We're probably close in age, but I don't recall ever hearing or watching football on TV or radio before college. I only attended a couple of HS games, so my freshman year at UT in 1964 was a real football awakening. I can honestly say I was hooked from the first game in Neyland. 64 was also Doug Dickey's first year at Tennessee; it didn't take long to figure out that Tennessee football had slumped seriously, but we knew that with Dickey it was going to change. Maybe we were just naive, but there was the feeling that football at UT was headed for greater things ... and we weren't wrong.
After the winter quarter of my junior year, I left school and enlisted in the Army ... that's when listening began - few teams were ever on TV and then perhaps one time during the season ... unless you liked Notre Dame, which is one reason for my ND hatred to this day. For two years my younger brother would mail tapes of the radio broadcasts to me while I was stationed overseas; he became a Vol fan well before he showed up on campus.
I returned to UT to see Bill Battle's slide, and graduated before Johnny Majors came home. Through all the ups and downs (and Majors' stagnation), I've never quit being a Vol fan ... although I do watch on TV these days ... my padding ins't what it used to be, so a nice recliner is a lot better than a hard bench. My thought is that last year was very reminiscent of 1964 - the year Doug Dickey put Tennessee football back on track. The big difference is the competition and recruiting rules ... it's gonna take longer this time ... we've got the right coach; we just need some patience to remember Pruitt isn't at fault for the damage the three coaches (and three ADs) preceding him inflicted on Tennessee football.