Three individuals named William B. Stokely have been important in shaping a variety of programs and facilities of UT. William B. Stokely Sr. graduated from UT in 1895 and is credited with bringing football back to Tennessee. After dismal records in 1891, 1892, and 1893, the Athletics Association cancelled football to concentrate on baseball. Stokely headed a group of students who lobbied for the return of football and was captain of UT’s intercollegiate club football team, which he started. The athletics board relented, and Tennessee fielded a football team again in 1896. Stokely served on the UT Board of Trustees from 1927 to 1934 and on the UT Athletics Board from 1935 to 1945. He was one of the original four Stokely brothers who, in 1898, began canning operations 10 miles out in the country from Newport, Tennessee, establishing the entity that would later become Stokely-Van Camp.
William B. Stokely Jr. (1900–1966) graduated from UT in 1922. He began his academic career in engineering but switched to Liberal Arts, majoring in economics and considering Dr. Theodore Glocker, head of economics, as his mentor. He participated in football, basketball, and track, running the 100-yard dash in 9.8 seconds and placing in low and high hurdles and pole vaulting in track meets. He managed the baseball team and collected tickets at the gate. He served as Estes Kefauver’s campaign manager in Kefauver’s race for president of the student body and continued to be a staunch supporter of Kefauver’s political career. In 1933, when Stokely Brothers purchased the Van Camp Company, he was named president of Stokely-Van Camp and served in that capacity until 1948, when he became chairman of the board.
Although Stokely-Van Camp was headquartered in Indianapolis, Stokely continued his interest in the philanthropic support of projects in East Tennessee, including the university. His first major gift was made in 1959 to establish the William B. Stokely Memorial Bowling Center in the Carolyn P. Brown University Center. He served on the UT Development Council from 1963 until his death, and chaired the council in 1965–66. He gave $600,000 plus to expand the Armory-Fieldhouse into the Stokely Athletics Center (he officially laid its cornerstone on May 7, 1966). He made two alumni challenge gifts of $50,000. He was honored posthumously at the Stokely Recognition Day during the halftime of the 1967 UT-Vanderbilt Game.
The third William B. Stokely is a 1963 graduate of the UT College of Business. President and chairman of the Knoxville-based Stokely Company, he has been a member of the UT Development Council since 1967. He chaired UT’s first capital gifts program, which in the early 1970s raised $3 million to strengthen programs in the College of Business. In 2010 he received a Distinguished Alumnus Award.