Official university policy prohibits the scattering of ashes at Neyland Stadium, but some of the unofficial scatterings were detailed by Knoxville News Sentinel columnist Sam Venable in summer 2012. The most public scattering was of the ashes of alumna Lauren Murphy, station manager of WUOT, in 1994. Lauren had been very proud of her membership in the Pride of the Southland Band. Her supervisor, Vice President Sammie Lynn Puett, determined that it would be appropriate for Lauren’s ashes to be scattered at the north entrance to the stadium (since renovated into the plaza and Gate 21) where the band had traditionally entered. On a Saturday afternoon prior to game time, friends and relatives gathered in Puett’s office in the Communications Building, and each was provided with a paper cup holding a small amount of Lauren’s ashes. They then proceeded to the stadium and scattered the ashes.
The ashes of John Hall and Ridley Collins are known to have been scattered in the early 2000s throughout the field. A portion of an unnamed Nashville fan’s ashes were scattered surreptitiously by friends the night before the 1994 Alabama game in the location that turned out to be the place at which Alabama scored to win the game.