Bowden Wyatt (class of 1939), a native of Kingston, Tennessee, was an All-America and all-SEC selection (end) in 1938. He was captain and leader of the 1938 football team that went 11-0 with the Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma. He served as an assistant at Mississippi State before entering the armed forces. After World War II, he became head coach at Wyoming, where he compiled an outstanding record. From there he went to Arkansas as head coach, where he won the Southwest Conference Championship in 1954. He returned to UT as head coach in 1955, and in 1956 UT was undefeated and was Southeastern Conference Champion. Wyatt was named 1956 National Coach of the Year.
He left UT in 1963 and was an assistant coach at Oklahoma State before he retired from the game in 1965 and returned to East Tennessee, where he lived on a farm near Kingston. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1972 as a player.