Did anyone attend the first night game in Neyland?

[Chimichanga]

Southern miss looked better vs state than this lol

 

[JohnTN]

I was there and Majors was terrific at returning punts and also pass defense. I smiled every time the opponents went back to pass because I felt we had a good chance for an interception. Was Priest a defensive back also that season?

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

Very cool!! I was wondering what tailgating, the Strip, etc. would have been like before and after the game.

At least as good as it is now. Maybe better considering there weren't any cell phones

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

I was there. Had end zone seats but it was still a great setting.

 

[oldfiji]

I was there and Majors was terrific at returning punts and also pass defense. I smiled every time the opponents went back to pass because I felt we had a good chance for an interception. Was Priest a defensive back also that season?
I thought that Bobby Majors returned those punts the prior year against Penn State on their first visit. Woodruff set up temporary light for their second visit. Got to attend boy games, first as a senior in high school, the night game as a UT freshman.

 

[onevol74]

What year and time was the game played?

September 16, 1972

 

[HarderKnox59]

I was there selling Cokes. Thinking how cool it was to watch the Vols at night.

 

[Swiftybaby]

No but I did attend the first game alcohol was ever sold there. Against byu of all teams. Joke was on us tho as we lost

 

[UT97Vol]

There's a great piece out there somewhere on how Joe Paterno is largely responsible for Neyland getting lights when it did.

 

[Buzzbait]

Lucky to attend both those PSU games and every night game throughout the seventies. Great memories and some of the games were great memories as well!

 

[tnvolsball]

JoePa, from what I have heard, made excuses that it was too hot ANYTIME to come to Tennessee. I think they complained of heat the year before when we played them at the end of the year in '71 and spanked them.

Wasn't just the heat he had excuses for, he had excuses everytime our vols beat him and our fans hated him for it, he never could just say we were better than Penn State.

 

[Savannahbayvol]

I was there and Majors was terrific at returning punts and also pass defense. I smiled every time the opponents went back to pass because I felt we had a good chance for an interception. Was Priest a defensive back also that season?

Priests last year was 70 and Bobby Majors was 71 so neither played in the 72 night game against PSU.

 

[LWSVOL]

I was still a "seed", but some of you on here are old enough to have gone.

I went without a ticket but could not find one anywhere to purchase. Did not see a single person selling outside the stadium. Did see a guy inside come to one of the south gates at halftime and sold three tickets to a guy standing out there. There were dozens of people standing there, with me. At the start of the fourth quarter they opened the gates and let us go in.

Stood in tunnel to watch the last quarter.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

Priests last year was 70 and Bobby Majors was 71 so neither played in the 72 night game against PSU.

I think some are confusing it with the '71 game that was Majors' Day, at the end of the season. It's crazy how we had the prestige back then to command a team like Penn State play us two years in a row in Knoxville. Even more so, ending a season with them and beginning the next season with them. I think maybe Penn State might have been the second game of 1972.

 

[CAVPUT]

I was still a "seed", but some of you on here are old enough to have gone.

Yup.

 

[Savannahbayvol]

I think some are confusing it with the '71 game that was Majors' Day, at the end of the season. It's crazy how we had the prestige back then to command a team like Penn State play us two years in a row in Knoxville. Even more so, ending a season with them and beginning the next season with them. I think maybe Penn State might have been the second game of 1972.

Believe Ga Tech in Atlanta was first game in 72 making PSU the second.

 

[Sudden Impact]

YES

 

[Sudden Impact]

I think some are confusing it with the '71 game that was Majors' Day, at the end of the season. It's crazy how we had the prestige back then to command a team like Penn State play us two years in a row in Knoxville. Even more so, ending a season with them and beginning the next season with them. I think maybe Penn State might have been the second game of 1972.

You are right. Was at both games. Franco Harris first RB I ever saw put a stiff arm on Bobby Majors. 71 it was an end of the season game. Bobby Majors had a field day returning punts and kicks. His last game. Mitchell was also a running back with Harris I believe.
I just looked up the stats from that game they out performed us in every stat but one Return Yardage. 223 - 0

72 had to have been the first Night game, 28-21 Cappelletti was the premier back.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

Believe Ga Tech in Atlanta was first game in 72 making PSU the second.

Yes. Holloway's first game. Threw an int deep in their territory on the perimeter. Guy had a clean path down the sideline for a return TD. Holloway caught him before scoring. We hammered them the rest of the way. At Grant Field on TV

 

[mercuryvol]

I was there for both. Sports Illustrated’s love for PSU was excessive at that time, typical of the Eastern and Big 10 bias of the media. UT waxed them both years. I was a sophomore and a junior respectively. One comment from SI that I remember from the season preview issue of ‘71 pertaining to PSU ‘s schedule was”….but at the end looms a monster-Tennessee. “ That statement was the essence of how I want the Vols to always be regarded; a looming monster. After a twenty year drought I finally believe UT is that monster again.

 

[sambronkowitz]

Nope. That was six years before I was even born. I was still swimming around in my father's nutsack.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

There's a great piece out there somewhere on how Joe Paterno is largely responsible for Neyland getting lights when it did.

Pretty sure those lights were rented for that game, not installed permanently till later. My aging memory says that anyway.

 

[Mccage]

I did

 

[GreveHaller]

JoePa, from what I have heard, made excuses that it was too hot ANYTIME to come to Tennessee. I think they complained of heat the year before when we played them at the end of the year in '71 and spanked them.

the second part I always heard was JoePa was so mad about the loss he vowed to never lose to us again. And he didnt.

 

[VAVol85]

I was there but my dad and I couldn’t get tickets, so we sat on the bank behind the Physics building. I think I remember a big concrete T on the bank.