In 1968 wide receiver Lester McClain was the first African American varsity player at UT and the first in the Southeastern Conference. He and Albert Davis of Alcoa were recruited by Doug Dickey to play football for Tennessee. Davis did not enroll, leaving McClain as the sole African American on the varsity team. (When he took the field in the season opener against Georgia, he received a round of applause from the fans in the stands.) He was the first African American varsity athlete to letter in the SEC in 1968.
The UT football team first played against an integrated football team in 1940 in the Rose Bowl game against Southern California. In 1946 Tennessee forfeited a basketball game in Pennsylvania to Duquesne, rather than play against a team that included an African American player; in 1961 UT canceled a home track meet because the opposing team included African Americans.