Native American Beattie Feathers was a halfback on the UT football team from 1931 to 1933. He was SEC Most Valuable Player in 1933 and was first team All-America the same year. During his football career at UT, he scored 32 touchdowns in 30 games. He was a campus leader, president of the junior class, and member of Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1955.
In 1934, his rookie season with the Chicago Bears, he rushed for 1,004 yards and became the first NFL player to rush for one thousand yards. He played for the Bears 1934–37. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938 and 1939 and for a final year with the Green Bay Packers. He played minor league professional baseball as an outfielder and was considered a long-ball hitter. He later managed in Kingsport, Tennessee, in the Appalachian League and in Pennington Gap in the Old Mountain States League.
In 1942 he became head football coach at Appalachian State (1944–51). He then became head baseball and assistant football coach (1961–77) for Wake Forest. He retired from Wake Forest in 1978. For 20 years, from 1981 to 2000, the Wake Forest coaching staff selected the most improved football players from spring practice and presented them with an award named after Feathers. He was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1966. A native of Bristol, Virginia, he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.