John McBryde, professor of agriculture, horticulture, and botany, advocated the use of ensilage as cattle feed. Under his direction in 1884, the university built the first silo in Tennessee and one of the first in the South.

Dr. George Wheeler, then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Temple University in Philadelphia, became UT’s first provost in January 1984.

The jersey of pitcher Monica Abbott, Number 7, was retired on March 23, 2013.

In 1893 the university gave its first public concert at Staub’s Theatre, for the benefit of the YMCA, with the Glee Club and orchestra participating. Professor Ernest H. Garratt was UT’s director of music.

In 1894 the Alpha Beta Derma Crata Society, later referred to as the Alpha Beta Society was active on campus first as a secret society and by 1897 openly, with its members wearing the pin of the group and being pictured in the Volunteer. The color for Alpha Beta was violet, and its flower was … Continued

In 1890 the UT Boat Club, formed in 1889, gave its first regatta. A boathouse was built in 1895. A women’s boat team was organized in 1907.

Leslie Henley cleared the bar with a career-best height of 11 feet 5 ¾ inches to win the first-ever women’s SEC pole vault championship in February 1998.

Professor Frederic De Forest Allen was appointed the first registrar of the university in 1872, “to assist the President and the Treasurer in the matriculation of students and to institute a system of keeping student records.”

Following the lead of eastern universities in mandating physical training for all male students, especially during the war, the faculty voted in September 1917 to require three hours of compulsory physical training. Each male student was required to register with a physical director and arrange three hours of training that did not interfere with his … Continued

In 1939 Virginia Withers was appointed by Dean Harriet Greve as director of all residence halls for women, supervising the hostesses in charge at the individual halls and supervising the new project of integrating the residence hall program with the academic program of the university. The five hundred women living in residence halls were to … Continued