I've been wearing orange of some sort since I was a kid and grew up a Vol fan in Kentucky. I've lived in South Carolina, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, and 11 years in Texas prior to moving back to Tennessee. The Tennessee brand has always been recognizable wherever I was, including Texas. Didn't get too much negativity except in Kentucky; my years in SC were pre-SEC years. I lived in Illinois in the 1990's and there was lots of recognition there and none of it was negative; the Vols played Northwestern in the Citrus Bowl while I was there and Peyton took care of business. I had lots of colleagues in Texas from all the schools - Texas, A&M, Tech, Houston, TCU, and the rest. From my Texas friends, many of them felt that if someone confused Tennessee with Texas they weren't really knowledgeable. The Texas orange is considerably darker -- I call it brown. There were lots of good natured conversations. Many times conversations ended up with the Longhorns and the Aggies taking pot shots at each other. I went with a Texas grad to a game in Austin and wore my Power T cap to the game. My friend wanted to see the reaction as much as I did. There was not as much visible recognition as I thought. I do remember being in a meeting once with lots of engineers and attorneys and the group represented most of the major universities in Texas and elsewhere. One boastful person from Texas saw my UT ring which I always wear, orange stone of course, and commented on my "Texas" ring. One of the attorneys, a friend and graduate of Georgia with a law degree from Vandy said, "He's from the Tennessee, the real UT." One thing Tennesseans can say that Texas cannot refute -- it was primarily Tennesseans who died defending Texas in the Alamo, their biggest city is named after a Tennessean, and the real UT was established before the "cow college in Austin". I borrowed that last one from an Aggie.
