By Tom Mattingly
NOTE: When I write a book about the significant dates in Tennessee Volunteer football, Nov. 30, 1963, will be at the top of the list for that date and for the history of Vol football overall. ANALYSIS: The single-wing offense, a staple of Tennessee football since the ascension of Bob Neyland as head coach in 1926, took its last breath. On that day, the Vols took a 14-0 decision over Vanderbilt on a cold and wet Saturday afternoon on Shields-Watkins Field. It was the final contest in a 5-5 season.
Mallon Faircloth, a senior from Cordele, GA, earned the plaudits of history as the last single-wing tailback, running for 179 yards, including a 72-yard touchdown run. Sophomore fullback Stan Mitchell earned the other score after a fumble recovery by sophomore linebacker Frank Emanuel. It was also the final game as head coach for Jim McDonald, hired in June that year after Bowden Wyatt was let go.
No one billed the game as “Tribute to the Single Wing Day,” but events during that weekend and beyond made it clear things were definitely going in a different direction football-wise on the Hill. History was in one of its cycles of change, as News Sentinel Sports Editor Tom Siler wrote in 1970, explaining the landscape of college football nearly 60 years ago.
“The high school boy, infected with the virus of pro football, saw stardom ahead,” wrote Siler. “He was playing the ‘T’ formation in high school, wanted to play the ‘T’ in college and further prepare himself for the golden years in pro football.”
“(Tennessee) was defeated before it got started in recruiting until Doug Dickey came along,” Siler also told his readers.
The poster boys for the switch to the “T” from the single wing were both Tennesseans, quarterbacks Steve Spurrier of Johnson City and Steve Sloan of Cleveland. Spurrier ended up at Florida (1964-66), Sloan at Alabama (1963-65).
In his book on Ray Mears (“Ray Mears’ Big Orange Memories”), Ron Bliss notes that Mears was involved in a momentous plan that might well have changed the course of Tennessee athletic history. Ray was not shy, not in the least, when it came to “momentous plans.” He always seemed to be challenging existing thinking and coming up with new ways of doing things.
Mears wanted to have Spurrier play basketball. He also asked him “what it would take for him to sign with Tennessee in football,” knowing that he was too good a football player to come to Knoxville for hoops only.
“Steve told me he didn’t like Wyatt’s wingback offense, and he’d have to change to more of a passing offense before he’d consider coming,” said Mears. “So I went back, told Bowden that, and he responded, ‘I’m not changing my offense for anyone.’”
There was also reverence among the Vol fan base for the glory days under Neyland and Wyatt. “They had grown up on the single-wing, loved the matchless precision of it, and naturally hated to see it go,” wrote Siler.
There were also indisputable facts. There hadn’t been a bowl game since 1957, and the Vols were in the upper half of the SEC only once between 1958 and 1963. The record in those years was 30-27-3, not what Vol fans had become accustomed to. Home attendance in 1963 averaged 30,141 in a 51,527-seat stadium. The Vols had finished 10th in the conference in 1962 and eighth in 1963.
There had been major highlights, streak-breaking wins over Auburn and LSU in 1959, and lowlights, losses to Chattanooga and Florida State in 1958. There was, however, a rising feeling the game had passed the single wing by. LSU, Auburn, Alabama, and Ole Miss were acknowledged national powers. Georgia Tech, another rival over the years, was still strong.
Things came to a head at a contentious meeting of athletics board members and key trustees before and after the Vanderbilt game. McDonald was made an assistant athletic director, and Woodruff was given approval to hire the new head coach. The new coach was Arkansas assistant Doug Dickey, Woodruff’s quarterback in the early 1950s at Florida. It was a decision that caught media and fans alike off guard.
After a 4-5-1 record in 1964, Dickey brought Tennessee back to glory in 1965, and the Vols stayed there over the next decades, with precious few rough patches along the way.
Dickey strongly believed in the adage, “If you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.” Coming to the Vols, having played for Woodruff and having coached under Frank Broyles, who played for Bobby Dodd, Dickey well understood the Tennessee tradition and program.
“The Neyland years were not that far back,” said Dickey. “Bowden Wyatt had done a great job of coaching wherever he had been. Things had gotten a little out of hand. Some changes needed to be made by the university, and they were.”
The 1963 Vanderbilt game and its aftermath ended one era and started another, passing the torch to a new generation. It was a significant and memorable time in the history of the Tennessee program.
The transition may not have been picture-perfect, but the verdict of history reflects positively on the happenings on that last Saturday in November into the early days of December 1963.
