by design | Sep 20, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly
By Tom Mattingly Rarely have three consecutive December Saturdays been as significant as Dec. 4, Dec. 11, and Dec. 18 were in 1965. The time was Doug Dickey’s second season as head coach. At age 33, Dickey had compiled an 8-1-2 1965 record following a fallow period...
by design | Sep 13, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly
By Tom Mattingly That’s what the Latin scholars might say, a fancy way of asking, “Which way are you going?” With that in mind, have more big plays happened with the Vols moving to the north end or the south end of the field, wherever the game might be? For...
by design | Sep 6, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Tom Mattingly The year was 1971, 50 years ago. Neyland Stadium seated 64,429, with a new southwest upper deck scheduled to open in 1972. Fifty years is an eternity by anybody’s standards, but for veteran Vol fans, 1971 was an amazing time, a season that had enough...
by design | Aug 15, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Tom Mattingly Speaking of Thursday night University of Tennessee football games, Oct. 3, 1996, was a Thursday. No 9 Tennessee was in Memphis to play Ole Miss at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. It was a “home game” for Ole Miss and was beamed nationwide on ESPN. It’s...
by design | Aug 8, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Tom Mattingly Sometimes sportswriters come up with an idea that makes sense years later. The year was 1926. It was a Monday, Labor Day, Sept. 6. The baseball pennant races were in full swing. The football season was set to begin on Sept. 25. A new coach was ready...
by design | Aug 1, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Tom Mattingly When Tennessee and Arkansas squared off in the 1971 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, on Monday night, Dec. 20, the teams had not met in 64 years and shared little in common other than state borders defined by the Mississippi River. Tennessee and...
