Snow Game?

#1
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snapcracklepop

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#1
All of this snow makes me wonder..Has Neyland Stadium ever hosted a game in the snow?

I know the season ends before the winter season sets in, but I'm just curious. I know I would love to watch the Vols play in about 6 inches of snow.

Snow Vols!!
 
#4
#4
My days as a Vol go back to freshman year of 1975 and while we have played in lousy weather such as torrential rain and a lotta heat, I cannot recall one flake ever permeating Neyland Stadiums no roof. How bout those of you who go waaaaaaaaaay back?
 
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#8
#8
snapcracklepop said:
All of this snow makes me wonder..Has Neyland Stadium ever hosted a game in the snow?

I know the season ends before the winter season sets in, but I'm just curious. I know I would love to watch the Vols play in about 6 inches of snow.

Snow Vols!!
Click to expand...
My father used to talk about watching Tennessee and Kentucky playing in the snow, but that may have been in Lexington. I feel pretty sure that it has snowed on a game day at Neyland, but when I don't know. I am guessing Kentucky or Vandy game. Somebody will remember.
 
#9
#9
the snow game against kentucky was in knoxville. though i still think we played in the snow up at lexington once.
here is a 1950's snow scene pic from shields-watkins field.

article.239087.2.jpg


Article on the two 1950 and 1952 snow games.

John Shearer: The Tennessee/Kentucky Rivalry Dates Back To 1950 - 11/21/2012 - Chattanoogan.com
 
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#10
#10
govols105 said:
the snow game against kentucky was in lexington.
Click to expand...

That was Lex Luthor's fault. He renamed Lextown, Lexington while Superman was off world realigning the planetary orbits. Something about Darkseid sending a rogue planet through the solar system. This caused a gravitational imbalance that disturbed the orbits. Unfixed, worlds would collide. Anyway, when Lex renamed the city, the clouds cried but since it was so cold the tears froze on the way down, thus the snow.

I just love helping fellow Vols fans with team history. :eek:lol:
 
#11
#11
If you are talking about a game during which it was actually snowing, I will have to dig through my data to answer your question more definitively. Nevertheless, the answer is almost certainly a resounding yes. Consider this account of the 1950 and 1952 Tennessee-Kentucky games (John Shearer: The Tennessee/Kentucky Rivalry Dates Back To 1950 - 11/21/2012 - Chattanoogan.com).

"Coming into the 1950 game on Nov. 25, Tennessee was 8-1, with the only loss being at Mississippi State during the second week of the season. Coach Bryant, meanwhile, had led his Wildcats to a 10-0 record in what was his fifth year as the Wildcat coach. But he had yet to defeat Gen. Neyland, although the two teams tied 0-0 in 1948. . . . When the Kentucky team flew into Knoxville the Friday before the game, it found a chilly situation – and not just from the Tennessee fans. An unusual-for-November six-inch snowfall took place, and temperatures would fall to 18 degrees by game time. . . . Workers labored hard Friday removing the snow off the field tarpaulin simply with shovels and wheelbarrows, but the situation was not going to be that easy for all the snow in the seating areas. As a result, Gen. Neyland called for understanding among the large crowd still expected to attend.

“It will be extremely difficult to remove the snow prior to tomorrow’s game,” he said via the newspaper. “It will be utterly impossibly to remove the snow from the 51,000 seats now provided for in the stadium. . . . Sympathetic understanding and cooperation from the immense crowd is requested in order that conditions already bad do not become intolerable.” When the game took place, only 45,000 actually attended. But those who did come enjoyed a game for the ages. Knoxville Journal sports writer Ben Byrd called it perhaps the greatest football game ever played at Shields-Watkins Field (later Neyland Stadium).

In the second quarter. . . . Tennessee tailback Hank Lauricella – who would finish second in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1951 -- hit Bert Rechichar on a 27-yard pass for a touchdown. Pat Shires muffed the extra point, but Kentucky was penalized. He then made the second extra point attempt to put the Vols up 7-0. The score would remain that way despite a tense second half, including one Kentucky fumble recovery in Tennessee territory in the fourth quarter. As a result, the Vols had a victory to remember for years along with the equally unforgettable weather."

The 1952 Kentucky game was played in the immediate aftermath of one of the worst snowstorms in Knoxville history. The snow, which began falling on Friday, was "a record 18.2 inches in 25 hours. The previous high recorded was 15.1 inches way back in 1886. Some 20,000 homes in the Knoxville area were without power, and telephone, rail, airline and public bus service were also crippled.

The game was still scheduled, although some fans could not get to the game, and others had extreme trouble getting there. One Knoxville family even came to the game in a motor-powered canoe. By game time, some 35,000 brave fans had arrived." That game ultimately ended in a 14-14 tie.
 
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#13
#13
govols105 said:
the snow game against kentucky was in knoxville. though i still think we played in the snow up at lexington once.
here is a 1950's snow scene pic from shields-watkins field.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/photos/2012/11/article.239087.2.jpg[/IM

Article on the two 1950 and 1952 snow games.

[url=http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/11/21/239087/John-Shearer-.aspx]John Shearer: The Tennessee/Kentucky Rivalry Dates Back To 1950 - 11/21/2012 - Chattanoogan.com[/url][/QUOTE]

Awesome!! I love stuff like that! I really appreciate the info!
Click to expand...
 
#14
#14
According to this article (John Shearer: The Tennessee/Kentucky Rivalry Dates Back To 1950 - 11/21/2012 - Chattanoogan.com), the 1929 Kentucky game "was played in bitterly cold temperatures [at Lexington] during a blinding snowstorm." That game finished with a 6-6 tie. I seem to recall a videotaped interview with, I believe, Hugh Faust, who stated that, following a play which resulted in what we believed was a touchdown, our kicker was sent in to attempt the extra point. They scraped the snow away and discovered that the ball was short of the goalline. Neyland sent the regular tailback back out and we proceeded to score. In those days, once a player came out of the lineup, he couldn't substitute back in during that quarter (as best I recall the details of this narrative), so a backup kicker was sent in to attempt the PAT. Unfortunately, he failed to convert and, according to Faust, if he was the source of this story, we lost a potential Rose Bowl bid that year because we failed to finish with a perfect record.
 
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#15
#15
Before SUVs, belching cows and man-made global warming, most of our games were played in snow or extreme cold. According to one UN climate report, UT played a season opener one season in a dome stadium and it still had 2" of snow on the field. tifwiw.
 
#21
#21
Very cool story by a man who taught a journalism class of mine at UTK.

Interesting note. Mr Shearer played football in Neyland stadium as a member of the UGA JV team.
 
#23
#23
snapcracklepop said:
All of this snow makes me wonder..Has Neyland Stadium ever hosted a game in the snow?

I know the season ends before the winter season sets in, but I'm just curious. I know I would love to watch the Vols play in about 6 inches of snow.

Snow Vols!!
Click to expand...

I saw them play in the snow in 1981 in Lexington...More like ice and freezing rain...It was an absolutely miserable day up there....So cold and windy and those metal bleachers were horrible to sit on...To top it off We LOST :banghead2: That was a long ride back to K-town
 
#25
#25
livefaith said:
Before SUVs, belching cows and man-made global warming, most of our games were played in snow or extreme cold. According to one UN climate report, UT played a season opener one season in a dome stadium and it still had 2" of snow on the field. tifwiw.
Click to expand...

That was reported by Al Gore, Jr., who also invented the internet ....... And pants.
 
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