50 Fun Facts About Tennessee Volunteers Football

Which bluegrass song, written at a Gatlinburg inn in 1967, became the Tennessee Volunteers' unofficial anthem?

Rocky Top took Felice and Boudleaux Bryant about 15 minutes to write, as a break from a set of slower songs. It is not the official fight song: that title belongs to Down the Field.

In which city do the Tennessee Volunteers play home games at the 100,000-plus-seat Neyland Stadium?

Knoxville has hosted the Vols on the same site since 1921, when the ground opened as Shields–Watkins Field with room for just 3,200 people. The playing surface still carries that name.

Smokey, the live mascot who leads the Tennessee Volunteers onto the field, is which breed of dog?

Bluetick Coonhound Blue Smokey won the job at a 1953 halftime contest. The last dog introduced, he howled, the students cheered, and he howled again until the stadium roared.

After Alabama and Tennessee meet each October, players on the winning team traditionally light up what?

Cigars have followed the game since the 1950s, when Alabama trainer Jim Goostree began handing them out after wins. Both teams kept it secret for years because of NCAA rules on tobacco.

After Tennessee beat Alabama 52–49 in 2022, fans carried what out of Neyland Stadium and into the river?

The goalposts were paraded around campus before going into the water, as the Vols had just ended a 15-game losing run in the series. Fans then donated $152,000 to replace them.

Which pattern, borrowed from the Ayres Hall clock tower, fills the end zones at Tennessee's Neyland Stadium?

Checkerboard end zones arrived in 1964, vanished when artificial turf went down in 1968, and did not return until 1989. Nike later added the same pattern to the back of the helmet stripe.

Which NFL team made Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning the first overall pick of the 1998 draft?

The Indianapolis Colts got a quarterback who had finished his degree in three years yet stayed at Tennessee for a senior season. He started for them from 1998 to 2010.

Charles Moore chose Tennessee's orange and white after which flower that grew on the campus Hill?

Daisies growing on The Hill gave Moore, a member of the very first team, the idea. The football players did not actually wear orange until 1922.

Which nickname followed defensive end Reggie White from his senior year at Tennessee into the NFL?

Minister of Defense suited a pass rusher who had been ordained as a Baptist minister at 17. He went on to record 198 sacks in the NFL.

What name is given to the fleet of fans' boats that docks beside Neyland Stadium before Tennessee games?

Vol Navy began in 1962, when broadcaster George Mooney tied up his runabout by the stadium to dodge game-day traffic. Many fans arrive days early to socialise on the water.

Tennessee's Peyton Manning never beat which SEC rival, coached throughout his college years by Steve Spurrier?

Florida won all four meetings of his career. Sports Illustrated had planned a Manning cover after the 1995 game, but the Gators rallied from 30–14 down and it ran Danny Wuerffel instead.

Which Michigan defensive back beat Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning to the 1997 Heisman Trophy?

Charles Woodson was the first primarily defensive player ever to win the award, which made Manning the fourth Volunteer to finish as its runner-up.

Which future Colorado Rockies star was Tennessee's quarterback until a 1994 injury let Peyton Manning take over?

Todd Helton had only become the starter when a senior tore knee ligaments in the opener, then hurt his own knee three weeks later. He went on to win a batting title in 2000.

Which quarterback replaced Peyton Manning and led Tennessee to an unbeaten national championship season in 1998?

Tee Martin had spent two years as Manning's backup, then went 13–0 as the starter. Along the way he completed 24 passes in a row across two games, a new NCAA record.

Which bowl hosted the first BCS title game, won 23–16 by Tennessee over the Seminoles after the 1998 season?

The Fiesta Bowl crowned the Vols at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Receiver Peerless Price was its offensive MVP, with 199 receiving yards and a 79-yard touchdown catch.

Which unbeaten opponent's quarterback stumbled and fumbled late, letting Tennessee save its perfect 1998 season?

Arkansas led 24–22 and needed one first down to run out the clock when Clint Stoerner dropped the ball. Billy Ratliff recovered, and Travis Henry scored the winner with 28 seconds left.

Which former Tennessee offensive guard coached the Volunteers from 1992 to 2008 and won the 1998 national title?

Phillip Fulmer first took charge as an interim in 1992, while Johnny Majors recovered from heart surgery, and was given the job outright at the end of that season. He went 152–52.

Until 1997 the Kentucky–Tennessee winner took home which trophy, painted half blue and half orange?

A beer barrel changed hands from 1925 and was once keg-napped by Tennessee students, so Kentucky students dog-napped Smokey in reply. It was retired after a fatal alcohol-related crash.

Robert Neyland was hired in 1926 with orders to even the score with which in-state rival of Tennessee?

Vanderbilt had gone 19–2–3 against the Vols between 1892 and 1927. Neyland reversed the rivalry so completely that Tennessee went on to build a commanding lead in the all-time series.

Johnny Majors won a national championship in 1976 at which school before coming home to coach Tennessee?

Pittsburgh capped a 12–0 season with a Sugar Bowl win under Majors. Twenty years earlier, as a Tennessee tailback, he had finished second in the Heisman voting.

Which future NFL tight end arrived at Tennessee as a defensive end and considered transferring when coaches moved him?

Jason Witten was switched to offence midway through his first season, when injuries thinned the tight ends. He went on to catch 1,228 passes in the NFL, nearly all of them for the Dallas Cowboys.

Which running back left Alabama for a Kansas junior college, then starred for Tennessee and the New Orleans Saints?

Alvin Kamara redshirted at Alabama behind a recruiting class that included Derrick Henry, then spent 2014 at Hutchinson Community College. He was the NFL's top offensive rookie in 2017.

Which Tennessee safety won the 2009 Jim Thorpe Award and later returned to the NFL after beating Hodgkin's lymphoma?

Eric Berry was diagnosed in December 2014, went through chemotherapy that offseason, and came back in 2015 to make the All-Pro team and win Comeback Player of the Year with the Chiefs.

Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs, later nicknamed the Passtronaut in the NFL, majored in which subject?

Aerospace engineering was his major at Tennessee, and he later took an internship at NASA's Kennedy Space Center while he was an NFL player.

Which receiver caught Joshua Dobbs's 43-yard Hail Mary as time expired to beat Georgia 34–31 in 2016?

Jauan Jennings had been a quarterback in high school, and it showed years later: he threw a touchdown pass, as well as catching one, for the San Francisco 49ers in a Super Bowl.

Which Tennessee quarterback, the 1993 SEC Player of the Year, later served three terms in Congress for North Carolina?

Heath Shuler went third overall to Washington in the 1994 NFL draft. As a congressman he ran against Nancy Pelosi for the leadership of the House Democrats in 2010.

Which Tennessee receiver and world-class hurdler won a Super Bowl with the Bears and made a Winter Olympic bobsled team?

Willie Gault qualified for the 1980 US Olympic track team that boycotted the Moscow Games, then was picked as an alternate for the 1988 bobsled squad while still playing in the NFL.

Which Tennessee quarterback, nicknamed the Artful Dodger, became the SEC's first Black starter at the position in 1972?

Condredge Holloway had been picked fourth overall by baseball's Montreal Expos out of high school. The NFL drafted him only as a defensive back, so he went to Canada and won two Grey Cups.

Hendon Hooker, the 2022 SEC Offensive Player of the Year at Tennessee, began his college career at which school?

Virginia Tech was his team from 2017 until he transferred in 2021. His Tennessee career ended abruptly in November 2022, when he tore an ACL in a loss at South Carolina.

Which Tennessee running back, SEC Freshman of the Year in 1997, later rushed for 2,066 yards in an NFL season?

Jamal Lewis did it for the Baltimore Ravens in 2003, a season in which he also ran for 295 yards in one game, then an NFL record. He had won a Super Bowl with them as a rookie.

Which coach, hired in 1964, put the Power T on Tennessee's helmets and began the run through the band's giant T?

Doug Dickey also won two SEC titles in his six seasons in charge, then returned in 1985 and spent 17 years as the university's athletic director.

Lane Kiffin sparked a student riot in January 2010 by leaving Tennessee after one season to coach which school?

USC had lost Pete Carroll to the Seattle Seahawks and turned to his former assistant. Asked to sum up Kiffin's time in charge, Tennessee's athletic director needed one word: brief.

When Lane Kiffin brought Ole Miss to Neyland Stadium in 2021, Tennessee fans threw debris and hit him with what?

A golf ball struck Kiffin on the leg as play was held up for nearly 20 minutes in the fourth quarter. He had walked away from the Tennessee job after a single season.

Josh Heupel, hired as Tennessee's head coach in 2021, won a national title as quarterback of which school?

Oklahoma went unbeaten in the 2000 season with Heupel at quarterback, and he finished second in that year's Heisman voting. He returned there as an assistant before becoming a head coach.

In 2016 Tennessee played before 156,990 fans, a college football record, at which NASCAR track?

Bristol Motor Speedway staged the game under the name the Battle at Bristol. The Vols fell behind 14–0 early and came back to win 45–24.

The 1985 Sugar Vols earned their nickname by routing which second-ranked team 35–7 in the Sugar Bowl?

Miami scored first on a Vinny Testaverde pass to Michael Irvin, then gave up 35 straight points. The Hurricanes had been eight-point favourites with national title hopes.

Tennessee capped an 11-win 2022 season by beating which ACC team 31–14 in the Orange Bowl?

Clemson fell to a Tennessee team led by backup quarterback Joe Milton, who threw three touchdown passes and was named the game's MVP. It was the Vols' first 11-win season since 2001.

Tennessee's first College Football Playoff game, in December 2024, was a 42–17 loss at which eventual champion?

Ohio State hosted the game as the eighth seed against the ninth-seeded Vols, in the first 12-team bracket the sport had used.

What did no opponent manage against the 1939 Tennessee Volunteers during the entire regular season?

To score a point against that team proved impossible for ten opponents, and no major college side has had an unbeaten, untied, unscored-upon regular season since. The Rose Bowl ended the run.

Before coaching Tennessee, Robert Neyland served at West Point as aide-de-camp to which future five-star general?

Douglas MacArthur was the academy's superintendent at the time. Neyland stayed an Army officer, twice left the Vols for active duty, and retired in 1946 as a brigadier general.

Which name did Tennessee's marching band adopt in 1949 while waiting for Alabama's band to finish practising?

Pride of the Southland was chosen by the members themselves on the sideline at Legion Field in Birmingham. The band dates back to 1869 and has marched in more than a dozen presidential inaugurations.

What name is given to the seven principles by Robert Neyland that Tennessee players recite before each kickoff?

Game Maxims are recited by the whole team in the locker room, and coaches at every level have borrowed them. All seven are engraved on the base of Neyland's bronze statue at the stadium.

Which radio announcer, known as the Voice of the Vols, retired after calling Tennessee's 1998 national title win?

John Ward started on Tennessee basketball in 1965 and added football in 1968. Former Vols tight end Bill Anderson sat beside him for every football broadcast, and the two retired together.

Johnny Majors created Tennessee's Vol Walk after watching which rival's players walk through crowds of fans in 1988?

Auburn's Tiger Walk gave Majors the idea, and the Vol Walk became an official part of game day in 1990. Thousands of fans line the route to shake the players' hands.

Which 6-foot-8 future Hall of Fame pass rusher first came to Tennessee on a basketball scholarship?

Doug Atkins was recruited to football once Robert Neyland saw his size and agility. A college high jumper as well, he became known in the NFL for leapfrogging blockers to reach the quarterback.

Which receiver became the first Black player to take the field for Tennessee's football team, in 1968?

Lester McClain had joined the Volunteers in 1967 but had to wait a year to play, because freshmen were not then allowed in varsity games.

Which Tennessee back, nicknamed Bad News, was the first overall pick of the 1940 NFL draft?

George Cafego was taken by the Chicago Cardinals after a season as a consensus All-American. The year before, he had been named the SEC's Player of the Year.

Which receiver caught a school-record five touchdown passes in Tennessee's 52–49 win over Alabama in 2022?

Jalin Hyatt piled up 207 receiving yards that afternoon. He finished the season as a unanimous All-American and winner of the Biletnikoff Award, given to the nation's best receiver.

Which running back was the SEC's top offensive player in 2024 after breaking a 95-year-old Tennessee touchdown record?

Dylan Sampson ran for 22 touchdowns that season, passing a single-season school mark that Gene McEver had held since 1929.

Which kicker, once a college walk-on, made the 40-yard field goal that beat Alabama as time expired in 2022?

Chase McGrath had done it before: as a freshman at his first school in 2017, he beat Texas with a game-winning field goal of his own.