The Tennessee Tomorrow: Greater Dimensions in Excellence campaign was the first major national development campaign of the university. Planning for the campaign began in 1975, and the campaign kicked off in 1977, with a goal of raising $35 million in three years. (The $35 million included the $14 million that would normally be contributed by alumni and other private donors during the three-year period.) Vice President (later President) Joe Johnson directed the organizational work. To advise and help plan the campaign, the university hired a professional fund-raising firm, John Grenzebach & Associates, of Chicago. President Emeritus Andy Holt and alumnus John D. Harper, executive chairman and director of ALCOA, were campaign cochairmen.
When the results were announced in September 1980, Tennessee Tomorrow gifts and pledges amounted to $57,082,051, exceeding the goal by $22 million. At the time, it was the second largest sum raised by a concerted campaign by a public university, being exceeded only by the University of Michigan’s successful $72 million campaign. UT Knoxville’s goals were $2.5 million for endowed professorship supplements, $2 million for faculty and staff development, $1 million for library acquisitions, $1 million for performing arts professorships supplements, and $500,000 for student aid.