By Tom Mattingly
“Tennessee Football… from corner to corner” was published in the preseason of 1966. Head coach Doug Dickey and captains Austin Denney and Paul Naumoff adorned the magazine’s cover. The cover raised the possibility of a trip to Miami during bowl season. “Orange as in Orange Bowl?” The editors turned out to be off by a year.
The trip to Miami came in the SEC title season of 1967 (Alabama, Georgia Tech, and Ole Miss got in the way in 1966), but the events of the 1966 campaign were no less exciting. That’s the way it is in Big Orange Country when the Vols take the field.
There was a special “ambience” story on p. 3 discussing how Vol football takes over the expanse of Big Orange Country and literally won’t let go. It’s been nearly 60 years now since the magazine hit mailboxes across the state, attesting to the power of young men wearing orange and white who have won over the Tennessee fan base.
No one knows exactly who wrote the story below, but its message is an eloquent one:
Football in Tennessee, from the preps to the powerhouses, is something magical and marvelous, which binds 50 individuals into one airtight team, turns next-door neighbors into rivals, and provides fuel for barbershops from August until January.
In Tennessee, the game is great and still growing. This annual publication is a salute to all who put on hard hats and shoulder pads, to all who do sit ups and run laps until they are green at the gills, to all who make this game of rock ‘n sock the number one fall frolic from Mountain City to Ducktown, from Union City to Jellico to Church Hill and in points between.
And Southeastern Sports Publications tips its hat in tiny tribute to those who teach the game… to those who build better young men every afternoon as they construct the quarterback option, create rotation in the secondary, and teach old-fashioned fundamentals of how to dish it out and take it when it comes back.
Football becomes a lesson in life when, through sheer grit, dogged determination, and cool courage, sure defeat is turned into victory.
Starting with the will to win, football teaches so much. Take, for example, a game-winning run of 60 yards. The halfback cuts inside the end, shifts speeds, angles across the grain, and finds an alley along the sidelines. He’s home free for a rousing run, a back-slapping whoopee of a touchdown.
Everybody saw it, and even the losers admit Henry Halfback is some football player. Monday afternoon when the coach reviews the movie, he sees Freddy Fullback react to the floating end and chase him out of the path even though he was supposed to hook him inside so Henry can make his cut. And this same fullback, tired but still pushing, lands the last block along the sideline to open the gate.
Here is another character-building lesson. Give Henry all the credit, but Freddy Fullback and slow George Guard did a dandy job behind the scenes. Fans may not believe it, but football players will tell you a touchdown is a team play unless somebody on defense makes a critical mistake.
It teaches again and again that your side doesn’t land all the licks. It teaches the principle value received for value given… that the thrill of winning the big one is a reward for being ready.
So, football teaches togetherness. Maybe it sounds corny, but it is really a game where every shoulder is put to the wheel or the wheel doesn’t roll. Football teaches again and again that nice guys don’t always finish last.. Think about all-Americans you have heard about. How many were bums?
Football goals have been the same since the beginning… beat somebody if you can, win games, go undefeated. Hot spots like Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett, Chattanooga Central, Oak Ridge, and Memphis Catholic have been big winners for years.
It was Plato who said, “Of all animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.” Football helps some.
Across the state, coaches like Chattanooga Howard’s Chubby James, L.P. Beene at South Pittsburg, and John Hoover at Haywood County have won perhaps 100 more than they’ve lost. The Red Etters, Jack Armstrongs, Burleigh Davies, Bill Brimms, Ollie Keller, and M.C. Groseclose are famous. Johnny-come-latelys Jim Satterfield at Hartsville, Leroy Hollis at Glencliff, and Carey Henley at Kirkman are kicking up a fuss.
And at different levels, but going in the same direction, have been men like Gen. R.R. Neyland and Dan McGugin who gave their lives to the game.
In case there are doubters, we think it’s all worthwhile.
