Craig Puki has died

#3
#3
RIP! #44

Nov. 10, 1979: Tennessee 40, #13 Notre Dame 18

Tennessee's Hubert Simpson moved into the starting lineup and the Tennessee record book all in one day, sparking the Vols to an impressive victory over a top-15 Notre Dame squad, much to the delight of the 86,497—which was UT's largest home crowd to date—that packed into Neyland Stadium on that cloudy November Saturday.

Simpson's four touchdowns from his fullback position tied a UT record, as the junior netted 117 yards to overshadow Notre Dame's great Vagas Ferguson, who totaled 88 yards on the ground.

Tennessee racked up 441 yards of total offense, but it was a goal line stand at the end of the first half that served as a decisive moment. Notre Dame had just scored and appeared headed for a third touchdown when Craig Puki and Chris Bolton blasted Ferguson inches short of the goal line.

The goal posts were torn down by Tennessee fans following this win.

 
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#7
#7
WillisWG said:
RIP! #44

Nov. 10, 1979: Tennessee 40, #13 Notre Dame 18

Tennessee's Hubert Simpson moved into the starting lineup and the Tennessee record book all in one day, sparking the Vols to an impressive victory over a top-15 Notre Dame squad, much to the delight of the 86,497—which was UT's largest home crowd to date—that packed into Neyland Stadium on that cloudy November Saturday.

Simpson's four touchdowns from his fullback position tied a UT record, as the junior netted 117 yards to overshadow Notre Dame's great Vagas Ferguson, who totaled 88 yards on the ground.

Tennessee racked up 441 yards of total offense, but it was a goal line stand at the end of the first half that served as a decisive moment. Notre Dame had just scored and appeared headed for a third touchdown when Craig Puki and Chris Bolton blasted Ferguson inches short of the goal line.

The goal posts were torn down by Tennessee fans following this win.

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I was at that one with a couple of extra tickets to sell - rain clouds killed the prices and someone got a deal. Awesome game!

I remember Puki and Simpson well. RIP #44.
 
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#14
#14
I really hate to hear this news. I got to know him pretty well after he retired from football. After he retired he played rugby a couple of years or so with the Knoxville Rugby Club. He was a great guy and we had some really fun times. Oh, the stories he could tell about the NFL. RIP my Possum brother. With you always.
 
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#19
#19
NorCalVol67 said:
1st and goal an no points.
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Was on my first deployment to Japan. The game was on Armed Forces radio, but I spent that night (16 hour time difference) on top of a Soviet sub transiting in the SOJ. Post game coverage in Stars and Stripes was nonexistent. It was tough to be a Vol fan in WestPac before satellite TV much less streaming.
 
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#20
#20
WBO said:
Was on my first deployment to Japan. The game was on Armed Forces radio, but I spent that night (16 hour time difference) on top of a Soviet sub transiting in the SOJ. Post game coverage in Stars and Stripes was nonexistent. It was tough to be a Vol fan in WestPac before satellite TV much less streaming.
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P3?
 
#21
#21
WBO said:
Was on my first deployment to Japan. The game was on Armed Forces radio, but I spent that night (16 hour time difference) on top of a Soviet sub transiting in the SOJ. Post game coverage in Stars and Stripes was nonexistent. It was tough to be a Vol fan in WestPac before satellite TV much less streaming.
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Thanks for your service, sir!
 
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#22
#22
WillisWG said:
P3?
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Yeppers, at that time. Was in Misawa for that deployment. Loved the P-3 in its primary ASW role.

The neat thing was that if something happened somewhere in the world the first assets on station would be the P-3s. It felt kind of weird when that would happen. For the first 24-36 hours you might be the entire US Navy in Vanuatu after some incident and the senior officer could be an O-3.

The real unknown story in P-3s were the flight engineers, usually the #1 F/E would be an E-6 or above. Super smart guys who had already achieved, and had to maintain, their ratings in a specific area of expertise, like electronics. To this day I believe you could lay out all the parts for a P-3 and an F/E could assemble the airplane. On small detachments they ran the maintenance on the airplane. And baby when #1 malfunctioned on short final (or the time I had 2 engines malfunction at the same time), you could fly the plane because the F/E had the malfunction.

The P-3 was so complicated that there were times you could trick your way around a malfunction, but you better know it cold. Pull the wrong circuit breaker and you could make things a whole lot worse.
 
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#24
#24
ftsandersvol said:
I really hate to hear this news. I got to know him pretty well after he retired from football. After he retired he played rugby a couple of years or so with the Knoxville Rugby Club. He was a great guy and we had some really fun times. Oh, the stories he could tell about the NFL. RIP my Possum brother. With you always.
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Didn't he come to UT to play fullback, but they recognized a hitter when they saw one?
 
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