In fall 2003 the position of football team chaplain was established, and the Reverend James Mitchell moved with his family to Knoxville from Bothell, Washington, where he had been national director for Pro Athletes Outreach, to take the position. He left UT to join the staff at Duke in 2008.
After the Athletic Association was incorporated in 1908, one of its first projects was to secure and develop an athletics field. The location selected was to the west of the main gate (site of Walters Life Sciences Building), and the field was ready for use on September 25, 1908. It was first named University Field … Continued
In 1926 Dr. E. T. Pearson, a recent addition to the infirmary staff, was named team doctor.
When UT began playing intercollegiate football in 1891, the field was 110 yards long and 160 feet wide. Scoring was touchdown, 4; after-goal kick, 2; and safety, 2.
In the 1901 first game between Tennessee and Alabama (played in Birmingham), Tennessee’s players padded the back of one of the players, who was then used as a stepping-stone to jump over the line of scrimmage. The game, played before an estimated crowd of 2,500, ended in a 6-6 tie because of darkness. In its … Continued
Bill Donaldson, a 150-pound end on the 1906 UT 20-man football team, received UT’s first forward pass in a game against American University in Harriman, Tennessee. Donaldson discussed the events that followed in an article in the November 2, 1968, Daily Beacon. He said that American University fans, who had never seen a forward pass, … Continued
In 1891 a UT team played Sewanee on a muddy Chattanooga field. UT lost 24-0. Since that was the only game played by UT that season, the winning percentage of UT’s first intercollegiate football team was .000.
The first UT flash wave was May 7, 2009.
UT and Alabama played to a 6-6 tie on November 28, 1901, in Birmingham, when the game was called because of darkness. The length of the game was due to spectators running onto the field after virtually every play, a practice that a local police squad was unable to stop. Then there was a delay … Continued
Gene McEver, halfback, was the first UT football player named to the 11-member consensus All-America team. Nicknamed “the wild bull,” he was a unanimous All-America halfback for three years—1928, 1929, and 1931 (knee surgery kept him sidelined in 1930). He was selected in 1929 after leading the nation in scoring with 130 points, including 33 … Continued