What Are Your Earliest Memories as a Tennessee Fan?

How long have you been a Tennessee fan?

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#51
#51
ETguy said:
My first Vol football game was in ’56 or ’57..(didn’t look it up) you can . Was the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL. We won 3-0. Betcha don’t know who we beat? Texas A&M.
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#52
#52
ETguy said:
My first Vol football game was in ’56 or ’57..(didn’t look it up) you can . Was the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL. We won 3-0. Betcha don’t know who we beat? Texas A&M.
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That would have been '57. Texas A & M featured Heisman Trophy-winner John David Crow and was coached by some fellow named Bryant. Given the gaudy stats typically posted by Heisman winners today, it is worth noting that Crow won the award based on 562 yards rushing on 129 carries, for 6 touchdowns. Crow also passed for 5 touchdowns and, on defense, intercepted 5 passes (John David Crow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
 
#53
#53
Can't remember exact year - sometime in late 50's went to see Kentucky game on Thanksgiving weekend and had to knock snow off the seats to sit down. Remember the stadium smelled of cigars and bourbon whiskey. Many of the men still wore suits and ties to the game and that day overcoats. Don't remember a thing about the game or score. Was maybe 6 or 7.
 
#54
#54
November 28, 1953. My family & I were driving in the Smokies; someone was turning the radio dial. We came to a football game, with announcer George Moody calling the game between UT & Vandy. Behind the running & passing of tailback Jimmy Wade, the Vols won 33-6.

But the 1956 season really hooked me. UT just kept winning and winning, even the Game of the Year as #3 UT beat #2 Georgia Tech, 6-0. The Vols went 10-0, but finally lost in the Sugar Bowl.
 
#55
#55
While not memorable to most, it was to me: Iowa St. 1982 with Willie Gault in the house. We won 23-21 and as a 5 year old, I was hooked.

I remember I sat by a pretty lady in the stands that day. I always remember how she smelled like a sweet sort of medicine. As I grew up, I eventually realized that was the smell of whiskey and a scent I still associate with Neyland Stadium. To this day, everytime I smell a whiskey drink it always makes me want to cheer on my Vols!
 
#56
#56
85 Sugar Bowl is the first time I can remember watching a game. I was 8. I've bleed Orange ever since. I was hooked. Man I'm ready for this season to start. I been about to Terry Tate ( office linebacker ) some fools at work.
 
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#57
#57
Riding around the mtns of east TN with my father listening to John Ward on the am. 1st game was puke in 1982 a loss, but i kept coming back and will never stop now. GBO!
 
#58
#58
1st game was b- ham lost to roll turds 42 -21 in what 73 maybe. Saw my vols lose to army at home and then lost to north Texas st. My earliest memories are john ward on the am station out of Pulaski Tennessee doing the night games. Always loved the night games better than day games, the radio came in better at night.
 
#59
#59
My earliest memory as a Vols fan is first watching games on tv in the mid-to-late seventies when I was probably six or seven years old.

What I remember most about the games is the tear-away jerseys that the Tennessee players wore and how the jerseys would be hanging off the running back's shoulder pads after plays. They'd run over to the sidelines and the training staff had another jersey waiting for that player.

Funny how that always stuck with me, but that is my truest earliest memory of Tennessee football.
 
#60
#60
My earliest memories are of Reggie Cobb and Thomas Woods during that awkward 1988 season. I have flashes of '87 stuck in my head I think, but nothing concrete.
 
#62
#62
Standing in sams club when I was about eight years old and just moved to nashville. Passed a bunch of tvs while holding a box full of baseball cards and the vols where playing. Bynch of men where standing yelling at the screen as a guy in orange ran for a td. they played rocky top and I got the shivers. I was a fan for life. I love my team and my state. Forever. I am 37.
 
#63
#63
VOLINVONORE said:
I saw my first game on September 29th 1945.We beat Wake Forest 7-6 in Knox ville. We lost only one game that year, Alabama 25-7. We beat Vanderbilt 45-0 and were 8-1. I think John Barnhill was coach then, but Neyland came back in 1946. Barnhill was hired by Arkansas in 1946.
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So far, you win the hypothetical prize, with nearly 68 years in the ranks of the Volunteer Nation, and one of the few contributors to this forum with direct ties to the Neyland era.
 
#64
#64
The first Tennessee game I attended was at the tender age of 10. I watched a deity, god-like figure who I immediately identified as Peyton Manning run a boot leg into the end zone to oust Woody's vaunted Commodore defense en route to Atlanta. Neyland Stadium looked like a giant spaceship consumed by a massive horde of orange and white. I was in awe as I watched 107,000 plus stand and perform the wave during one of the many tv timeouts. Memories that changed the course of my youth, and ultimately defied my passion for the Vols and for sports itself. I will never forget November 29th, 1997.
 
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#65
#65
1st post, but I'm a young UT fan whose first real memories were of Csey Clausen playing qb. He was, and probably still is my favorite UT player ever! His jersey was the first jersey i ever owned and i can always associate him with UT's winning ways! Other than that I've had to grow up with UT losing, its been rough, but I believe Butch is gonna turn it around! Go Vols!
 
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#66
#66
Sgt_Nick_Fury said:
People talking about the New Coach Johnny Majors.....at this point I hadn't declared a favorite team so to speak, and was so young I didn't fully even understand the rules...my father was a Jacket alumni....but my neighbors were all TN fans, and I was from TN, so I went Orange....and the first game I really tried to pay attention to was when we played my dad's team and demolished them in 79....I felt sorta bad for dad......but not enough not to not start saying "Go Vols".... Remember going to get haircuts at the local old school barber shop here in Chattanooga "Mike and Weldens". Men would get there and sit around for hours talking football and multiple SEC schools were represented among the barbers, custoemrs, and decorations on the walls. In between good natured but HEATED football debates they'd often have a couple of guys playing bluegrass, and telling jokes. Also a old glass bottle coke machine, I'd beg to get one 8oz bottle from. I learned everything about SEC history in that barber shop.
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I, as well, remember the barber shop in Chattanooga, Caywood's in East Brainerd with the 6 cent glass coke bottles and SEC football talk. I guess I was around 8-9 years old at that time.
Go Vols
 
#68
#68
My first memories of UT football are from around 1960. I was about 6 years old and Dad and I would sit around the kitchen table listening to the game on a white plastic table top radio that Mom and Dad had.
 
#69
#69
My first game was in Nov 1958 when the Moc's beat the Vols at Shields Watkins. Season record 4-6. As in all things there is an ebb and flow in football. Better days ahead.
 
#70
#70
My earliest memory?

Watching the 2010 Vols play the Wildcats on the SEC website before the season opener of the 2011 season almost exactly three years ago.
 
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#71
#71
stephenk24 said:
My earliest memory?

Watching the 2010 Vols play the Wildcats on the SEC website before the season opener almost exactly three years ago.
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Your first memory is 2010 and your still a fan!? :hi:

How did you end up liking UT living in the England??
 
#74
#74
I'm 26 and been a Vol fan my entire life, but my earliest vivid memory was John Ward's call for the 95 Tennessee/Alabama game "Give Him Six! Touchdown Tennessee on play number 1!" That's the game that I truly became a diehard fan.
 
#75
#75
KnoxVol95 said:
1st post, but I'm a young UT fan whose first real memories were of Csey Clausen playing qb. He was, and probably still is my favorite UT player ever! His jersey was the first jersey i ever owned and i can always associate him with UT's winning ways! Other than that I've had to grow up with UT losing, its been rough, but I believe Butch is gonna turn it around! Go Vols!
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Welcome to Volnation.
 
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