By Tom Mattingly
When No. 4 Tennessee squared off against No. 11 Air Force in the 1971 Sugar Bowl, there was a prevailing thought among the Vol faithful that the Vols didn’t seem to be the biggest deal in town. That honor went to the Air Force Academy in the first football game between the two schools. The Vols would not play Air Force again until 2006.
Here’s what Marvin West wrote about what happened that day. That was during Marvin’s tenure covering the Vols for the Knoxville News-Sentinel and is typical of Marvin’s award-winning writing style.
Tennessee could have developed an inferiority complex at the 1971 Sugar Bowl. The highly regarded Air Force team captured New Orleans at night and the Volunteers stood around and watched as bowl hosts fussed over generals and colonels and others wearing brass.
“We could have been reading it wrong, but they seemed embarrassed to be in the same bowl with us,” said quarterback Bobby Scott. “I don’t think they thought we belonged.”
There might have been little chips on some shoulders when it was time to play. Tennessee racked up 24 points on its first four possessions and maintained the mismatch with four interceptions and four fumble recoveries. Air Force found it dangerous to be around linebacker Ray Nettles.
If you’re into numbers, the flyboys finished with minus-12 yards rushing. Scott was MVP and the late night toast of the town.
That was the way things appeared in the late afternoon at Tulane Stadium on Friday, Jan. 1, 1971. The final tally was 34-13, Tennessee. Utilizing superior speed and quickness, the Vols were clearly the dominant team despite missing more than a few scoring opportunities.
Junior tailback Don McLeary scored twice and Bobby Majors had a 55-yard punt return to pace the Vol scoring. Tight end Gary Theiler caught a touchdown pass from Scott. George Hunt booted a couple of field goals. Tennessee had four possessions and scored four times and led 24-0 with 3:12 to go in the first quarter.
Linebackers Ray Nettles and Jamie Rotella led the way defensively. Rotella had eight solo tackles and an assist, recovered two fumbles, and broke up a pass. Nettles had nine tackles, three assists, and a sack.
The impressive triumph broke a troublesome losing streak in bowl appearances that had reached three games. Previously, the Vols had lost to Oklahoma in the 1968 Orange Bowl (26-24), Texas in the 1969 Cotton Bowl (36-13), and Florida in the 1969 Gator Bowl (14-13). The Vols had not only lost the Gator Bowl game a year earlier, but also lost Doug Dickey, their head coach, in early January 1970, also to the Gators.
The Alabama game matched Tennessee head coach Bill Battle against Bear Bryant’s Alabama squad. Bryant had been Battle’s coach at Alabama (1960-62). The Florida game matched Battle against Dickey, who had brought Bill to Knoxville in 1966. Those two games were part of an exciting two weeks of football in Knoxville.
The Vols finished 11-1 in Battle’s first season as head coach, the first 11-win season since 1950. That 1970 team was a great one, along with 1938-40, 1950, 1951, 1965, 1967, 1989, 1990 and 1998.
Here’s what senior offensive guard Don Denbo, the pride of Pulaski, said about that 1970 Vol team.
“We give so much attention these days to the individual stars. We forget how important and unique a team is. The 1970 team was a team of individuals who somehow put aside their differences (and there were lots of differences) and melded into a unit. We knew we were not going to get beat. We should not have gotten beat. That team should have been national champions.”
It was an impressive end to an impressive season that saw the Vols defeat SMU (28-3), Army (48-3), Georgia Tech (17-6), Alabama (24-0), Florida (38-7), Wake Forest (41-7), South Carolina (20-18), Kentucky (45-0), Vanderbilt (24-6), and UCLA (28-17). The only loss came in late September to Auburn, 36-23.
Those were the days.
P.S. Sometime during game week, several local tough guys in New Orleans decided to get after Knoxville entrepreneur and News-Sentinel paper carrier Bobby Langston, maybe beat him up a little bit… or maybe a great deal. That took an extraordinary amount of courage on their part.
Things didn’t look so good for Bobby until a number of Tennessee players showed up on the scene to offer assistance. Things got better for Bobby immediately. It wasn’t quite like the Lone Ranger and Tonto showing up to disperse the Cavendish gang and protect the inhabitants of the little town, but it was close.
NOTE TO SUPPOSED TOUGH GUYS: If you messed with Bobby, you needed to be aware that help was always on the way… in great numbers. There was no one they respected more.
