On January 13, 1994, a breakfast celebration, complete with indoor fireworks and bicentennial logo-emblazoned glasses for toasting with orange juice, began the yearlong celebration of the bicentennial of UT’s chartering as Blount College. The event was held in Thompson-Boling Arena and was beamed by satellite to similar breakfasts (sans fireworks) at other UT Campuses and UTSI. Classes meeting at 8:10 a.m. were cancelled to allow full participation in the event. Governor Ned Ray McWherter, President Joe Johnson, and Chancellor Bill Snyder spoke. A tape of the reading of the joint resolution by the Tennessee General Assembly congratulating UT was played.
The stage party consisted of Governor McWherter; President Joe Johnson; Chancellor William T. Snyder; Vice President Sammye Lynn Puett, chair of the university system bicentennial steering committee; Betsey Creekmore, chair of the UT Knoxville bicentennial committee; Kenneth Keeling, head of the UT Knoxville Department of Music; and Carswell Hughs, pastor of First Presbyterian Church (as was UT’s first president, Samuel Carrick). The UT trumpet ensemble inaugurated the dozen new herald trumpets acquired as part of bicentennial preparations, and the UT Concert Choir performed songs appropriate for UT, including “Rocky Top” in both English and Latin. A videotape of various people wishing UT a happy birthday greeted those in attendance as they entered. The Pride of the Southland Band, accompanied by the chorus, supplied a rousing finale capped by the fireworks and a final singing of the alma mater as guests left the arena.
More than six hundred invited guests ate breakfast at tables, nattily orange and white, and many more spectators watched the events and enjoyed a box breakfast in the stands. A videotape of the event was made, and a copy is in the University Archives. The bicentennial ode was printed in the program.