OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Kent State
DATE: 14 September 2024
PLACE: Neyland Stadium
ATTENDANCE: 101,915
FINAL SCORE: Tennessee 71 Kent State 0
In1868 Emperor Tewodros II of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) provoked a war with Britain primarily because he wanted to see what a (then) modern army could do.
The Emperor was holed up in his fortress of Magdala in April when British General Napier and 13,000 British and Indian troops armed with breech-loading rifles and supported by the detachments from the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers came calling. To get at Magdala, the British had to cross a plateau called Arogye. “Many thousands” of Abyssinian warriors armed with spears and leather shields waited there behind primitive field works with a couple of small field guns.
Tewodros ordered them to charge.
The fight lasted less than 90 minutes and close to a thousand of Tewodros's warriors lay dead, none having come closer than 50 yards to the British line. Total British casualties for the entire campaign: two killed and handful wounded.
The British took Magdala the next day and Tewodros killed himself, his questions answered.
Imagine for a moment if Napier had deployed modern main battle tanks and airstrikes and you get a reasonably good picture of Saturday's “game” (really more a practice for the Vols at game speed) with the Kent State Golden Flashes.
Minus the bloodshed, Tewodros's warriors stood a better chance than Kent State.
Let's get right into the football action.
Josh Turbyville kicked off and it resulted in a touch back. Kent put the ball in play on their own 25.
So much for the Kent State highlights.
Otherwise the first quarter was another episode of the Nico and Dylan Show, with special guest stars DeSean Bishop, and the Kent State center.
Sampson ran for three touchdowns. Bishop roared down the greensward for 53 yards and a score and Nico found the time to drop a 53-yard dime to Chris Brazzell for another TD.
The Golden Flash center? Well, he mortared a shotgun snap way over the quarterback's head and into the end zone where another Flash fell on it for a safety.
End of 1st Quarter
Score: Tennessee 37 Kent State 0
Nico played for ten minutes in the second canto whence Bishop scampered for a 47-yard score and Dylan chalked up his fourth for the evening.
Gaston Moore replaced Nico and tossed a pair of scoring passes before halftime ended the carnage.
End of 2nd Quarter
Score: Tennessee 65 Kent State 0
HeadVol Heupel not only called off the dogs, he muzzled them and put them in a pet carrier at the UT Vet School. Despite that the Vols added two field goals in the second half.
End of 3rd Quarter
Score: Tennessee 68 Kent State 0
The Vols emptied the bench and were on the verge of going to the student section to find guys who wanted to play when the curtain came down and band struck up The Tennessee Waltz.
Final Score
Tennessee 71 Kent State 0
********
a/n:The following brings a somber note. One of the reasons this report was delayed was because while I was working on the usual essay, I found this. I kept coming back to it and, after some argument with myself, I decided to go with it. The tragic events of 9/11/2001 are seared into the memories of those of us who lived through those times. However, our "modern" society seems bound and determined to forget, or worse minimize, what happened. This is my way of fighting back.
I was searching for some source material for my planned essay for this week when I ran across some files I thought I had lost forever. In the days immediately after 9/11, I somehow ended up on an email list from a guy named Vic Olney. Vic ran the O-Club Bar at the Armory for the 69th Regiment of the NY National Guard. This is the famous “Fighting 69th” and the Armory is just a few blocks from “Ground Zero.” I have to admit I wept the first time I read this all those years ago. The tears returned as I read it once again.
This is Vic's message, raw and unedited. - Pat
“AFTER ACTION” - THE FIGHTING 69TH
The 69th Infantry which was activated on that most tragic of days was mobilized for 7 days and “stood down” on Monday the 17th.
Their performance under conditions in what must have been more horrific than combat was beyond exemplary and all from the Commander to the newest Private have earned (again) our admiration, support and indeed love. They are a credit to themselves, The Fighting 69th, the National Guard, New York State and the United States and most importantly, us, their fellow Americans. These young men have indeed made us proud!
One of our Soldiers of the Fighting 69th is “Missing In Action”.
1LT Gerard Baptiste, A Company.
He is a New York City Fireman who responded to the World Trade Center.As far as the NYFD and the family is concerned he is “missing” and out of respect to them we will list him in the same vein.
Captain Rodriguez, Company Commander of the 105th Infantry, 27th Brigade - located at the 69th Armory - has a sister who is among the missing. He says it was easier for him to work at the site as he had the thought of finding her himself and that brought comfort to his family.
During those 7 days of duty the 69th was in the crater as part of the search and rescue teams on Tuesday and Wednesday (and some soldiers on Thursday) and were deployed as a perimeter guard from Thursday on – it was on Thursday that they were dispatched to the rooftops of neighboring buildings only to be confronted with the goriest of discoveries and duties -the recovery of remains which had been catapulted from the Twin Towers. They also guarded the temporary morgue at 1 Liberty Plaza –the old Merrill Lynch building - where I worked for a decade.
On Monday, Day 7, the men were released to return home and I spoke briefly with the Commander, LTC Geoffrey J Slack, MAJ Jose A Obregon, the Executive Officer and Sergeant Major Miguel A Cruzado - what a winning team!
The First Sergeant of the 105th Infantry walked by and LTC Slack called him over and said “Top, it was a pleasure to work with you. I want to congratulate you and all the men of your Unit for doing such a bang-up job. Please extend my personal best to all your soldiers for a job well done”.
1SGT Therein replied- “Sir, I have a problem! I’ll never get my guys to eat MRE’s again (Meals Ready To Eat - the modern equivalent of C and K rations). Last night they had Duck L’Orange while a violinist serenaded them and 8 masseurs gave them rub downs -right here on the 2nd Floor.”
It is quiet now at 26th Street and Lexington Avenues and there is a detail of Soldiers from the HQ Historical Section in Albany picking up all the fliers and messages from these hollowed halls to be preserved as part of our history; they spread them out on the Armory Drill Shed and start the laborious job of cataloging.
Last night there was the usual Staff meeting conducted by the Commander. Last night I opened the Officers Club and a few came by for a while - 69th soldiers off duty, Veterans, Civil Air Patrol, NY Guard. Last night we switched back and forth from the Yankee game to the Met game and all were chocked up by the moving ceremonies at Yankee Stadium.
Last night, Day 15, I realized that we will never be the same again.
Our buddy, Jack, who works in Wall Street talks to Captain Rodriguez; he sips on a Harp and talks of his sister and our words of condolence seem so meaningless. Jack, seriously wounded in Viet Nam as a Company Commander with the US Marine Corps at the Tet Offensive, says he was never as scared as he was on 11 September - two blocks from ground zero.
This week the following letter appeared around the world - in the press and on the net:
Below was written by a Juilliard School of Music student who played his violin at the Armory where the families of the missing went to register.
Monday, Sept.17
Yesterday I had probably the most incredible and moving experience of my life. Juilliard organized a quartet to go play at the Armory. The Armory is a huge military building where families of people missing from Tuesday's disaster go to wait for news of their loved ones. Entering the building was very difficult emotionally, because the entire building (the size of a city block) was covered with missing posters. Thousands of posters,spread out up to eight feet above the ground, each featuring a different, smiling, face.
I made my way into the huge central room and found my Juilliard buddies. For two hours we sight-read quartets (with only three people!), and I don't think I will soon forget the grief counselor from the Connecticut State Police who listened the entire time, or the woman who listened only to"Memory" from Cats, crying the whole time.
At 7, the other two players had to leave; they had been playing at the Armory since 1 and simply couldn't play any more. I volunteered to stay and play solo, since I had just got there. I soon realized that the evening had just begun for me: a man in fatigues who introduced himself as Sergeant Major asked me if I'd mind playing for his soldiers as they came back from digging through the rubble at Ground Zero.
Masseuses had volunteered to give his men massages, he said, and he didn't think anything would be more soothing than getting a massage and listening to violin music at the same time. So at 9:00 p.m., I headed up to the second floor as the first men were arriving. From then until 11:30, I played everything I could do for memory: Bach B Minor Partita, Tchaikovsky Concerto, Dvorak Concerto, Paganini Caprices 1 and 17, Vivaldi Winter and Spring, Theme from Schindler's List, Tchaikovsky Melodie,Meditation from Thais, Amazing Grace, My Country ‘Tis ofThee, Turkey in the Straw, Bile Them Cabbages Down.
Never have I played for a more grateful audience. Somehow it didn't matter that by the end, my intonation was shot and I had no bow control.
I would have lost any competition I was playing in, but it didn't matter.
The men would come up the stairs in full gear, remove their helmets, look at me, and smile. At 11:20, I was introduced to Col. Slack, head of the division.
After thanking me, he said to his friends, "Boy, today was the toughest day yet. I made the mistake of going back into the pit, and I'll never do that again." Eager to hear a first-hand account, I asked, "What did you see?" He stopped, swallowed hard, and said, "What you'd expect to see." The Colonel stood there as I played a lengthy rendition of Amazing Grace which he claimed was the best he'd ever heard. By this time it was 11:30, and I didn't think I could play anymore. I asked Sergeant Major if it would be appropriate if I played the National Anthem. He shouted above the chaos of the milling soldiers to call them to attention, and I played the National Anthem as the 300 men of the 69th Division saluted an invisible flag.
After shaking a few hands and packing up, I was prepared to leave when one of the privates accosted me and told me the Colonel wanted to see me again. He took me down to the War Room, but we couldn't find the Colonel, so he gave me a tour of the War Room. It turns out that the division I played for is the Famous Fighting Sixty-Ninth, the most decorated division in the U.S. Army. He pointed out a letter from Abraham Lincoln offering his condolences after the Battle of Antietam . .. the 69thsuffered the most casualties of any division at that historic battle. Finally, we located the Colonel.
After thanking me again, he presented me with the coin of the regiment. "We only give these to someone who's done something special for the 69th," he informed me. He called over the division's historian to tell me the significance of all the symbols on the coin. As I rode the taxi back to Juilliard I was numb. Not only was this evening the proudest I've ever felt to be an American, it was my most meaningful as a musician and a person as well. At Juilliard, kids are hypercritical of each other and very competitive. The teachers expect, and in most cases get, technical perfection. But this wasn't about that. The soldiers didn't care that I had so many memory slips I lost count.They didn't care that when I forgot how the second movement of the Tchaikovsky. went, I had to come up with my own insipid improvisation until I somehow (and I still don't know how) got to a cadence. I've never seen a more appreciative audience, and I've never understood so fully what it means to communicate music to other people.
And how did it change me as a person? Let's just say that, next time I want to get into a petty argument about whether Richter or Horowitz was better, I'll remember that when I asked the Colonel to describe the pit formed by the tumbling of the Towers, he couldn't.
Words only go so far, and even music can only go a little further from there.
Your friend,
William Harvey
There is nothing I could possibly write in tribute to the men of the Fighting 69th and their fellow soldiers to match this note. I am sure that the men of the 69th will want Bill Harvey to return in calmer times to serenade them once again.
With this I thank you for your messages of support and salutations for a job well done by New York’s Own - The Fighting 69th.
Vic Olney
I lost track of Vic in the years since and in the many computer shifts since also lost his email but I did save a few of his posts.
"I asked Sergeant Major if it would be appropriate if I played the National Anthem. He shouted above the chaos of the milling soldiers to call them to attention, and I played the National Anthem as the 300 men of the 69th Division saluted an invisible flag."
God Bless the United States of America.
*******
So, how did the Vols do against The Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
State signing the contract for this game was a bad mistake, bringing a poorly coached team into Neyland to play a Top-10 program was much, much, worse.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
Tennessee has never lost to school from the state of Ohio.
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don't let up… PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Thus far Tennessee's “gimmicky” and “pass-happy” offense has 1009 yards rushing and 909 yards passing, proving that the national sports media are as incompetent as the national “news” media.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
The Vols are averaging 63 points per game. The opponents average less than 5.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
The Vols have scored on nineteen out of twenty-one times in the “red zone” and fourteen of those were touchdowns.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
It is a testament to the firepower at Heupel's disposal that over the first three games Jackson Ross has punted … twice.
7. Carry the fight to the Kent State and keep it there for sixty minutes,
The preliminaries are over. The real season begins this coming Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma. We'llknow a lot more about Our Beloved Vols when next we gather.
Lest we forget ...
(9/11 Memorial Museum)
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