Torch Night was initiated on October 9, 1925, as the Freshman Pledge Ceremony. It was renamed Freshman Torch Night in 1929. Vic Davis, secretary of the Alumni Association; Ralph Frost, head of the campus YMCA; and students Bob and Warren Kennerly instituted the ceremony, which was patterned after a candlelight ceremony for seniors at the University of South Carolina. Freshmen lined up at the gym (where Alumni Memorial Building now is) and “in response to bugle calls from Ayres Tower” marched up the Hill to the steps of Ayres Hall, in two single lines from the east and west sides. The freshmen “gave a yell” for the sophomores and one for the juniors as they made their way to the steps of Ayres. Candles were passed out as they came up the stairs in front of Ayres. The ceremony included a dedicatory prayer and taps in memory of university dead. A chosen senior representative then passed the Torch of Preparation to a designated freshman, signifying the inclusion of the freshmen in the student body. The freshmen then chanted the UT Pledge in unison: Standing beneath the shadows of this tower, and in the presence of the student body here assembled, I pledge my allegiance to the school of my choice, The University of Tennessee, and to the ideals for which she so nobly stands. My prayer is that I may so conduct myself that Tennessee will be proud to call me her own. The freshmen then lighted their candles and walked down the Hill in silence.
The ceremony was discontinued following the move of freshman orientation to the summer in 1963. In 1978 it was revived and took place during halftime of the UT-Georgia basketball game with senior Nancy Ann Min (Deparle) passing the torch to freshman Mark Rustin. The ceremony was revamped in 1984 to have the Student Government Association president pass the torch to freshman representatives of UT’s colleges and schools and was held in the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center. The 1984 ceremony was poorly attended, but the next year the ballroom of the university center was overflowing. In 1986 the ceremony was moved to Alumni Memorial Building.
In 1994 a ceremony, Torch Night—a Senior Farewell, was initiated along the lines of the Aloha Oe ceremony as the seniors announced the senior class gift and took up the Torch of Service. In 1996, as a senior ceremony, the class met at their senior class gift, the Council Ring, and dedicated it during the ceremony.
When Welcome Week was established, the freshman Torch Ceremony became a significant part of the proceedings. In 2010 students attending the ceremony received for the first time orange and white tassels for mortarboards. Beginning in 2011, the class year dangling from the tassel in gold reminded students that an institutional goal is for them to graduate in four years.