On November 1, 1949, Knoxville Journal sports editor Ed Harris first referred to the UT band as the Pride of the Southland Band in his column Top o’ the Morning. Harris had been to Birmingham for the Alabama game and was singularly unimpressed by Alabama fans’ talk of their Million Dollar Band and what a … Continued

Decades of renting trucks to transport equipment to practices and football games came to an end in 2012 when Dr. William Salmons presented the band with a 2007 Isuzu retired Ryder truck with a wrapped exterior of band photographs. The Pride in orange script on the front of the truck announces its arrival. Salmons, a … Continued

On January 15, 1987, on his last visit to UT as governor, Lamar Alexander presented a piano to the UT Band, played two numbers on it, and spoke briefly to the assembled audience. The piano was designed and built specifically for the 1982 World’s Fair through a cooperative effort of Kimball and Busendorffer piano companies. … Continued

A new board game parodying banking failures, particularly those of the Butcher brothers, was created in summer 1983 by UT student Bill Stribley, a junior in marketing. Joe Kyte, a senior in management, marketed the game nationally in the fall of 1983. When the initial one thousand copies went on the market in the third … Continued

Mark Beal Banks served as head coach in three sports at UT: football, 1921–25; basketball, 1921–26; and baseball, 1921–26. He played college football at Syracuse from 1905 to 1908. Before coming to UT, he had coached football at Ohio Wesleyan and football and basketball at Ohio and Drake. He was replaced in 1925 as head … Continued

In 1997 the vice chancellor for information infrastructure, Sue Mettlen, appointed a task force to evaluate student information systems and to assess their ability to operate properly in the year 2000. Most existing computerized records were keyed to date-driven systems that used the last two digits of the year, assuming that the first two digits … Continued

An organization of Baptist students was formed at UT in 1933, along the lines of the Baptist Student Union (founded in 1921). In fall 1935 the Tennessee Chapter of the Baptist Student Union was established and supported by the State Mission Board of Tennessee. The Baptist Student Union Building at 1637 W. Cumberland Avenue was … Continued

In 1898 the trustees turned over the upper two floors of the Mess Hall (aka Steward’s Hall) to the Women’s Department as a dormitory for women students, renaming the building Barbara Blount Hall in honor of one of the first five coeds of the institution. This structure was the institution’s first women’s dormitory. In 1900, … Continued

Shortly after the readmission of women to the university in 1893, coeds formed the Barbara Blount Literary Society. In 1896 the society held a debate with the Philomathesian Literary Society—the first publicized contest ever held at the university between students of opposite sexes. The colors of the Barbara Blount Literary Society were green and white; … Continued