GodzillaVolFan
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Great story about the beginning of the rise of Tennessee football
- Thread starter GodzillaVolFan
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D-Vols
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More to the story but, here’s the scoop. In 1928 we beat an undefeated gator team and spoiled a rose bowl appearance.
And after reading the rest of the story, no wonder the gator nation has a reason to hate us. Our program jumped up and Florida dropped, not winning a conference championship until 96.
Charles Bachman stood inside the visitors locker room at Shields-Watkins Field clinching a telegram in his hand.
The first-year Florida head coach did his best impression of his own former coach, Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne when he held up the piece of paper in front of the team.
In moments, the Gators would put their unbeaten record on the line for the final time against Tennessee on a frigid afternoon in Knoxville on Dec. 8, 1928. The last bit of motivation their coach gave them was that a win would clinch a spot in the Rose Bowl a few weeks later.
That’s the way the story has been told for 97 years, anyway.
What is certain is that somewhere in the depths of the Vols’ packed-out stadium for what newspapers dubbed the “Game of the Season,” Robert R. Neyland sat in a wheelchair. It was only the second time the Tennessee head coach had seen his team in more than a week.
Neyland spent the previous days either in the hospital or at home battling the flu. He showed up to one practice, but had to be rushed back home. Doctors implored him to remain there, but on the Saturday of the Vols’ 2 p.m. kickoff against Florida, he rolled into the locker room.
Maybe it was the rare, vulnerable sight of their coach, who a little more than a decade earlier was a three-time champion boxer at West Point and officer in the U.S. Army during World War I, but Tennessee played inspired football and won, 13-12 on a muddy, wet field that later stirred up controversy.
“Tennessee’s Volunteers out-generaled, out-smarted and out-fought the widely heralded Florida Gators to dash the enemy’s southern championship aspirations into oblivion on Shields-Watkins Field here yesterday afternoon,” The Knoxville News-Sentinel’s Bob Wilson wrote.
Five years before the invention of the SEC and more than 60 years before Tennessee and Florida became the league’s premier annual rivalry that decided the conference champion for a decade, the two schools toiled in the Southern Conference.
The Gators entered December 1928 as one of the south’s best teams, and were close to staking their claim as the best in the nation. Florida wasn’t just undefeated, it had out-scored opponents 324-31 and was coming off of a 60-6 thrashing of Washington and Lee at the end of November.
And after reading the rest of the story, no wonder the gator nation has a reason to hate us. Our program jumped up and Florida dropped, not winning a conference championship until 96.
Charles Bachman stood inside the visitors locker room at Shields-Watkins Field clinching a telegram in his hand.
The first-year Florida head coach did his best impression of his own former coach, Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne when he held up the piece of paper in front of the team.
In moments, the Gators would put their unbeaten record on the line for the final time against Tennessee on a frigid afternoon in Knoxville on Dec. 8, 1928. The last bit of motivation their coach gave them was that a win would clinch a spot in the Rose Bowl a few weeks later.
That’s the way the story has been told for 97 years, anyway.
What is certain is that somewhere in the depths of the Vols’ packed-out stadium for what newspapers dubbed the “Game of the Season,” Robert R. Neyland sat in a wheelchair. It was only the second time the Tennessee head coach had seen his team in more than a week.
Neyland spent the previous days either in the hospital or at home battling the flu. He showed up to one practice, but had to be rushed back home. Doctors implored him to remain there, but on the Saturday of the Vols’ 2 p.m. kickoff against Florida, he rolled into the locker room.
Maybe it was the rare, vulnerable sight of their coach, who a little more than a decade earlier was a three-time champion boxer at West Point and officer in the U.S. Army during World War I, but Tennessee played inspired football and won, 13-12 on a muddy, wet field that later stirred up controversy.
“Tennessee’s Volunteers out-generaled, out-smarted and out-fought the widely heralded Florida Gators to dash the enemy’s southern championship aspirations into oblivion on Shields-Watkins Field here yesterday afternoon,” The Knoxville News-Sentinel’s Bob Wilson wrote.
Five years before the invention of the SEC and more than 60 years before Tennessee and Florida became the league’s premier annual rivalry that decided the conference champion for a decade, the two schools toiled in the Southern Conference.
The Gators entered December 1928 as one of the south’s best teams, and were close to staking their claim as the best in the nation. Florida wasn’t just undefeated, it had out-scored opponents 324-31 and was coming off of a 60-6 thrashing of Washington and Lee at the end of November.
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#1fulmerite
Only losers dislike winners
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D-Vols
To retire is to expire!
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