Charles Ergen received the BS in general business and accounting from UT in 1975 and then the MBA from the Babcock Graduate School of Management in 1976. In 1980 he and gambling buddy Jim DeFranco (both were considered professional gamblers at the time) were ejected from all casinos in Las Vegas after being accused of … Continued

Henry Erni came to the university (then East Tennessee University) in 1850 from Yale University, where he had been instructor of botany and laboratory assistant in chemistry at Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School. At UT, he taught chemistry, mineralogy, geology, botany, French, and German. He left the university for a position in Massachusetts and then one … Continued

The three basketball seasons in 1974–77 when Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King played for Tennessee were nationally known as the Ernie and Bernie Show and made Tennessee basketball household words. Ernie Grunfeld, from Forest Hills, New York, and Bernard King, from Brooklyn, New York, were recruited in 1973 and 1974, respectively, by Assistant Coach Stu … Continued

When the John C. Hodges Memorial Undergraduate Library opened in fall 1969, it contained the first escalator on the UT campus.

When the Taylor Law Building was built at the corner of Fifteenth Street and Cumberland Avenue, Allison’s ESSO Station occupied the corner lot. In spring 1954 UT purchased the station for $60,000, granting a lease (for which the station paid rent) for a three-year period. Funds from the sale of Tennessee Hall, the former location … Continued

Estabrook Hall, named for the fifth president of the institution, Dr. Joseph Estabrook, opened for mechanical engineering classes and as the mechanical building of the university in fall 1898. It was dedicated April 3, 1899, at a ceremony held in Science Hall as part of University Day activities. The principal speaker at the dedication was … Continued

On University Day, April 23, 1906, students, faculty, and trustees gathered for the laying of the cornerstone for the 1906 addition to Estabrook Hall. The cornerstone, of pink marble, is at the northwest corner of the building. The north face of the stone is inscribed Estabrook Hall / This stone laid April 23, 1906. The … Continued

In April 1918 Leslie Orme Julian, a sophomore in the College of Engineering and sergeant in UT’s Company C, was killed almost instantly when he fell from the stairway on the second floor to the concrete floor below. An iron railing was immediately placed around the hall, and the stairways were heavily balustraded. The UT … Continued

In February 2011 philatelist Dr. Tom Broadhead, professor of geological sciences and director of Undergraduate Advancement, was at a stamp show in South Carolina when a dealer pulled out a letter written December 25, 1835, by Dr. Joseph Estabrook to his cousin, John Wood, in New Hampshire. In the letter Estabrook wrote that the institution’s … Continued

In 1912 engineering students and faculty observed UT’s first Engineer’s Day by grading and constructing a new road (Estabrook Road) around the east side of the campus, for which the faculty and students had also done all the planning. A total of $600 of concrete and $400 in cash for the project were secured by … Continued