Luke Hochevar became the first Vol to be named collegiate national pitcher of the year, winning the Roger Clemens Award for the 2005 season. The Clemens Award was established in 2004 and takes its name from former Texas standout Roger Clemens, who led Texas to the 1983 College World Series title and who, at the … Continued
Samuel Strang Nicklin (Sammy Strang) was the first Vol to play in a World Series in 1905 as a member of the New York Giants.
The only person known to have graduated from Blount College (October 18, 1806) is William E. Parker, who received the bachelor of arts degree. President Carrick recorded him as having been examined and approved in “Virgil, Rhetoric, Horace, Logic, Geography, Greek Testament, Lucien, Mathematics, Ethics, and Natural Philosophy.” The next graduate of whom there is … Continued
In 1936 Harry Anderson became UT’s first All-America basketball player, earning second team honors by Converse. He led the Vols to their first Southeastern Conference Championship in any sport with a 1936 SEC Tournament title. He and Floyd “Biggy” Marshall were the first to make first team All-SEC honors the same year.
The first bachelor of science degree was conferred in June 1872 upon Spurrier Howard-Smith. (Howard-Smith is listed in the catalog of 1873–74 as an instructor in drawing and is listed as having the AB degree, but the board minutes of June 18, 1872, are clear in awarding him a bachelor of science degree.) He taught … Continued
The men’s team played its first intercollegiate game at home on December 16, 1909, against Kentucky Central University, Danville, Kentucky (now Centre College), in the YMCA gym on the UT campus. The small, box-like gym was packed with two hundred spectators. The Vols won 33-31. The men’s game was preceded by a women’s game (UT … Continued
In February 1883 the Philo Star reported that in the university “hothouse” (located where Barbara Blount Hall was built in 1900 and which is now the parking lot next to Perkins Hall) the first banana grown and matured in Tennessee had been produced.
Bernard King’s jersey, Number 53, was the first basketball number to be retired in accord with a policy announced in February 2007. His number was retired at halftime of the UT-Kentucky game on February 13, 2007. The number of Ernie Grunfeld, his partner in the “Ernie and Bernie” basketball duo, was retired at halftime of … Continued
At the 1973 inauguration of President Richard Nixon, the UT Pride of the Southland Band (making its fourth appearance at an inauguration of a United States President) was designated the “honor band,” and as such, marched directly behind the presidential car.
The first UT basketball player (male or female) to have her jersey retired was Holly Warlick. Her jersey was number 22 and was retired February 18, 1980, in a ceremony after UT’s 89-77 win over Clemson.