by design | Jun 1, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly
By Tom Mattingly In the wee hours of the morning after Tennessee had dispatched Arkansas in an exhausting six overtimes in October 2002, someone spoke up and said that the Vols’ 41-38 win was “better than a tie.” Haywood Harris a football purist above all else, looked...
by Tom Mattingly | May 24, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly
By Tom Mattingly No Vol fan woke up in a good humor the morning of Sunday, Sept. 28, 1958, after the season opener at Legion Field in Birmingham, AL. The day before, Sept. 27, will long live-in infamy in the history of Tennessee football. The Vols are likely to be in...
by Tom Mattingly | May 16, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Tom Mattingly When the Football Writers Association of America selected a Quarter Century All-SEC team for the years 1950-74 in December 1975, the only unanimous selection was Douglas Leon Atkins of Humboldt, Tenn., a legendary Vol from the years 1950 -52....
by Tom Mattingly | May 10, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly
By Tom Mattingly Before the 1972 season, night games were not part of the Tennessee football experience. There were no lights at Shields-Watkins Field/Neyland Stadium, and the Vols played sparingly under the lights on the road or in bowl games. There were night...
by Tom Mattingly | May 2, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly, Stories In This Week's Focus:
By Tom Mattingly There are times the game-by-game scores in the Tennessee Football Media Guide, pp. 280- 296 in the 1919 version, are just a mind-numbing array of numbers, stretching from that first game in 1891, Sewanee 24, Tennessee 0, through the more recent years....
by Tom Mattingly | Apr 26, 2021 | Columnist, Mattingly
By Tom Mattingly A great many interesting things go on in the visiting team’s locker room area after the game is over. Tennessee fans see visiting teams trot onto the field to a scattered chorus of boos, but that’s just part of the story. There’s drama underneath the...
