a 13-year-old kid has a Walkman on that he's listening to football? If it's the Third Saturday in October in East Tennessee, it is. (Tennessee lost that one 24-19 when Andy Kelly was intercepted late in the game.) I was a senior in high school when Peyton Manning held his press conference. Me and a buddy were sitting in the back of our U.S. Government class with my radio. We took the ear phones off the head set and he had one pressed to his ear while I had the other pressed to mine. When Manning said those famous words — "I've made up my mind; I don't expect to ever look back. I'm staying at the University of Tennessee" — we jumped and hooped and hollered. Our teacher just looked at us and shook his head and grinned. (Then he took his own headset off and slipped it into the drawer.) Someone got on the intercom system and announced that Peyton Manning had just announced his intention to come back for his senior season. Applause and cheering erupted up and down the hallway. When does a college football player's press conference interrupt a school day? When it's football in East Tennessee, it does. Somewhere along the way, it became engrained in me. It wasn't forced on me...but it was inevitable, just the same. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: VinnieVOL on August 23, 2011, 07:59:37 EDT I was a senior in high school when Peyton Manning held his press conference. Me and a buddy were sitting in the back of our U.S. Government class with my radio. We took the ear phones off the head set and he had one pressed to his ear while I had the other pressed to mine. When Manning said those famous words — "I've made up my mind; I don't expect to ever look back. I'm staying at the University of Tennessee" — we jumped and hooped and hollered. Our teacher just looked at us and shook his head and grinned. (Then he took his own headset off and slipped it into the drawer.) Someone got on the intercom system and announced that Peyton Manning had just announced his intention to come back for his senior season. Applause and cheering erupted up and down the hallway. When does a college football player's press conference interrupt a school day? When it's football in East Tennessee, it does. My story of that day is quite similar.. I believe I was in U.S. history class and I think I was a jr. in hs. And the pandemonium at my hs was quite similar.. we ran out in the hallways and were high fiving. I also get chills when I watch the video of that press conference. The looks on everyone's faces in the audience was priceless. Grown men looking like they were 8 years old and had just received a red rider bb gun for Christmas. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: MIAUTIGER on August 23, 2011, 08:28:50 EDT Somewhere along the way, it became ingrained in me. It wasn't forced on me...but it was inevitable, just the same. If this board had a Star and HOF feature, this post would most certainly qualify for both. Good read, BOM. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: EmerilVOL on August 23, 2011, 08:30:46 EDT Sorry, Emeril. All I heard was "Alabama's Nick Saban is the Devil Alabama's Nick Saban is the Devil....." then there was something unintelligible that I could not understand. Orange is good Orange is good Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: droner on August 23, 2011, 08:36:55 EDT In the Gator Bowl at the end of the 1966 season, UT played Syracuse. One of the Syracuse players, could have been Floyd Little, said something about that they were disappointed not to be playing a great team but were happy to playing a "good" team like Tennessee. That ticked off my father. He didn't go to UT, didn't even go to college, but that made him mad for a northern school to be talking that way about a southern school. He always liked UT but for no reason really. So I started paying attention and I became a fan.
I followed the Vols and my fandom was solidified in the first game of othe 1968 season. UT vs. UGA, first game on the artificial turf. But deciding to go to school at UT was almost an accident. I was considering South Carolina, UNC, UGA and (101st Dad will love this) Clemson. One day at high school one of my friends asked me why I didn't consider UT since I really wanted to go some place a good distance away. (Yes, I know it's only a trip of less than 3 hours from Greenville, SC to Knoxville but back then it was a good 4 hours or more.) The problem was that UT required the ACT and the ACT and SAT weren't interchangeable in those days. I had already taken the SAT so I took the ACT, applied to UT and that was that. Almost half of the college bound kids out of my very large HS senior class were dividing between USC and Clemson. I wanted something new. And big. Semi-humorous story: My Dad said I could go anywhere but South Carolina. He said it was a big party school. So when I decided to go to UT, that was fine with him. The night before I left for college we ran into a girl who was a junior at UT. I asked her did she have any advice. She said "bring an umbrella and be prepared to party." The look on his face was priceless. He really didn't know. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: MIAUTIGER on August 23, 2011, 08:39:30 EDT Orange is good Orange is good OK...I can try this. Orange and Blue is good.....Orange and Blue is good......Orange and Blue is good......checkered endzones and the Woo suxes! How was that? Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: 10EC on August 23, 2011, 08:42:42 EDT Later, there were deer hunts LOL - I don't think I saw a UT/UK game before I was in my 20s. I was always coming in from the woods to listen to the game and then go back out. Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: tnflower on August 23, 2011, 10:18:45 EDT Great story and good reading BOM! :clap:
Title: Re: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: RockinGrannyVol on August 24, 2011, 12:03:19 EDT For me....
I've been attending UT football games for 52 years. Started going with Mom while Dad worked the press box and older brothers sold cokes! Born and bred a Tennessee Vol. Will be a Vol until I die. All my children and grandchildren are Vol fans..even though they are growing up in Georgia. Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: Black Diamond Vol on August 24, 2011, 12:33:54 EDT Well, my Dad went to Marshall, and my Mom to (gag) Florida, so I wasn't exactly born into it. But being born and raised in TN, I kinda just fell in with my childhood friends who were Vol fans. But the '85 season and subsequent Sugar Bowl rout of da U sealed the deal for me (as it did for many, many others my age). There was no turning back at that point.
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: 73Volgrad on August 24, 2011, 02:10:25 EDT Saw my first UT game in 1962 when the stadium was renamed Neyland and west upper deck and press box were new. I went with my step-father who had won tickets from Mayfields milk in Chattanooga. I do not remember seeing UT on TV in the 1960s. I became a regular fan when I started UT in 1969.
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: ReVOLver on August 24, 2011, 02:13:31 EDT Revolver's and 10EC's experiences are quite similar to my own, particularly 10EC's. Revolver likes to give me hell because I'm curmudgeonly when it comes to change. It isn't that I'm a curmudgeon; it's that I'm a hopeless nostalgic. (If being nostalgic in and of itself makes one a curmudgeon, I guess that defines me.) Like Revolver, memories of my childhood revolve around three things: my father, John Ward and UT football. But for those of us who grew up in rural East Tennessee, it's really much more than that. Around here, you're a Tennessee fan just because you're an East Tennessean. If you're a housewife who doesn't know the difference between a touchdown and a fumble, you still don the orange on Saturdays in the fall and become a vocal supporter of the Vols. That's not so much different than what you find within certain radiuses of other schools across the country, except it is. Around here, there are no other major D-I schools. There are no pro teams. Tennessee football is IT. And that's what makes our fan base so rabid. It's very similar to football in Alabama and basketball in Kentucky. Still, I guess it goes back to the fact that we cut our teeth on Tennessee football. The first game I actually remember was in the late 1980s, riding with my parents in the Cumberland Mountains above Anderson County. The fall colors were peaking and Dad was always a dedicated foliage-watcher. As we bounced along old coal haul roads high above the Tennessee Valley, John Ward's voice came in loud and clear from the radio station in the valley below. I don't know how many Saturdays we spent doing that, but it was plenty. There were Saturday afternoons lounging across my grandmother's easy chair, eating apples stolen from the orchard out back while John Ward called the action on an old AM radio that was missing the knob to change the frequency. Saturday afternoon football games in the front yard, where we pretended we were Jeff Francis, Reggie Cobb, or Alvin Harper as the radio played from the front porch. John's voice would pick us up — "45, 40, 35, 30" — as we broke free for our own touchdown run, racing for the big oak tree at the end of the yard that served as our goal line. Later, there were deer hunts where we'd come out of the woods and eat our lunch of saltine crackers, Vienna sausages and Beanie Weanies at my grandpa's battered old Dodge Ram pickup and listen to part of the game on the radio before heading back in. I remember old coal trucks bouncing along the road where we were parked, as the coal boom was just dying in the mountains of the Cumberland Plateau, and those drivers would have the game playing on their radio, too; the sounds of John and Bill calling the action drifted through their open windows. On one occasion, our math class took a trip to UT. Some buddies and I slipped away from the rest of the group and headed to Neyland Stadium. None of us had ever been to a game before. We wanted to see what a place that would hold 95,000 people looked like. As luck would have it, the gates were open, as workers prepared for the next day's game. We decided to head down to the field and grab a blade of grass, just 'cause. We almost got to the bottom when a big, burly guy yelled at us. We were busted. Except we really weren't. He sounded mean, but once he found out that we were just seeing Neyland Stadium for the first time, he led us on a tour of the place. It wasn't until I picked up my Football Time magazine a few weeks later and saw his picture inside that I realized we had been given a tour of the stadium by John Chavis. I remember being at a fall festival in Oneida with my grandmother. She made crafts and sold them. The festival coincided with Tennessee's muzzleloader season for deer, so my grandfather would be hunting and she needed my help setting up and taking down her displays. The highlight of the festival was a steam train arriving from Chattanooga, loaded with people who would ride up the Norfolk-Southern Railroad, enjoying the colors, and stop at the festival for a couple of hours to eat and shop before heading back down the tracks. I had my Walkman on, listening to the UT-Alabama game. I lost count of the number of people walking by who stopped me and said, "What's the score?" So is it a given that if a 13-year-old kid has a Walkman on that he's listening to football? If it's the Third Saturday in October in East Tennessee, it is. (Tennessee lost that one 24-19 when Andy Kelly was intercepted late in the game.) I was a senior in high school when Peyton Manning held his press conference. Me and a buddy were sitting in the back of our U.S. Government class with my radio. We took the ear phones off the head set and he had one pressed to his ear while I had the other pressed to mine. When Manning said those famous words — "I've made up my mind; I don't expect to ever look back. I'm staying at the University of Tennessee" — we jumped and hooped and hollered. Our teacher just looked at us and shook his head and grinned. (Then he took his own headset off and slipped it into the drawer.) Someone got on the intercom system and announced that Peyton Manning had just announced his intention to come back for his senior season. Applause and cheering erupted up and down the hallway. When does a college football player's press conference interrupt a school day? When it's football in East Tennessee, it does. Somewhere along the way, it became engrained in me. It wasn't forced on me...but it was inevitable, just the same. Great story. You've always been quite the writer. I poke fun at you because you are an old soul and you let it get to you (or at least appear to). :laugh: :nod: Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: BigOrange Maniac on August 24, 2011, 02:20:50 EDT I poke fun at you because you are an old soul and you let it get to you (or at least appear to). :laugh: :nod: Aside from my standard curmudgeonly response ("GET BENT!"), I don't really see where you're coming from there...does disliking full-body ink and Vern Lundquist make me an old soul? :crazy: Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: XHotlanta on August 24, 2011, 02:52:42 EDT Went to school there ... but was influenced by my grandmother, a better UT fan than I ever was, or could ever be. God bless her departed Big Orange soul!
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: crockettman on August 24, 2011, 03:03:09 EDT Jan 1st 1986...my mom remarried and we moved to Nashville from KY in '84 when I was 15.My step dad grew up in Rockwood and was a big UT fan...Watching UT destroy Miami as 14 pt underdogs and with him whooping and hollering made me wanna watch it even more and I have been a fan ever since.
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: CrossVol on August 24, 2011, 03:30:16 EDT I was born a VOL fan. Simple as that.
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: Quasi EVol on August 24, 2011, 04:01:43 EDT Tennessee parents. 'Nuff said!
Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: PirateVOL on August 25, 2011, 02:27:04 EDT Mostly Bill Dyer and John Ward. Some of my first memories were reading the Dyergrams on Sunday mornings, then I graduated to listening to John. The Swamp Rat was my first favorite and yes Emeril the Crossville Comet (and later Blue Angel #2) is still one of my fav RBs (though the raw bacon types in Fayeteville might not share our view ...).
Oh, Mrs PV claims that ReVOLver and certain other orangelife's around here turned me into a ORANGE & WHITE FANATIC. :eek: Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: BGHarper on August 25, 2011, 03:49:31 EDT I am a UT Fan cause my Dad brought me up right and introduced me to the ghosts of Vols past...from Neyland to George Cafego and the boys to Peyton Manning and Tee Martin to today's future stars I have always wanted to emulate a certain RB ffrom Crossville TN who was my first hero in Orange to a large degree. Yes I am speaking of the Crossville Comet Mr Curt Watson. I have met Curt (I went to high school with his sister) and always thought Curt was the best fullback/rb for short yardages that has ever played at UT. He got behind Chip Kell and got you that yard when you needed it. Curt was a great one, and Chip Kell was pretty decent himself (center, if my Crimson memory serves me). My favorite Vol is Gary Wright. (look it up) Former FG kicker of some note. I think he is somehow related to Daniel Lincoln. BG:) Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: BGHarper on August 25, 2011, 04:14:45 EDT Mostly Bill Dyer and John Ward. Some of my first memories were reading the Dyergrams on Sunday mornings, then I graduated to listening to John. The Swamp Rat was my first favorite and yes Emeril the Crossville Comet (and later Blue Angel #2) is still one of my fav RBs (though the raw bacon types in Fayeteville might not share our view ...). Oh, Mrs PV claims that ReVOLver and certain other orangelife's around here turned me into a ORANGE & WHITE FANATIC. :eek: The Swamp Rat Dewey Warren was great one, too. As I've already said to Emeril, Curt Watson was a truly great short yardage back. Tough as nails. A few names from my Crimson memory of the some of the first Vols I remember: Steve Kiner, Paul Naumoff (I had to look up the spelling) Lester McClain, Jackie Walker, and Bobby Majors. BG Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: ReVOLver on August 25, 2011, 04:23:47 EDT Aside from my standard curmudgeonly response ("GET BENT!"), I don't really see where you're coming from there...does disliking full-body ink and Vern Lundquist make me an old soul? :crazy: You said it yourself... you are nostalgic. You are pretty much a traditionalist. You don't like change very much. In my book that makes you an old soul. I mean no offense... Vinnie is also an old soul, he's just a different type. He's more of the 70s rock and roll variety, you're more of the country music variety. :dance: Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: BigOrange Maniac on August 25, 2011, 05:07:00 EDT You said it yourself... you are nostalgic. You are pretty much a traditionalist. You don't like change very much. In my book that makes you an old soul. I mean no offense... Vinnie is also an old soul, he's just a different type. He's more of the 70s rock and roll variety, you're more of the country music variety. :dance: I'm not offended by your suggestion...I just find it interesting. :biggrin: Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: EmerilVOL on August 25, 2011, 01:12:33 EDT The Swamp Rat Dewey Warren was great one, too. As I've already said to Emeril, Curt Watson was a truly great short yardage back. Tough as nails. A few names from my Crimson memory of the some of the first Vols I remember: Steve Kiner, Paul Naumoff (I had to look up the spelling) Lester McClain, Jackie Walker, and Bobby Majors. BG One of my favorite memories when I was a young whipper snapper was of working out on a hot saturday in late September and listening to John Ward call the game with Auburn. My mom and dad had bought a piece of property (about 20 acres) of an old farm place that had been in this family's hands for many years and then they sold it to my Mom and Dad. Well it had grown up quite a bit and there was enough sumac on this property to create a sumac pile twenty feet tall. I must have cut out enough of that stuff over that fall to give me Hulk arms. We would work all day Saturday on clearing the land so we could get the house started the next year. Dad was adamant that he had two kids so he did not need some big ole piee of heavy machinery to clear the land just his two kids. Well I was listening to John Ward (early 70s timeframe) and he was describing Curt Watson going through the line to get a crucial third down conversion. It was similar to "Scott turns and hands the ball off the the Crossville Comet and Watson is penetrating the line behind the blocking of Kell. (as an aside look up Chip Kell's weight - it was 265 and he was the center) They push the pile and yes Curtis Watson has achieved another first down for The Big Orange" Title: Re: So, how did you become a UT fan? Post by: BanditVol on August 26, 2011, 04:06:36 EDT My family moved to Knoxville in late May of 1982, during the last big recession and in time to get caught in the traffic from the 1982 World's Fair. My first memory of a game is when we played LSU that year in early September. I had not been in town long, was still too young to drive, and had nothing else to do so I listened to the game on my sister's (who was at work) stereo in the dark with headsets while my parents watched some program on TV I didn't care for (It was a night game). Fuad Reviez hit an incredibly long FG on the last play of the game to tie it (I think it was a 60-yarder). I really was not a UT fan though, but I did follow them since they were the local team and most of my new friends at school liked them. I also recall the bammer game that year. UT broke an 11-game win streak by bammer. What I recall most was that one of the most popular kids in school, whose parents were from Birmingham, and so was a huge bammer fan, told me I was crazy for saying the Vols could win. I had some fun with that on the Monday after the game and the kids in that particular class took a liking to me after that (it was Driver's Ed, I think), except of course for the loud mouthed bammer fan. Fun times. I had actually been a huge Notre Dame fan since age 11 (moved to Tennessee at 15) but Notre Dame and bammer had a big rivalry in those days and had just finished a home and home series and I didn't care for them at all, so that bonded me with the UT fans. After that first year, I was only a very casual fan of the Vols, and only because I lived in Knoxville. In fact, I don't have strong memories of too many other games from the rest of high school. Then college rolled around and I decided to go to UT, and so then I was a fan for real. But even in college, I mainly went to games for social reasons. I was not a "die hard" fan. Then my senior year we unexpectedly went 11-1 and I happened to have become good friends with a huge fan, and we went to Birminingham for the UT game. It was a lot of fun in spite of the drubbing. That all made me a bigger fan.
But I didn't really become a huge fan until I graduated and moved to bammer. One of my worst game memories is watching the blocked kick roll down the field from my 40-yard line seat in 1990 and knowing I had to go back to bammer and face the crazy fans. I had been confident we would win. After all, we were no. 3 in the country and undefeated, and bammer was only 3-3 coming in to the game. I think I turned against Johnny Majors right there and then, lol. That season I started to become a huge fan. It wasn't just the frustration of the bammer game, I remember watching the Vols in the season opening Kickoff Classic and thinking how cool it was to go to a university that had a big time football program I could identify with after graduating. Suddenly I understood why alumni get so crazy and pay kids. Football is like a link back to college and source of pride in your school. From there it just grew. I attended every bammer game between 1987 and 1998, road and home, and I can't even begin to describe my frustration with that game from 1991 to 1994 (24-19L, 17-10L, 24-24T, 21-14L). We played them so close EVERY YEAR...and JUST.COULD.NOT.WIN!!!! I remember sitting in the stands in 1994 and wondering seriously if we would ever beat them. Needless to say, 1995 bammer is one of my favorite games, and I was there to enjoy every minute of it. :clap: It wasn't just about the bammer series though, it was the fact I think that as soon as I graduated UT started to become a really bigtime program. Our 1990 team could easily have won it all, and probably should have, and that was the first season after I graduated. I went to the Sugar Bowl that year, to this day the only bowl game I have attended. I have fond (if somewhat drunken) memories of it. Another thing that helped was that in 1991 I started working with a friend who was from Maryville and a co-op student at my place of employment, so he was still in school. in 1991 and 1992 we would drive up for home games, crash at his brother's condo in Fort Sanders, then party there before heading over to various frat house, condos, apartments, you name it, we made the rounds. That was something I never had time for in college because I had to study so much, and you can believe I made up for lost time. To this day, those are some of my fondest memories of UT football. Not only did I have time to properly party prior to the game, but I had the means to afford to do some things I never did in college. We typically would end up at his friend's condo a few blocks from the stadium and then a whole mass of screaming students and young alums like me of perhaps 30-40 people decked in orange, with AT LEAST ONE UT flag being waved, would attack the stadium screaming "Go Big Orange" "fizzle bama", "Go Vols" or whatever else we could think of at the top of our lungs. To this day, I have never felt so much a part of the experience as I did in those days. Good times! From there I was a big fan throughout the 90s. It helped that during that entire period our team was building up to the MNC in 1998. Every year seemed to leave me a bit hungrier. It's almost hard to relate to now, because we got so spoiled later. I still remember being thrilled with the attention UT got in 1996. We had just expanded our stadium to the largest in the country (even beating Michigan for awhile), Wuerffel and Manning were the top Heisman candidates and UT and UF were both in the top 5 in the country. I can recall being excited about that game all summer. The funny thing is, I went with a friend from work who was not even a Vol fan, he just wanted something to do that weekend, and we made the mistake of buying student tickets when that was the first year they really cracked down on being able to get in with them. We ended up watching it in a sports bar, and I almost got into a fight with some gators. But the main reason I bring that game up is that 3-4 years later games like that seemed almost routine. It seems like from that point to early 2002, just about every game UT had was big in some ways. That was the peak. Anyway, I have had many good times since then, such as the 2005 LSU game I attended with Pirate, and hope to have many more. I will always be a big UT fan, and hope we get to the top again, but I will root just as hard no matter what. Part of me also thinks that as a country we are way too serious about sports, and that it would be all funner if people took it less seriously. It's supposed to be entertainment, but some people act like their lives depend on it, particularly down here in ole bammy. |