The Tennessee University Student is believed to be the first college publication in the United States to send free copies to reading rooms around the country. It did so in 1888. Yale and Harvard followed this example the next year.

When William Everett Derryberry earned the BA in 1928, he was the first UT student to graduate with a perfect 4.0 average. The second student to graduate with perfect grades was David Stuart Fonde (BS in electrical engineering, 1952); and the third student was Kenneth Ralph Piety (BS in nuclear engineering, 1970).

Robert Earl Ogle, 21-year-old, part-time agriculture student, and son of Otha Ogle, foreman at the university farm, was the first person to volunteer under the Selective Service Act. He was accepted for one year’s service in the army in December 1940. He had four hours’ notice prior to leaving for Fort Oglethorpe. He replaced former … Continued

Although the early records of the university have been lost, four students are known to have enrolled in Blount College at the time of its opening in 1794: Clement C. Clay (later governor of Alabama), Thomas Cocks, Lemuel Montgomery, and William Parker (the first graduate).

The first swimming pool on campus opened in February 1907 in the YMCA Building on the Hill. It was 50 feet long, 16 feet wide, and varied in depth from 4 feet to 7 feet. It contained thirty thousand gallons of water, which were changed weekly. It was heated to 70 degrees by an Otis … Continued

In 1881, soon after the establishment of the first telephone exchange in Knoxville, a student proposed to install a telephone on the Hill, but the trustees determined that a telephone was unnecessary. The faculty requested the installation of a telephone in June 1883, and the phone was installed in October 1883.

In 1928 Dr. James Porter, dean of the College of Liberal Arts (now Arts and Sciences), gave a telescope for the observatory on the top of the Physics and Geology (now Earth and Planetary Sciences) Building. The telescope had a four-inch mirrored tube and was motor driven, with alternating powers of 40, 60, and 120.

The first televised appearance of the Volunteer football team came during the 1951 national championship season when UT defeated Alabama 27-13 in Birmingham.

UT’s first tennis court was built in 1909 on the Hill behind Old College for use by the newly constituted University Tennis Club.

In the spring of 1915, a UT team played the first varsity tennis match against a team from Georgia Tech.