How to Go to a Tennessee Football Game

Downtown Knoxville

I said I wouldn't do Trip Guides for all the remaining major college football teams this year. But one I haven't yet done that is historically significant is the University of Tennessee, a.k.a. the Volunteers, or the Vols for short.

They have started the season 3-3, beating cross-State FCS opponent East Tennessee State, Texas El-Paso, both at home, and, yesterday, going to nationally-ranked Auburn and pulling off a major upset; hile losing badly to West Virginia in Charlotte, home to Florida and away to Georgia.

This Saturday is their annual "Third Saturday in October" game against Alabama. If you actually believe that God cares who wins a sporting event, this might be a good time to pray for Tennessee.

Before You Go. Tennessee is in the South. Not the Deep South, but the Mid-South. However, Tennessee rejoined the Union a long time ago, and you won't need to bring a passport or change your money.

If you were going to a baseball game, or an early-season football game, the heat might be an issue. But this will be at the beginning of March, so even outside the arena, heat won't be a factor. What could be a factor is rain: The website of Knoxville's main newspaper, the Knoxville News Sentinel, is predicting it. As for temperatures, they're talking high 50s for daylight and low 40s for night. And if you're going later in the season, it won't get appreciably warmer. You will definitely need a jacket, possibly a big one.

Unlike most of Tennessee, which is in the Central Time Zone, Knoxville is in the Eastern Time Zone, the same time as us. No adjustment of your timepieces will be necessary.

Tickets. Officially, Neyland Stadium seats seats 102,445 people. But they don't always sell it out. The home game against Florida got 100,027, but the one against East Tennessee State got 96,464, and the one against UTEP got 87,074. So tickets might be easier to get than you might think, but, given the demand, you can expect to pay at least $77 for a seat, and possibly much more..

Getting There. It's 710 miles from Midtown Manhattan to Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. So your first instinct would be to fly. But Knoxville isn't a big enough city to get direct flights from New York to Knoxville's McGee-Tyson Airport. And Amtrak doesn't serve Knoxville, either.

Greyhound can get you from New York to Knoxville in a little over 20 hours, for $322 round-trip, although it could drop to as little as $198 with advanced purchase, although you'd have to change buses in Richmond. The Greyhound station is at 800 Henley Street, a.k.a. U.S. Route 70, at the corner of Cumberland Avenue.

If you do drive, it's far enough that you should get someone to go with you, to trade off, especially if one can sleep while the other drives. Get into New Jersey, take Interstate 78 West into Pennsylvania. At Harrisburg, get on Interstate 81 South, and take that down through Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia, into Tennessee, where it flows into Interstate 40 West. Exit 388A is for the UT campus.

If all goes well, you should spend a little over an hour in New Jersey, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in Maryland, half an hour in West Virginia, 6 and a half hours in Virginia, and 2 hours in Tennessee, for a total of 13 hours. Given rest stops in Pennsylvania, one at each end of Virginia, and 1 in Tennessee, and we're talking about a trip of at least 16 hours -- each way.

Once In the City. "Tanasqui" was a Cherokee word meaning "winding river," and become "Tennessee" by the 1750s. It became the 16th State of the Union, admitted on June 1, 1796. It became known as "The Volunteer State" because of all the men from there who volunteered for the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, including its great General, Andrew Jackson.

But there was another war to come, the American Civil War. Tennessee was the 11th and last State to secede from the Union and join the Confederate States of America, on June 8, 1861. By a strange turn of events, it was also the 1st former Confederate State readmitted, on July 24, 1866.

Founded in 1786, and named for General Henry Knox, later the nation's 1st Secretary of War (the post now called Secretary of Defense), Knoxville is in eastern Tennessee, on the Tennessee River. It is home to 186,000 people with a metropolitan area of about 1.1 million. The city is about 76 percent white, 17 percent black, 5 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent Asian.

Being a Southern State, Tennessee has had a long string of racial issues. During the reconstruction period after the Civil War, there were riots in Memphis in 1866 and Pulaski in 1868. There were race riots in Knoxville in 1919, Columbia in 1946, and Chattanooga in 1980. And, of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, triggering race riots there, across the State, and across the nation.

The sales tax in Tennessee is 7 percent, and within Davidson County, including Nashville, 9.25 percent, even higher than New York's. ZIP Codes for the Knoxville area start with the digits 379. The Area Code for Knoxville is 865. The Knoxville Utilities Board (UTB) runs the area's electricity.

Knoxville doesn't really have a beltway, although Interstate 640 forms a semicircle (or semioval) around the north side of the city. Central Street divides address numbers into east and west, and Jackson Avenue separates north from south. Knoxville Area Transit (KAT) runs buses, with a $1.50 fare (a 1-Day Pass is $4.00), and the Knoxville Trolley, a free bus around downtown.

Knoxville hosted the 1982 World's Fair, officially the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, tying in with the city's connection to the Tennessee Valley Authority. The theme was "Energy Turns the World." The fair was a commercial disaster, and its only lasting legacy is the 266-foot Sunsphere, which remains Knoxville's most distinctive landmark, even more than Neyland Stadium.

The UT campus is south of downtown, separated by U.S. Route 11, a.k.a. Cumberland Avenue. The school was founded in 1794, 2 years before Statehood. The teams are called the Volunteers, or the Vols for short, because Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State; and that's because of its people's propensity to volunteer to serve their country. Notable graduates include:

* Politics, representing Tennessee unless otherwise stated: Governors James B. Frazier, Class of 1878, and Ray Blanton '51; Senators Frazier, Estes Kefauver '24, Jim DeMint '73 of South Carolina and Bob Corker '74; Secretary of the Treasury and 1920 and '24 Democratic Presidential candidate (but not nominee) William Gibbs McAdoo 1885; and Supreme Court Justice Edward T. Sanford 1883. UT quarterback Heath Shuler '94 served in Congress from a District in North Carolina.

* Entertainment: Actors John Cullum '52, David Keith '76 and Logan Marshall-Green '98; director Clarence Brown 1909; and country singer Deana Carter '88.

* Business: James Haslam Jr. '53, who played on the 1951 National Championship team, and later founded the Pilot Flying J chain of gas stations and convenience stores. His son Jimmy Haslam '76 was Senator Corker's roommate at UT, and now owns the Cleveland Browns. Another son, Bill Haslam, is the current Governor of Tennessee, although he got his degree from Emory University.

Ayers Hall. Note the checkerboard pattern beneath the clock.

This will come up again later.

In sports, other than football players, whom I'll mention in "Team History Displays":

* Baseball: Phil Garner '71, Rick Honeycutt '76, Greg McMichael '88, Todd Helton '95, and former Met pitcher R.A. Dickey '96.

* Basketball, much more successful on the women's side, thanks to the late coach Pat Summitt: Former Knicks Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld '77, Holly Warlick '80 (succeeded Summitt as Lady Vols head coach in 2012), Dale Ellis '83, former Knick Allan Houston '93, Chamique Holdsclaw '99, Sameka Randall 2000, Tamika Catchings '01, Michelle Snow '02, Kara Lawson '03, Candace Parker '08. Together, because of their first names, Holdsclaw, Randall and Catchings were known as "The Three Meeks."

* Olympic Gold Medalists: Holdsclaw in 2000; Catchings in 2004, '08, '12 and '16; Lawson in 2008; Parker in 2008 and '12; Sam Graddy, 4x100-meter relay in 1984; Melvin Stewart, swimming, 1992; Jeremy Linn, swimming, 1996 (and not to be confused with former Knick Jeremy Lin); Justin Gatlin, 100 meters in 2004; Aries Merritt, 110-meter hurdles in 2012.

* Sports journalism: Former Met broadcaster Lindsey Nelson '41, Denver Post columnist and ESPN Around the Horn all-time wins leader Woody Paige '67, famed Southern sports-talk radio host Paul Finebaum '78, and ESPN The Magazine writer Gene Wojciechowski '79.

Going In. Bus 81 will get you the mile (or less) from downtown Knoxville to the Vols' home, whose officiall address is 1300 Phillip Fulmer Way. Game day parking for all surrounding lots is reserved for season parking pass holders, so you might want to leave your car at your hotel, and take a bus or a taxi in.

The stadium began in 1921 as Shields-Watkins Field, and this is still officially the name of the playing surface. Colonel W.S. Shields, president of City National Bank and a University trustee, provided the initial capital for the project. His wife was the former Alice Watkins, and so the stadium was named for both of them.

Robert Neyland was a star athlete at West Point, an officer in World War I, an assistant coach at West Point, and, in 1925, he was appointed Professor of Military Science at UT, and also an assistant coach. In 1926, he was promoted to head coach, and remained so through 1952 -- except for 1935, when the Army called him back to active duty in Panama; and 1942 to 1945, when World War II was raging, and he rose to the rank of Brigadier General (that's 1 star).

He was also UT's athletic director from 1936 to 1941 and 1946 until his death in 1962, at which point, the stadium was renamed Neyland Stadium for him. When he arrived in 1925, it was still at its original capacity of 3,200. By the time he left for World War II, it was 31,390. By the time he died, it was 46,290. By 1968, it was 64,429. By 1976, it was 80,250. By 1990, it was 91,902.

Officially, seating capacity is now 102,455. This makes it the 4th-largest stadium in the United States, behind the stadiums at Michigan, Penn State and Texas A&M. The only stadium outside the U.S. with more seats is the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, with a world-high capacity of 114,000. (This does not include racetracks, either horse or auto.)

That's a lot of orange.

The record attendance is 109,061, set on September 18, 2004, against Florida. (The Vols won, 30-28.) The field runs (more or less) north-to-south. In 1968, Tennessee became the 1st major college football team to switch from natural grass to AstroTurf, but they switched back in 1994.

In 1970, 3 weeks after the Kent State Massacre in Ohio, President Richard Nixon was a guest of Billy Graham at a "Crusade" he held at Neyland Stadium, and it was disrupted by antiwar protestors. The stadium has also held some concerts, including the Jackson' 1984 Victory Tour.

Food. Memphis has a reputation as a city of fine Southern food, particularly barbecue. So is the neighboring State of North Carolina. Knoxville, in between, less so. There are concession stands all over the place, but the only specialty seems to be Petro's Chili and Chips, behind Section E on the upper level, and Sections V and Y7 on the lower level.

Team History Displays. In terms of historical achievement, Tennessee isn't up there with top-tier football schools like Alabama, Texas, Ohio State, Nebraska, or USC. But it's at least in the 2nd tier, with fellow SEC schools Georgia, Auburn, Florida and Louisiana State (LSU).

The Vols claim 6 National Championships: 1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967 and 1998. There are 8 others that they don't claim, but have been awarded by one poll or another: 1914, 1927, 1928, 1931, 1939, 1956, 1985 and 1989.

How legit are these titles? 1914: Undefeated, 9-0. 1938: Undefeated, 11-0, but shared the title with Texas Christian (TCU). 1998: Finished the regular season Number 1, and clinched it by beating Number 2 Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl. Those are unquestionable.

1927: 8-0-1, but so was Texas A&M, Illinois was 7-0-1, Army was 9-1, and Georgia Tech was 8-1-1; all of these teams got, either then or retroactively, a National Championship nod from someone.

But in 1928, they went 9-0-1, but lost the Southern Conference Championship to Georgia Tech. In 1931, they went 8-0-1, but lost the Southern Conference Championship to Tulane. In 1950, they finished 11-1, and won the Cotton Bowl, but didn't even win the Southeastern Conference title: One of their rivals, Kentucky, did that.

In 1985, they finished 4th in both the Associated Press (AP) writers' poll and the United Press International (UPI) coaches' poll. In 1989, they finished 5th in both. And in 1939, 1940, 1951, 1956 and 1967, they blew a shot at being true National Champions by losing their bowl games. So, really, their only totally legit National Championships have been in 1938 (and even that was shared) and 1998.

They've won 16 Conference Championships: 1914 in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association; 1927 and 1932 in the Southern Conference; and, in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), 1938, 1939, 1940, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1967, 1969, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1997 and 1998. They've won the SEC East, but lost the SEC Championship Game, in 2001, 2004 and 2007.

They've been in 52 bowl games, winning 28. Among the major bowl games they've won (the years listed are the calendar years, not the season years) are the 1939 Orange Bowl; the 1943, 1971, 1986 and 1991 Sugar Bowls; the 1951 and 1990 Cotton Bowls; and the 1999 Fiesta Bowl. Their last bowl appearance was, with some appropriateness, the 2016 Music City Bowl in Nashville, a 38-24 win over Nebraska.

General Bob Neyland has a statue outside the stadium that bears his name. He led the Vols to 7 Conference Championships, and, officially or otherwise, the 1938, 1940, 1950 and 1951 National Championships. His record was 173-31-12, for a winning percentage of .829. Top that, Bear Bryant. (He couldn't, although .780 is still great.) Although he was best known for coaching great defenses, he certainly understood offense, telling his players, "Gentlemen, touchdowns follow blocking just as surely as night follows day."

Neyland with the star of his 1938 National Champions,

quarterback Hank Lauricella

The Vols have retired 8 uniform numbers, 4 for players who died in World War II: 32, back Bill Nowling; 49, guard Rudy Klarer; 61, center Willis Tucker; and 62, back Clyde Fuson. The others are: 16, for 1990s quarterback Peyton Manning; 45, 1950s running back Johnny Majors; 91, 1950s defensive end Doug Atkins; and 92, 1980s defensive end Reggie White. Atkins and White are also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The retired numbers of White, Manning and Atkins

Majors finished 2nd to Paul Hornung in the 1956 Heisman Trophy vote, but wasn't drafted by an NFL team. He played the 1957 season with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, then went into coaching. His 1st head coaching job was at Iowa State in 1968. He moved on to the University of Pittsburgh in 1973, and won the 1976 National Championship. He came home to Tennessee in 1977, and stayed until Pitt called him back in 1993, retiring in 1996.

His record was 185-137-10, meaning he won more games than Neyland, although Neyland won them all at 1 school. He won 3 Conference Championships at Tennessee, and might have won more had there been a Big East Conference while he was at Pitt. He and Steve Spurrier are the only men to win both the SEC's Most Valuable Player and its Coach of the Year. He is still alive, at age 83.

Tennessee has 24 members of the College Football Hall of Fame, the most in the SEC -- yes, ahead of Alabama:

* From the 1910s: Guard Nathan Dougherty.

* From the 1928 National Champions: Neyland, quarterback Bobby Dodd, later elected a 2nd time for his work as head coach at Georgia Tech, meaning Neyland not only got a stadium named for himself, but coached another man who did.

* From the 1931 National Champions: Neyland, back Gene McEver, back Beattie Feathers (in 1934, with the Chicago Bears, he became the 1st NFL player to rush for over 1,000 yards in a season), and guard Herman Hickman (Neyland called him "the greatest guard football has ever known"), 

* From the 1938, '39 and '40 National Champions: Neyland, quarterback George Cafego, quarterback and running back Hank Lauricella, end Bowden Wyatt (later to coach the Vols), center Ray Graves, guard Bob Suffridge, and guard Ed Molinski.

* From the 1950 and '51 National Champions: Atkins, and guard John Michels.

* From the 1956 National Champions: Wyatt and Majors.

* From the early and mid-1960s: Defensive end Steve DeLong, land linebacker Frank Emanuel. Also on this team was future Pro Bowl punter Ron Widby.

* From the 1967 National Champions: Coach Doug Dickey (no relation to R.A.), center Bob Johnson, and linebacker Steve Kiner.

* From the early 1970s: Center Chip Kell.

* From the early 1980s: Majors and White. This team also featured future Pro Bowler, receiver Willie Gault and safety Bill Bates.

* From the 1985 SEC Champions: None in the Hall, but this team did have future Pro Bowl receiver Anthony Miller.

* From the 1989 and 1990 SEC Champions: None in the Hall, but this team did have future Pro Bowlers, receivers Carl Pickens and Alvin Harper, and offensive tackle Antone Davis.

* From the mid-1990s: Manning and coach Phillip Fulmer.

* From the 1998 National Champions, the year after Manning: Fulmer, but not yet any of his players. This team, quarterbacked by Tee Martin, did have future All-Pros, running back Jamal Lewis, receivers Peerless Price and Dante Stallworth, and defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth.

* From the 2001 SEC East Champions: Fulmer, but not yet any of his players. After playing as freshmen on the 1998 team, Stallworth and Haynesworth were seniors on this team. Also on it was future Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten.

* From the 2004 SEC East Champions: Fulmer, but not yet any of his players.

* From the 2007 SEC East Champions: SEC East Champions: Fulmer, but not yet any of his players. This team did have future Pro Bowl running back Arian Foster.

Former Tennessee head football coaches

Johnny Majors, Doug Dickey and Phil Fulmer

State Route 158, on the north bank of the Tennessee River, is known as Neyland Drive. The street to the west of the stadium is Phillip Fulmer Way. The street extending west from the front gate is Peyton Manning Pass. And a block west of Fulmer Way is Volunteer Drive.

One of the most embarrassing moments in Tennessee football history came on November 3, 1979. On that day, the Vols, then ranked Number 17 in the nation, were scheduled to host Rutgers. Their school paper, The Daily Beacon, had published an editorial, titled, "What's a Rutgers?"

Somehow, in those pre-Internet days, the question got back to New Brunswick and Piscataway, and the Scarlet Knights found out about it. In front of 84,265, Rutgers provided an answer to the question, beating the Vols 13-7. Tennessee finished 7-5.

Tennessee has several rivalries. Within their own State, they have won with Vanderbilt, in Nashville. They first played each other in 1892, and have done so every year since 1945, usually on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Vandy dominated the rivalry through 1926, going 19-2-2. Then Bob Neyland came in, and the rest is history. Despite the Commodores having won the last 2, and 4 of the last 6, the Vols lead 75-32-5, including 22 straight from 1983 to 2004. (UPDATE: Vanderbilt won again in 2018, but Tennessee won in 2019, so Tennessee leads 76-33-5.)

The Vols' rivalry with neighboring Kentucky is named for the trophy given out to the winner: The Battle for the Beer Barrel. (Given their respective "spirited" histories, I was long under the impression that the trophy was the Old Bourbon Barrel.)

It was first played in 1893, and was another rivalry that UT took over when Neyland arrived. In fact, the Vols have dominated the Wildcats even more than the Commodores, winning every game from 1985 to 2010, 26 straight years. This means that, from 1985 to 2004, 20 straight years, Tennessee won every game they played against both of them. Kentucky beat Tennessee last year, but the rivalry still stands 79-25-9 in the Vols' favor. Both the Vandy rivalry and the Kentucky rivalry are considerably bigger in basketball than in football. (UPDATE: Tennessee won in 2018 and 2019, so the rivalry is 81-25-9 to the Vols.)

Peyton Manning with the Old Beer Barrel

With other rivalries, the Vols have not been so lucky. The Florida teams of Steve Spurrier in the 1990s and then Urban Meyer in the 2000s stood in their way. It was particularly frustrating for Manning, as the Gators seemed to be the only thing standing between him and a National Championship -- preparing him for Bill Belichick's New England Patriots. When Tee Martin, not nearly as talented a quarterback, engineered a win over Florida in 1998, that was the key to the Vols' last National Championship season.

And this upcoming game is another trouble spot. Every year, "The Third Saturday In October," is when Tennessee plays neighboring Alabama. The Vols and the Crimson Tide first played each other in 1901, they've played every year since 1944, every year but 1943 since 1928, and from that point on it's been the 3rd Saturday in October -- as the late, great Keith Jackson of ABC Sports, who loved calling this game, called it, "The time of the Possum-Huntin' Moon."

When Neyland was in charge, the Vols usually held their own. But when Paul "Bear" Bryant arrived in Tuscaloosa, the Tide took near-total charge. The Vols did win 4 straight from 1967 to 1970.

This included the 1968 game, 50 years ago this Friday, when Richmond Flowers Jr., whom the Bear had tried to recruit, scored the only touchdown, in a 10-9 win. On hand at Neyland Stadium was his father, Richmond Flowers Sr., former Attorney General of the State of Alabama, ardent foe of segregation, accompanied by FBI agents and wearing handcuffs, as he was awaiting trail on corruption charges, as the Ku Klux Klan, which he had prosecutted, set up him. He later served a year and a half, but was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter.

Alabama won 11 straight times from 1971 to 1981. Legend has it that, outside Neyland Stadium, a little girl asked Bryant, "Will Tennessee ever beat Alabama again?" The Bear told her, "Maybe not in my lifetime, but probably in yours." He was wrong: Led by Reggie White, the Vols won in 1982. The Bear retired after the season... and died a month later.

Tennessee won 10 out of 12 from 1995 to 2006, but Alabama has won the last 11. But the rivalry is not as lopsided as you might think: Alabama leads 54-38-7, counting 2 games Alabama was later forced to forfeit. (UPDATE: It's not 56-38-7.)

Stuff. There are team stores at each corner of Neyland Stadium, and the official Tennessee Team Shop is at Gate 20. There's also the University Bookstore at the Student Union, at 859 Phillip Fulmer Way, a couple of minutes' walk northwest of the stadium.

In 2006, Tom Mattingly published what is probably the closest thing to a definitive history of the program: University of Tennessee Football Vault: A Tennessee Football Saturday. In 2007, the University released a DVD, Fields of Glory: University of Tennessee -- Neyland Stadium.

During the Game. This is Southern football. The best advice I can give you is to be nice to the home fans. If you do, they will be nice in return. And stay away from the visiting team and its fans. If you do, they will probably leave you alone in return.

Because Neyland Stadium is on the Tennessee River, people tailgate on boats, calling themselves "The Vol Navy." This isn't done at too many other schools. The University of Washington, whose Husky Stadium is on Lake Washington in Seattle, does it. Ohio State, on the Olentangy River in Columbus, doesn't. And it can't be done at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey, since it's too far inland from the Raritan River, and the new south stand would block the view anyway.

On October 6, 2017, Thrillist compiled a list of their Best College Football Stadiums, the top 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Neyland Stadium ranked 11th: "When 100,000 people become a wall of Tennessee Orange (yup, that's the name of the hue) on gameday, it's a unique, almost unsettling sight."

In 1964, coach Doug Dickey added both the "T" logo to the helmets and the Orange & White checkerboard pattern in the end zones, based on the pattern of the stones beneath the clock atop the University's Ayers Hall. The pattern became so identified with the school that it became the default "card trick" pattern for the stands, and has also been put around the basketball court at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Tennessee features the Pride of the Southland Band. The start every game day with "The March to the Stadium," until reaching the bottom of a hill next to the stadium, and they perform "The Salute to the Hill."

They are famed for forming the "T" logo seen on the helmets and "VOLS" as the fans chant, "V-O-L-S!", and for playing the National Anthem, the school's Alma Mater, the fight song "Down the Field," "The Stars and Stripes Forever," and a march version of "The Tennessee Waltz."

Most of all, they are known for "Rocky Top." In 1967, married songwriters Felice & Boudleaux Bryant, famed for writing most of the Everly Brothers' hits, wrote it, detailing a city dweller's lament over his lost life "down in the Tennessee hills." Lynn Anderson had a hit with it in 1970, and Roy Clark played and sang a fiddle version of it on The Muppet Show in 1978.

The Pride of the Southland Band first played it before the Alabama game on October 21, 1972. The Vols lost, but a legend was born: W.J. Julian, the band director from 1961 to 1993, said, "If 'Rocky Top' were ever not played, then there would be a mutiny among Vol fans." Following his last home game in 1997, Manning ran over to the band and asked them to play it for him one more time, and they happily obliged with, "Good ol, Rocky Top, whoo! Rocky Top, Tennessee!"

Although not an official fight song, and originally having nothing to do with the University, USA Today named it the Number 1 fight song in college football in a 2015 article.

In 1953, the University of Tennessee Pep Club decided to have a live mascot. Since a "Volunteer" could be a soldier from any of the nation's wars, they decided to go for an animal. This was the year that blues singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton took the Jerry Lieber & Mike Stoller song "Hound Dog" to the top of the rhythm & blues charts, 3 years before Elvis Presley took a different set of lyrics (which he didn't write, either) to the top of the pop charts. So they chose a dog.

A writer for the News Sentinel wrote, "This can't be an ordinary hound. He must be a 'Houn' Dog' in the best sense of the word." Before the opening game, on September 26, 1953, several dogs were lined up at what was still known as Shields-Watkins Field. Each dog was introduced over the public address system, and, through the fans' cheers, the winning entry was a prize-winning bluetick coonhound submitted by the Rev. Bill Brooks: "Brooks' Blue Smokey." When the fans cheered, Blue Smokey howled, and a star was born.

The star didn't live long: Blue Smokey was hit by a car and killed in 1955. But, as with many other college mascots, the original had been bred, and his son took over as Blue Smokey II. Smokey V would also die from being hit by a car, in 1981. Rev. Brooks died in 1986, during the tenure of Smokey VI. The current dog, Smokey X (the 10th), began in 2013, and is the 1st one not descended from Brooks' original bluetick, but is still from a Tennessee breeder. He wears a jacket with the checkerboard pattern. He has been elected to the Mascot Hall of Fame.

In 1980, a costumed Smokey was introduced. and he was eventually joined by a "little brother," Junior Smokey, who interacts with kids.

Another UT tradition is "The rock," in front of the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center, which is frequently painted by students. Payton Marie Miller -- not named for Peyton Manning -- has done official rock-paintings for home football games, signing them "P.M. Miller." 

Smokey and Uga the Bulldog,

before the 2016 Tennessee-Georgia game

After the Game. If you behaved yourself, and didn't antagonize anyone, your safety shouldn't be an issue. Nor should finding something to eat after the game. Cumberland Avenue, from 17th Street (2 blocks west of Fulmer Way) west to 22nd Street is loaded with restaurants and bars, including such chains as (going from east to west) Chick-fil-A, Firehouse Subs, Chipotle, McDonald's, Moe's, Jimmy John's, Taco Bell, Panera, Starbucks, Zaxby's, the Mellow Mushroom, Subway and Domino's.

The Copper Cellar, at 1807 Cumberland, is probably the best known Vol fans' hangout. Calhoun's On the River, at 400 Neyland Drive, a 15-minute walk east of the stadium, is renowned for its ribs.

If you visit Knoxville during the European soccer season, the best place to watch your local club is Hops and Hollers, at 937 N. Central Street, at Dameron Avenue, at the northern edge of downtown. Bus 20 or 24.

Sidelights. Next to football, the University of Tennessee is best known for basketball -- women's basketball. Pat Summitt coached the "Lady Vols" to 8 National Championships there: 1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007 and 2008. The court itself is named "The Summitt" for her, even during men's basketball games.

The actual building is named the Thompson-Boling Arena. Once seating 24,535, making it the largest basketball-specific on-campus building in the country (Syracuse's Carrier Dome also hosts football), it now seats 21,678. Opening in 1987, it is named for B. Ray Thompson, a local coal baron who had heavily donated to the University, but he said he would only accept the honor if it were also given to his friend, Dr. Edward J. Boling, then President of the University.

The Arena, with the Stadium's south end scoreboard

The success of the Lady Vols has far overshadowed the men's team. Although they've won the SEC in the regular season 10 times, including last season, and the SEC Tournament 4 times, most recently in 1979, they've never reached the NCAA Final Four. In fact, only in 2010 have they ever even gotten to the Elite Eight.

The Vols have retired 4 numbers, 3 of them for men who went on to play for the Knicks: Bernard King's 53, Ernie Grunfeld's 22, and Allan Houston's 20. The other is Dale Ellis' 14. The Lady Vols have retired 6 numbers: 3, Candace Parker; 22, Holly Warlick; 23, Chamique Holdsclaw; 24, Tamika Catchings; 30, Bridgette Gordon; and 32, Daedra Charles. 1600 Phillip Fulmer Way, a 5-minute walk southwest of Neyland Stadium.

The previous gym, the William B. Stokely Athletic Center, opened in 1958 and seated 12,700, but the Vols and the Lady Vols outgrew it. Elvis Presley sang there on April 8, 1972 and May 20, 1977. It was demolished in 2014, and a dormitory, Stokely Hall, and a parking garage were built on the site. 1720 Volunteer Blvd., 2 blocks west of Neyland Stadium.

The Vols' baseball complex is named Lindsey Nelson Stadium, for the legendary sportscaster, who was part of the Mets' 1st broadcast team, from 1962 to 1979.

The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame is in Knoxville, although not on campus. 700 S. Hall of Fame Drive, downtown, across the James White Parkway from the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, at 500 Howard Baker Jr. Avenue. (Named for the longtime Senator, who served as Senate Majority Leader from 1981 to 1984.) Built in 1961, the 6,500-seat Coliseum has been home to a string of minor-league hockey teams, including the current Knoxville Ice Bears.

Knoxville has long been a home for minor-league baseball, going back to 1897. The Knoxville Smokies, named for the Great Smokey Mountains in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, were charter members of the Class AA Southern League, founded in 1963 to replace the Southern Association, which folded in 1961 rather than obey a court order to desegregate. The Smokies won the Pennant in 1974, in 1978 as the Knoxville Sox, and in 2004 under their current name, the Tennessee Smokies. Since then, they've won Division titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

From 1957 to 1999, they played at Billy Meyer Stadium, named for a local who was a longtime major league manager. It was torn down and replaced with a youth baseball field named for a pair of local legends: Ridley Helton Baseball Field. 658 Jessamine Street, about a mile east of downtown. Bus 12 will get you within 4 blocks.

Since 2000, the Smokies have played at Smokies Stadium, whose capacity of 6,412 is roughly the same as Meyer Stadium's.

3540 Line Drive, in Kodak, over 20 miles east of downtown Knoxville. Not reachable by public transportation. About 15 miles to the south (30 miles southeast of Knoxville) is Dollywood, a theme park built by country music legend Dolly Parton near her hometown of Pigeon Forge. About 23 miles to the south of Smokies Stadium (35 miles south of Knoxville) is Gatlinburg, mentioned in the Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue," and often suspected as being the real-life basis for "Rocky Top."

As you might guess, the most popular NFL team in Knoxville is the closest, the Tennessee Titans, in Nashville, 179 miles west. But the Atlanta Falcons aren't that much further away, 192 miles to the south. Nor are the Carolina Panthers, in Charlotte, 228 miles to the southeast. Likewise, the Nashville Predators are 179 miles away, making them the closest and most popular NHL team.

In the other sports, it's a bit more complicated. Neither Tennessee, nor the neighboring States of Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi or Arkansas has a Major League Baseball team. Western Tennessee, near Memphis, still leans toward the St. Louis Cardinals. But Knoxville? The Atlanta Braves are 180 miles to the south, and the Cincinnati Reds are 251 miles to the north. But, to Tennesseans, Cincinnati is in Ohio, and is thus a Northern or "Yankee" city; while Atlanta is the cultural capital of the South, so they're mostly Braves fans.

The nearest NBA team is not the Memphis Grizzlies, all the way across the State, 392 miles to the southwest. It's the Atlanta Hawks, 213 miles to the south. Given a choice, though, most Eastern Tennesseans would prefer Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers, or whatever team LeBron James plays for -- which makes it a little easier on them, since it's now the Lakers. As for Major League Soccer, Nashville will see their team begin play in 2020. Until then, the closest team is Atlanta United.

Knoxville's leading museum is the Frank H. McClung Museum, a natural history museum named for a local merchant. 1327 Circle Park Drive, 2 blocks west of Neyland Stadium.

There are 3 Presidents with connections to Tennessee. Al Gore should have made it 4, and he made enough mistakes that, if he had done any one of them differently, his rightful victory would have been too big to get stolen from him. But, like the 3 who actually did get into the White House, he wasn't born in Tennessee, but rather in Washington, D.C., when his father, Albert Sr., was a Congressman. (Both father and son would serve Tennessee in each house of Congress.)

As for the other 3, 2 were born in North Carolina, and the other might have been: Andrew Jackson was born somewhere near the Carolina State Line, although no one is sure precisely where, and both North and South Carolina claim him.

But the 7th President (serving from 1829 to 1837) and War of 1812 General nicknamed Old Hickory is best known, as far as his residences are concerned, for being one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee.

The Hermitage was a plantation he owned from 1804 until his death in 1845. On that property, he and his wife Rachel lived in a log cabin until the main house was completed in 1821. It burned in 1834, and he then had the current house built. Today, conspiracy theorists would have blamed Henry Clay or the Bank of the United States for the fire, even though Jackson himself didn't. (He did, however, blame his political opponents for the smears against both him and Rachel that gave her a heart attack that killed her between the 1828 election and the 1829 Inauguration.)

Aside from George Washington's Mount Vernon and Elvis' Graceland, it's the most-visited former private home in America. 4580 Rachels Lane, in the town of Hermitage, 12 miles east of downtown. It's on a section of the Cumberland River known as Old Hickory Lake. The Number 6 bus gets you to within a mile and a half, and the bus and the walk combined takes about an hour.

The State Capitol, which opened just before the Civil War in 1859, contains the tomb of James K. Polk, the 11th President (1845 to 1849), and his wife Sarah. The man who waged the Mexican-American War and gained us a huge chunk of our West, including all of California, he has been hailed as a visionary and assailed as a warmonger and a racist. He chose to serve only one term, and died just 3 months after leaving office, the shortest retirement of any ex-President. Sarah outlived him by 42 years, a record for a Presidential widow, and only Grover Cleveland's wife Frances, at 50 years, had a longer retirement from being First Lady. 600 Charlotte Avenue.

The other President with a Tennessee connection is Andrew Johnson, the 17th President, who succeeded to the office on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and was impeached for a ridiculous reason: He fired his Secretary of War (also Lincoln's), Edwin Stanton, without the permission of the Senate. He believed that the law barring him from doing so was unconstitutional, and when the aforementioned President Cleveland challenged it in 1886, the Supreme Court said they were both right. For all the good it did Johnson: Surviving his Senate trial by 1 vote, he knew he couldn't get elected on his own in 1868, got back into the Senate in 1874 (welcomed by the men who had tried him with a standing ovation), and died the next year.

He was an unrepentant racist, making it odd that Lincoln would choose him for the Vice Presidency in 1864 (it was because he was the only Southern Senator who stayed loyal to the Union when his State seceded), and he remains a contender for the title of worst President ever. His hometown of Greenville, Tennessee is 250 miles east of Nashville. His museum is at 67 Gilland Street. (Charlotte, North Carolina is actually the closest major league city to Greenville, but it's not close.)

There's actually a 4th President with a minor connection to Nashville: In 2008, Barack Obama and John McCain had the 2nd of their 3 debates at the Black Box Theatre at Belmont University. Compton Avenue at Belmont Blvd., about 3 miles southwest of downtown. Number 2 bus.

The tallest building in Knoxville, taller than the Sunsphere, is the 327-foot First Tennessee Plaza, named for a bank. 800 Gay Street, downtown.

Movies with scenes filmed in Knoxville include Box of Moonlight, October Sky, Road Trip, and The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.

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Knoxville -- or Rocky Top -- may never be "home sweet home to me" or you. But one visit to Neyland Stadium, surrounded by 100,000 football lovers, and you may end up singing to yourself, "I still dream about that."