OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs LSU
DATE: 8 October 2022
PLACE: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
ATTENDANCE: 102321
FINAL SCORE: Tennessee 40 LSU 13
We've all thought this ...
After the Pitt game, your Humble Scribe wrote this: “As I've noted before, teams learn how to win big games by winning big games. For the Vols, school is in session!”
I think we can now safely say the program has advanced to post-graduate studies.
Quite simply, the Vols demolished LSU on Saturday, dominating in every phase of the game. A LONG time ago after a win over Mississippi State (University, Sir! Home of the allustrous Bulldawgs! Grrr!) in 2004 I said this, “Boys and girls, I don’t care what Coach Fulmer says, going out and dominating an SEC opponent with attitude, talent and big plays IS TENNESSEE FOOTBALL!”
I stand by that.
The tone was set from the opening kickoff. Jack Bech of the Tigers fielded the ball on the seven and returned it to the 17 whereupon he coughed it up and a gleeful Will Brooks of the Vols fell on it and put Tennessee in business on the LSU 27. Five plays later Jabari Small blasted in from the one. Later in the quarter Chase McGrath nailed a 35-yard field goal. LSU then drove down to the Vol 15 where it was 4th-and-4. Head Cat Brian Kelly decided to eschew a field goal and go for it. Obviously he had watched the Florida tape but failed to have Florida's team with him and Tennessee took over on downs.
The Vols promptly drove down the field and McGrath nailed another field goal from 38.
End of 1st Quarter
Score: Tennessee 13 LSU 0
Not satisfied with the above, Kelly went for it again on 4th down and failed once again giving Tennessee the ball on the LSU 45. On the first play, Hendon Hooker found a streaking Jalin Hyatt who was next seen in the end zone. After an exchange of punts, LSU found the end zone. McGrath tried to answer on Tennessee's next series but failed at a 50-yarder. LSU went for it AGAIN on 4 th down and gave the Vols the ball on the Tiger 47 with 23 seconds on the clock – just enough time for Hooker and The Boys to drive down to the LSU 15 where McGrath did the honors.
End of 2nd Quarter
Score: Tennessee 23 LSU 7
Tennessee got the ball to start the third canto and capped their drive with a 14-yard TD pass from Hooker to Hyatt. After an LSU punt, the Vols got in gear again and scored on a Jabari Small 4-yard run to paydirt.
End of 3rd Quarter
Score: Tennessee 37 LSU 7
LSU scored on their opening possession of the 4th quarter but a 2-point conversion attempt failed. Tennessee took the next drive down the field and Small rushed in for his second TD of the day. On the final drive the Tigers drove down to the Tennessee three when Trayvon Flower intercepted a pass in the corner of the end zone. Hooker took a knee and the Vol faithful went to Bourbon Street in high spirits.
Final Score
Score: Tennessee 40 LSU 13
*******
“No government on this planet exists without at least the tacit approval and cooperation of those whom it governs.” Dr. Vernon Iredell, UT Political Science Dept., 1977“I seen my opportunities and took 'em.” - George Washington Plunkitt
a/n: I first discovered this story at about the age of 11 and have been fascinated by it since. Also, I REALLY enjoy letting my PoliSci major out to play!
The latter part of the 19th and the first half of the 20th Centuries were the heyday of machine politics in America. The teeming metropolises that emerged in the aftermath of the Civil War contained literally hundreds of thousands of poor and displaced people who simply wanted a better life than subsistence farming or back-breaking and dangerous work in mines. Many of these were also recent immigrants who clustered together in neighborhoods like Little Italy or the many Irish neighborhoods. Finally there were thousands of African-Americans who had only recently been freed from chattel slavery and by hook or crook took the first train North to flee the rampant racism and limited economic opportunities in the South but found themselves exposed to just as much racism, working menial jobs, and jammed into tenements like everyone else.
There is a scene in the iconic Mob movie The Godfather Part II where an up-and-coming Vito Corleone helps out a elderly woman who is being evicted. Mob bosses could help one or two people here and there. Political bosses could help thousands. In doing so they established power bases.
For an excellent primer on how this worked on the street level, read William Riordan's Plunkitt of Tammany Hall. Suffice to say that the Bosses - to paraphrase on of my history profs - took a whole lot of people who had nothing, gave them twice much, and were worshiped for it. The other thing was that as power accreted to these organizations, corruption inevitably followed.
At the basic level was the Precinct Captain. He dealt with the individuals. Above him was the Ward Chairman or “Heeler” and then on up the food chain until the pinnacle which was The Boss. These were guys like Crocker or Tweed in New York, Anton Cermak and the Daleys in Chicago, Pendergast in Kansas City and so on. When an elderly Vito spoke of Michael going into politics and becoming one of those “pulling the strings” these were the guys he was talking about. They chose governors, senators, mayors, presidents, you name it.
Harry Truman used to proclaim that he had “stood up” to Boss Pendergast in Kansas City and that Pendergast respected him for that and did not work against him. Laughed when I read that I did, the chances of that being true being <0.
The downfall of the bosses and their machines can be subscribed to many things. Changing demographics being first and foremost but also the rise of primary elections and the packaging of candidates like cereal or soap by mass media also played a huge role. It didn't happen overnight. In fact, there were remnants of the old machine types around in the late 1970s in Knoxville. By that point, though, they couldn't elect you but they could beat you, so you played ball and they delivered their wards. Everything I know about how to rig an election for fun and profit I learned during those years.
One thing also united the bosses and their machines.
They were all Democrats.
To put it bluntly, when I saw the Democrats ginning up mail-in ballots in 2020 I knew Trump was toast.
As that legendary Democratic Socialist Joe Stalin said, “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”
Tennessee had its own version of this. Boss Ed Crump ruled his fiefdom from Memphis from the early 1900s to the 1950s. At that time the demographics of the Bluff City were far different than today. While there was a significant minority population there, they were not the majority. The 1950 census reported a population of 360,000 making it by far the largest city in the state and whites were 63% of that total.
Crump built his base on delivering a government that actually worked. The streets were clean, garbage picked up and cutpurses and pickpockets found themselves in the Shelby County Jail. Also, he kept local taxes low. What Boss Ed did not allow was dissent in any form. Most of his opponents in Shelby County were encouraged to find residence elsewhere or, if they were of low enough status, would be “counseled” in a back alley late one night.
In 1916, he was mayor of Memphis when the legislature banned the selling of alcohol. Ed refused to enforce the law and eventually suit was brought against him. The Tennessee Supreme Court agreed and removed him from office. Crump simply bided his time and further entrenched his power base before turning his attention to Nashville. From 1930 until 1948, his control of state politics was so complete that governors were known as “Crumpets.” His power came from the fact that he could deliver tens of thousands of votes at a time when a combination of poor infrastructure in most of the state plus a $2.00 poll tax suppressed voting to the extent that less than 25% of the eligible voters cast a ballot. In local elections across the state, Crump men made sure their candidates won and if a ballot box suddenly appeared stuffed with Crump votes, well, so much the better.
The tentacles of the Crump machine spread to the smaller counties and towns in Tennessee. The men designated to run these places lacked the veneer of respectability and subtlety of the Memphis and Nashville types and ruled their domains through intimidation and violence.
World War II began the process of ending the Bosses. 16.5 million Americans served in the military. Those who went overseas found themselves fighting against systems that much resembled the machine politics at home. They returned determined to put an end to it.
This all came to a head in a small East Tennessee town during the local election on 1 August1946.
In 1936, a Crump man named Paul Cantrell who took advantage of some sleazy tactics and his endorsement of FDR to claim victory in the sheriff's race. Cantrell and his deputies began to accumulate wealth and power. At that time a deputy could claim a fee for every person booked. The more bookings, the more cash. On some occasions, they would stop a late-night bus going through town on US 11 and arrest everyone on board for “public drunkenness” which carried a $16.50 fine. As many as 115 people would be booked on a typical weekend.
In 1940, Cantrell rigged the election for State Legislature and his man George Woods went to Nashville. One of the first things Woods did was to sponsor a Private Act for McMinn County which abolished the County Court which served as the legislative arm of county government. The Court was mostly composed of Republicans and had complained long and loud about election irregularities. Now they were gone. At this point any complaints of election irregularities would be investigated by Crump people who, naturally, found nothing.
(A “Private Act” is a piece of legislation that affects one particular county or municipality. One of my favorites was passed in the late 1980s and allowed a specific exemption to the state law banning alcohol sales on government property. The act gave a physical description of a piece of property and the date it would go into effect but did not state what was there. The property described was the location of the Knoxville Museum of Art which was holding a “gala reception” that day. I love Tennessee politics.)
Of course, in 1941, WWII intervened and some 3546 of McMinn County's sons went off to war.
By late 1945 and early 1946 they were coming home and like vets all over and from any time, they were changed. Bill White recalled coming home with back pay in his pockets. He and some of the other vets frequented local beer joints and honky-tonks. Naturally, the deputies saw this as another source of income and began harassing the vets. And they expanded their efforts to GIs doing other things, mostly peaceful and legal as well. If they complained, they got beat up. But the difference was that after facing down Hitler's and Hirohito's best, it would take a lot more that some redneck deputy with a .38 revolver and a billy club to cow them. “When these things happened, the GIs got madder - the more GIs they arrested, the more they beat up, the madder we got.”
The vets began organizing and held secret meetings to devise a strategy. The decided to field a slate of five candidates – all veterans – in the upcoming local elections. The most prominent and important of these was Knox Henry who was running for Sheriff against Pat Mansfield who had succeeded Cantrell when the latter elected himself to the State Senate. During his four years in office Mansfield had netted an estimated $104,000 from arrest fees and protection money (a cool $1.6 million in current dollars).
The vets ran on a simple slogan: “Your votes will be counted as cast.” And it resonated. However, the Crump people weren't about to go quietly. They had no intention of going at all. The word went out and over 300 “deputies” arrived in Athens to “provide security” on election day.
Jim Buttram was another leader of the vets and operated out of a jewelry store. When other vets joined him there, he showed them telegrams he had sent to the governor requesting help in ensuring a fair election. Since the governor was a Crumpet and the AG was a Democrat in good standing, unsurprisingly, neither telegram had been answered.
Vets assigned as poll watchers were assaulted, beaten and arrested as the day went on. When in became obvious that the vets were winning, Cantrell's men closed various polling stations and hauled the ballot boxes off to the county jail. Four GIs were held hostage at the Courthouse which was also a polling place. Around 3pm an elderly black farmer named Tom Gillespie stepped into his precinct to vote. Deputy Windy Wise told him, “N*****, you can't vote here.” Gillespie protested and Wise decked him with his brass knuckles. As Gillespie ran for the door, Wise shot him in the back. Bleeding from his wound, Gillespie was bundled into the Sheriff's cruiser and taken to jail.
Two GI poll watchers were also beat up and when a crowd gathered Wise stormed out the door waving his pistol. The vets in the crowd looked at each other, “Let's go get our guns!”
By 9pm, Mansfield, Cantrell and about fifty deputies were barricaded with the ballot boxes in the county jail. As vets deployed in combat positions around the jail. Bill White demanded they surrender and bring the boxes with them “(O)r we are going to set siege to the jail and blow it down!”
The occupants of the jail responded with rifle and shotgun fire. The vets responded in kind with the added attraction that they had broken into the National Guard armory and grabbed Springfields, Thompsons and at least three .30 cal machine guns which were placed in overwatch positions around the jail.
Around 0230, an ambulance sped to the jail. The vets let it through thinking it was there to pick up the wounded. Two men jumped into the vehicle and it sped off out of town, The two were Mansfield and Cantrell.
By now the vets needed to end it. Individual sticks of dynamite and a few Molotov cocktails were tossed at the jail but fell short. Finally, one GI who knew how bundled five sticks of dynamite together and wriggled forward and expertly tossed them onto the jail's porch. The resulting blast took all the fight out of the deputies in the jail and also those in the nearby Courthouse.
As the vets occupied the jail they found cells filled with unmarked ballots and many already marked with Crump votes ready to be added to the tally.
Amazingly, nobody was killed although a much hated deputy named Minus Wilburn had his throat cut from ear to ear. A former Navy Corpsman who had served in the Pacific saved his life.
The voted were, indeed, counted as cast and the vets won an overwhelming victory.
The national media, showing its “the Democrat is always right” bias even then, condemned the vets' actions.
On 4 August, Pat Mansfield submitted his resignation and Knox Henry was sworn in.
The November elections saw Gordon Browning, a former Crump man turned adversary, and Estes Kefauver a reform candidate from Chattanooga (and personal friend of the Gang family!) elected governor and senator respectively.
The Crump machine was diminished and pretty well died out with the Old Man himself in 1954. However echoes of the Crump machine would dominate Memphis politics for the next half-century. One of Crumps allies in the African-American community was a funeral director named N.J. Ford whose descendants would go on to rule and mis-rule the Bluff City.
One other thing that killed off West Tennessee's dominance of Tennessee politics is the fact that since the mid-1990s over 45% of the state's population lives east of Crossville and that number is growing.
********
So, how did the Vols do against The Maxims?1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
Brian Kelly made several bad decisions during the game and they contributed to Tennessee's success. Although, to be fair, the Vols were already doing quite well without him.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
Tennessee turned that opening muffed kickoff and every one of LSU's failed 4th down efforts into points. The Gen'rul smiled.
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don't let up … PUT ON MORE STEAM!
The Vols stormed out of the gate and kept up the pressure the whole game. As many have pointed out elsewhere, it was as close to a “complete game” as we long-suffering fans have seen in many a year.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Tennessee's defense answered the bell Saturday and banished the ghosts of Florida to the nether world. The Vol offensive line also represented and Hooker was not sacked. The Vols' 263 rushing yards were also a testament to the Big Eaters' proficiency.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Jabari Small may have had his breakout game for the 2022 campaign. The defense held the Tigers to (you may have seen this on the weekend accident report) 55 (cough) yards (cough) rushing.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
McGrath was 4-of-5 on field goals and Brooks did a fantastic job kicking off and punting. The coverage troops dominated as well holding LSU to but 22 yards on kickoff returns and ZERO punt return yards.
7. Carry the fight to LSU and keep it there for sixty minutes,
Trayvon Flowers' interception came with 9 seconds left in the game. You can't do better than that!
Now comes the Mighty Integral of SEC football in the form of the Alabama Crimson Tide who will invade Neyland Stadium on Saturday. The Vols seem to have progressed from the “Boy, it'd be nice to win this one,” mindset to “We can do this!”
So, GO VOLS!
“And,” as CharterVol wrote some 43 years ago. “beat the living hell out of their Crimson a**es!”
Suggested Reading:
Chris DeRose, The Fighting Bunch
Ralph G. Martin, The GI War: 1941 - 1945
William L. Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
Lones Seiber, “The Battle of Athens”: American Heritage, February/March 1985
GI Headquarters, Athens Tennessee (The Daily Post-Athenian)
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