In 1899 the UT Alumni Association offered a $20 prize in gold to the person who submitted the best college song. Student Norman H. Pitman submitted “Tennessee I Love Thee,” sung to the tune of “My Old Kentucky Home,” and was awarded the prize in 1901. His song was generally supplanted in 1906 by Darnell’s “Tennessee.” Words to “Tennessee I Love Thee” are
When hope mounts high in the summertime of youth, / And glory and fame are the prize; / When hearts beat fast in the search for light and truth, / And the rainbow spans the glowing Western skies; / We climb each day to the “City on the Hill,” / To the temple of knowledge and fame, / Our parched lips cool at the clear and gushing rill, / Where the sparkling waters ever flow the same.
CHORUS following each verse:
Tennessee, I love thee, / The Orange and the White; / Let us sing one song to the dear old U. of T., / Where the lamp of learning’s gleaming thro’ the night.
In manhood’s prime, on the battlefield of life, / Where careworn and weary we toil; / When fate strikes hard, and the bitter, bitter strife, / Seems, alas! our every ardent hope to foil; / We long once more for the youth we left behind, / For the freedom, the joy and the glee, / But in this world we shall never find / A fair, green hill like that of Tennessee.
When glory fades, and the life light flickers low, / And shadows of the evening cast their pall; / When footsteps falter, and the cheeks have lost their glow, / And the autumn twilight slowly shrouds us all; / Our hearts turn back to the days upon the “Hill,” / Where, joyous, we strove to reach the goal; / Fondest emotions at each memory seem to thrill, / And youthful ardor fires our very souls.