Coach Cafego Speeches

#5
#5
Volunteer2012 said:
It being Vandy week I've been attempting to find some audio of some Coach Cafego speeches on Vandy. So far I'm coming up empty. Anyone know where to find some?
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Cafego instilled that hate for Vandy in U.T. players for many years. Former receiver Joe Thompson always hated Vandy with a passion. He would get on the radio broadcasts and talk about it.
 
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#7
#7
MikeVol44 said:
he was the guy responsible for coaching the punters and kickers all of those years who went on to long careers in the NFL.
Plus he was an intense FB player at UT back in the day and a UT Legend.

google him...you won't be disappointed. He was a bad man on the FB field
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I had a teacher in high school who was a backfield teammate of Bad News Cafego by the name of Leonard Coffman. Cafego said that Coffman was the meanest SOB that ever stepped on a football field.
 
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#9
#9
MikeVol44 said:
he was the guy responsible for coaching the punters and kickers all of those years who went on to long careers in the NFL.
Plus he was an intense FB player at UT back in the day and a UT Legend.

google him...you won't be disappointed. He was a bad man on the FB field
Click to expand...


Had he not been hurt in his last or next to last bowl game, TN has another natl champ
 
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#11
#11
MikeVol44 said:
he was the guy responsible for coaching the punters and kickers all of those years who went on to long careers in the NFL.
Plus he was an intense FB player at UT back in the day and a UT Legend.

google him...you won't be disappointed. He was a bad man on the FB field
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Not just a bad man.His nick name was Bad news .😁
 
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#12
#12
I don't exactly remember all the specifics - coach Cafego was a good coach and a great guy but his extreme hatred for Vandy was very real and somewhere in Heaven he is hating on them now. I think the story goes that while in a pile of players after being tackled, Vandy gouged his eye and I believe he was permanently blinded in that eye as a result. I think that is most of it - his hatred for them was a fire that would never and will never be extinguished.

Somewhat of an urban legion sort of thing - Cafego also went on to be the first person drafted in the NFL and played several years. He also bore the name ----- " Crazy legs Cafego " He was a great player, really great player and FREAK should dig up some old film of him.
 
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#15
#15
The link that I originally accessed this information from no longer seems to work, but this excerpt explains why Coach Cafego had such extreme disdain for Vahn-duh-bilt.

This conversation occurred "among Cafego, Peyton Manning and Andy Kozar [on] Nov. 12, 1997," and was the final extensive interview of Cafego before his death:

Manning: You have a reputation for disliking or, as it's put, "hating" Vanderbilt's football teams. Is it so and is it as serious a feeling as you've been quoted as saying?

Cafego: Well, two or three things. First thing, as football players, Neyland taught us to develop a dislike for the Alabama football team. Once we found out that Alabama's teams were just good football teams, we realized we would have to do more than just play football against Alabama. You've got to get emotionally upset about them - dislike or "hate" them. And, the same came to be applied to Vanderbilt.

But then with Vanderbilt players, something happened when some of our players worked on the TVA projects. Neyland would get UT players jobs on the river, and Vanderbilt players were also working on the same projects. University officials allowed that kind of work during the summers, to help kids make money. Bowden Wyatt [then a Vol end] worked there with other Vols. I don't remember who all. They got into a fight with Vanderbilt [players]. They just didn't like each other.

Then later, I saw Vanderbilt teams come to play at UT, while I was coaching at UT, and the captains met at the center of the field at the UT logo. One of Vanderbilt's captains, in disrespect, spit several times on the UT Logo and rubbed it in with his shoe. That made me so angry. And, as a result, I wanted to "whip" our team for not busting the spitter in the nose, then and there. God, I couldn't stand that. This only made me dislike Vandy more.

Then another time Vandy came to play at UT, one of their players ran through the" T" while our team was running through the "T," to mock our tradition. At the same game, a Vanderbilt player carelessly ran into a UT cheerleader shouting through a megaphone and injured her. It was these and other incidents that added to my dislike for the Vanderbilt players."


You may rest assured that Coach Cafego is looking down from beyond and "salivating" at the prospect of the Black and Gold "bloodletting" that is about to transpire on Saturday!
 
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#17
#17
1972 Grad said:
What was the story on Cafego's retirement gift from U.T.? It seems like U.T. gave him a van as a retirement gift, but it was used, and he felt slighted. I can't remember the specifics.
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@ the 1980 Georgia game the UTAD presented Coach”Bad News” Cafego a Van as a token of appreciation for his years of service as a player & coach in front of 90,000 fans . It wasn’t just any old van though , well actually it was a used van so technically it was an old van. If memory serves it was a van that the lady Vols used to travel to away games in the early days of the program .
 
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#18
#18
1972 Grad said:
Cafego instilled that hate for Vandy in U.T. players for many years. Former receiver Joe Thompson always hated Vandy with a passion. He would get on the radio broadcasts and talk about it.
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If they’d give me the opportunity, I’d get on the radio and talk about my hatred
 
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#19
#19
Jravol78 said:
@ the 1980 Georgia game the UTAD presented Coach”Bad News” Cafego a Van as a token of appreciation for his years of service as a player & coach in front of 90,000 fans . It wasn’t just any old van though , well actually it was a used van so technically it was an old van. If memory serves it was a van that the lady Vols used to travel to away games in the early days of the program .
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1980? Are you sure? That was the Herschel Walker over Bill Bates game. I was there, and don't remember that unless I got there late. I was thinking that was a night game, but maybe that was the USC game the next week?
 
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#20
#20
1972 Grad said:
1980? Are you sure? That was the Herschel Walker over Bill Bates game. I was there, and don't remember that unless I got there late. I was thinking that was a night game, but maybe that was the USC game the next week?
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Kinda freaks you out thinking about how damn long ago that was doesn’t it?
 
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#22
#22
Jravol78 said:
@ the 1980 Georgia game the UTAD presented Coach”Bad News” Cafego a Van as a token of appreciation for his years of service as a player & coach in front of 90,000 fans . It wasn’t just any old van though , well actually it was a used van so technically it was an old van. If memory serves it was a van that the lady Vols used to travel to away games in the early days of the program .
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Well if it was ‘80 then it wasn’t a retirement gift. Cafego didn’t retire until after the ‘84 season.
 
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#24
#24
Boston Vol said:
Well if it was ‘80 then it wasn’t a retirement gift. Cafego didn’t retire until after the ‘84 season.
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I just found the same information and was going to post it. Thanks. It said that he retired before Spring Practice for the 1985 team. I wonder if the van was given at the first 1985 home game.
 
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