World’s Longest Telegram

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, because each signature was repeated four times. This occurred because the 20-cents-per-name rate collected by Kappa Sigma fraternity was based on a day rate, but the cost of the telegram was computed on the night rate. Since the extra $400 could not be returned to those who had paid, the names were each repeated four times. The team obliged by winning the game.

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  • Title World’s Longest Telegram
  • Author
  • Keywords World’s Longest Telegram
  • Website Name Volopedia
  • Publisher University of Tennessee Libraries
  • URL
  • Access Date July 10, 2025
  • Original Published Date
  • Date of Last Update October 20, 2018