By Tom Mattingly
For many years, News-Sentinel Sports Editor Tom Siler carried on a running battle with the UT Athletic Department leadership concerning kickoff times for Tennessee home football games.
This came in the days when Ayres Hall and the Krystal on Cumberland Avenue were the center of campus. Bobby Langston (pictured) was a well-known figure, plying his trade as a Knoxville News Sentinel paper carrier.
He was all over the campus and the downtown area every day, selling newspapers and his own special brand of optimism to all who would listen.
For his part, Siler had twice been president of the U.T. Alumni Association in the early 1950s and had very likely heard from fans about how hard it was to get into and out of Knoxville for Tennessee football games, even though average attendance never exceeded 40,000 until 1965.
His was a voice in the wilderness, because the 2 p.m. kickoff stayed with us, a vestige of a long-ago day. Kickoff had always been at that time, it seemed with someone in authority likely referencing the adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
In this case, the pen was not mightier than the sword. Not even close.
The 2 p.m. kickoff was sacrosanct, perhaps handed down to Gen. Bob Neyland by the gods of football through Walter Camp, Gil Dobie, Amos Alonzo Stagg, or other early coaching greats. It was what it was.
Maybe the orders came directly from Neyland himself, designed to give him time to get to other games later that evening if he wished or to begin preparations for the next week’s opponent.
QUESTION: Could it have had something to do with getting to dinner and dancing at Cherokee Country Club at a reasonable hour? Friends knew him as an outstanding bridge player and dancer, many describing him as “courtly” and “gallant.”
For years, Siler had lobbied for earlier starts, given the pressure of newspaper deadlines and the compilation of the numerous elements of coverage that comprised the sports section in those days.
There were game stories and columns to be written and edited, pictures to be developed and captioned, and the DyerGram to be drawn and placed in its proper place in the Sunday sports section.
That all had to happen before Pierce Holt Carter could appear near the old KUB offices at Gay and Church ready to sell the early edition of the Sunday newspaper around 11 p.m. on Saturday night. Over the years, he had a tremendously loyal following, stretching from the Coliseum to Gay Street.
An earlier kickoff time, it was reasoned, would also help Vol fans get back home more quickly, especially those heading outside the Greater Knoxville area. That was because in those days the interstate system outside Knoxville was nigh unto non-existent, at least until traffic got to Cookeville or Cleveland, the latter in Bradley County. Nashville and Memphis were far, far away.
There were also “Bloody 11W” leading out of Knoxville to the northeast, U.S. 25W north to Jellico (Siler’s home town) and Lexington, and U.S. 25 and 70 heading toward North Carolina.
Tennessee football brochures from those years carried the kickoff times, even in those rare cases, e.g. when ABC wanted a 1:55 p.m. kickoff for the 1969 Auburn game or a 4 p.m. kickoff for the 1968 Georgia game.
There were concessions made to start the November games at 1:30 p.m., once the time changed, but the 2 p.m. start still ruled the roost otherwise. The lack of lights made things very interesting in November, especially at the southwest corner of the field. That end of the stadium darkened very quickly.
Wonder what Siler would think now, with kickoff times being all over the map, the 2 p.m. start being the exception rather than the rule? How many 2 p.m. starts have there been in the last 20 years or so?
Kickoff times have ranged from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
That contingency was not lost on Knoxville gospel music promoters Rev. J. Bazzel Mull and wife “Lady Mull,” both now deceased. He was promoting gospel singings on Saturday nights and called in to be enlightened about the upcoming schedule and kickoff times. In those long-ago and much-beloved days kickoff times were known well in advance.
The call was always the same: “Doc, what time do those football games start this fall?” (He seemed to call everyone “Doc,” reason unknown.)
The reason he wanted to know? Without fail, he always said, “I don’t want my concerts to hurt the attendance at your football games.”
That never happened, but it was a laudable sentiment.
The 2 p.m. kickoff is now consigned to history, but in a far nobler day, it was a source of stability, that all was right with the world. Tennessee kicked off its home games at 2 p.m., and that’s the way it was.
That’s the way things appeared more than a few years ago.
