William Everett Derryberry graduated from UT in 1928 with a perfect 4.0 average, the best academic record in the history of UT. As a student he earned football letters in 1925 and 1927, was a member of the tennis team, played intramural basketball, and was elected president both of the sophomore class and the Volunteer Honor Society. He was a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honorary academic fraternity, the Glee Club, Scarabbean Senior Society, Sigma Chi fraternity, and served as director of the choir at Broadway Church of Christ. He was the only UT student up until that time both to play football and make grades of all As.
He was selected as a Rhodes scholar in 1928. He studied at St. John’s College, Oxford, where he captained the tennis team, was a member of the international championship lacrosse team, and played doubles at Wimbledon. He earned the BA from Oxford in 1932 and the MA in 1939.
When he returned to the United States, following receipt of the bachelor’s degree at Oxford, he taught English at Burritt College (Spencer, Tennessee). In 1933 he became head of the English Department at UT Junior College (now UT at Martin) where he coached the football team and gave the school its only unbeaten, untied season in 1936. He then taught at Murray State College in Kentucky. In 1940 he was named president of Tennessee Polytechnic Institute (now Tennessee Technological University). He served as president of Tennessee Tech for 34 years and retired in the summer of 1974.
He received honorary doctorates from the University of Chattanooga (1965) and Pepperdine University (1967). He served as president of the Tennessee College Association and of the UT Alumni Association. In 1975 he received the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame’s Distinguished American award.