The World’s Largest Tailgate Party, benefitting Knoxville’s Interfaith Health Clinic, was first held in Circle Park in 1994. Team Vols was one of the initial sponsors, along with the Greater Knoxville Sertoma Club.

Norman DeWein and some 17 fellow students claimed to have constructed the world’s longest straw on February 17, 1968. The builders put together 257 drinking straws. The resultant (untested for drinkability) straw was 129 yards long, and 47 feet of the straw were joints. The straw was carried intact to Shields-Watkins Field by 12 people, … Continued

A 75-foot long telegram, the Spirit-O-Gram, was delivered to the UT football team in Birmingham before the October 21, 1967, game against Alabama. Telegraph operators started keying the telegram over the wire at 3:30 p.m. Thursday and finished at 3:01 a.m. Friday. More than twenty-three hundred words were sent. There were fifty-five hundred different signatures, … Continued

In 1954 Dr. Royal E. Shanks (botany) planted and harvested the crop of the world’s northernmost garden in a location more than three hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle at the Arctic Research Laboratory of the Office of Naval Research. Telephone peas, which grow about six-feet tall in Tennessee, were planted on June 30 … Continued

The Wrestlette Timers distributed programs at meets, assisted in keeping score and time, and promoted the wrestling matches and team on campus. There were also wrestling cheerleaders. The group was formed in 1982.

The Athletics Association sponsored classes in wrestling and boxing in 1927. A wrestling tournament was held during the winter to decide winners in the different weights, and the winners in all classes were awarded medals. In 1933 UT began its intercollegiate wrestling program and folded it into the minor sports program, fielding teams from 1934 … Continued

In 1979 the wrestling team elected cheerleaders. The cheerleaders and the Wrestlettes worked together to be supportive of the team—the two groups chose team members as Big Brothers and cheered especially for that person.

Dean Wright earned the baccalaureate degree in 1970 and began his journalism career in Canada, working for several newspapers, including the Albertan, the London Free Press, and the Toronto Star. He served as national copy desk chief of the Louisville Courier Journal (1979–86) and as assistant arts and entertainment editor for the San Jose Mercury … Continued

Michael Wright entered UT in 2008, having been a member of two National Junior College Championship teams. He competed for Tennessee in 2009–11. In 2010 he competed at the USA Diving Winter Nationals and won the 1-meter springboard title, becoming the first African American ever to win a USA Diving national title. He was featured … Continued