Patrick George Mooney served as the “Voice of the Vols” from 1952 to 1967 and in 1962 started the Vol Navy when he brought his little white runabout motorboat to campus, tied it to a tree, and walked over the rocks and through long grass to access the stadium on game days.
Mooney was a graduate of Washington State University. He began his broadcasting career at Washington State and was the voice of the Arkansas Razorbacks, Memphis State basketball, and Memphis Chicks baseball before being asked by General Neyland to take over the post as Voice of the Vols, which Lindsey Nelson was vacating. In 2010 he became the 11th winner of the Lindsey Nelson Broadcasting Award, presented by the Knoxville Quarterback Club. On three occasions during his run as Voice of the Vols, he was selected as Tennessee’s Most Outstanding Broadcaster by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He was an honorary member of the UT Letterman’s Club. In 1958 he took over the helm of WKGN radio in Knoxville and grew it into Mooney Broadcasting Company, which had stations throughout the southeast and Puerto Rico.