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Mears Died Knowing He Was Appreciated By The Big Orange Nation
June 11, 2007
I was driving to Johnson City on Monday when I got the news. Coach Ray Mears had died.
It was a shock because I had just gotten an e-mail from Dana Mears, Ray's wife, via a friend that Coach was doing better.
He had been in a rehab facility in West Knoxville since suffering a stroke. He had had previous strokes that had left him disabled and in a critical care unit. My guess is it was another stroke that killed him Monday.
Coach Mears was close to me. I had covered his team back in the 1970s and was one of the few writers currently covering Tennessee who goes that far back. I spent several months in the spring of 2000 driving to his home on the lake in Loudon to do interview sessions for a book on his life and times.
When we first started doing the book, Coach wanted it to stress the fact that he was being denied his legacy of having coined the phrase "Big Orange Country" by the powers that be. The final chapter, of 32 chapters, covered that subject and, ultimately led to the publisher -- at the last second -- deciding not to go through with publication. When I had first submitted it, I was told it should be a big seller.
Reasons given for not publishing it included the fact that it was "negative" toward Tennessee and they said "negative" does not sell. Also, that Coach Mears had been out of the spotlight too long and few knew who he was.
The first 31 chapters celebrated his life and told stories about how he gigged Adolph Rupp at Kentucky by donning a brown suit, got under the skin of Vanderbilt fans, of his experiences with the famed duo of Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King and how he had made basketball at Tennessee fun in general with his "showtime" antics.
It was because of Mears' success that Stokely Center was built and it stayed packed all the years he coached in Knoxville.
The book was rejected in the fall of 2000. I took Coach Mears to the SEC Basketball Tournament in Nashville with me in the spring of 2001 and on the way back, he told me it was okay to cut out the controversial final chapter. But then Tennessee basketball dipped into mediocrity -- missing the NCAA tournament four straight seasons -- and there was a time I thought it might never get published.
But what Athletic Director Mike Hamilton and Head Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl have done at Tennessee revived interest in Tennessee basketball in general and Mears, in particular, and made it possible to make another effort to get it published.
Now, the story has a happy ending with Coach Mears being given his due by Tennessee and his name back in headlines, thanks to Pearl making the decision to don the Orange Jacket for Tennessee basketball games against Kentucky and Vanderbilt. In his dying days, Mears found himself back on center stage at Tennessee.
By honoring Coach Mears -- as should have been done long ago -- Hamilton and Pearl brought back Mears' players, including Bernard King who is considered by many the greatest basketball player ever in the Southeastern Conference, Pete Maravich included. King made his first appearance at a Tennessee basketball game this spring since appearing on the court as a player 30 years before. King and Grunfeld came back together and Mears was able to hear the cheers of the crowd as his days neared an end.
With the changes in Knoxville and the new reverence for Coach, I had found a publisher for the book in May and am taking time to prepare it for publication this fall. I had hoped it would be published in time for Coach Mears to see it. It will include a treasure trove of pictures from Mears' personal collection and should have 40 or more pages of pictures of the personalities and players of the Golden Era of Tennessee basketball that was 1963 to 1977.
But at least Coach died knowing it was going to be published. Dana told him I had found a publisher and she said it brought a smile to his face.
It has been fun to write and should be fun to read.
Ray was a man ahead of his time -- the Bill Veeck of college basketball who included having a man wrestle a bear at halftime of one game and having reserve player Roger Peltz juggle basketballs while riding a unicycle before games.
He had the Tennessee Marching Band march into Stokely Center and make a lap around the floor before games until the SEC finally banned the custom -- saying it was intimidating to opposing teams. Now the band marches into Neyland Stadium for football games, instead. A pep band replaced the marching band at games and started another tradition. It was from the pep band at UT basketball games that the playing of "Rocky Top" became popular and it is now recognized as Tennessee's fight song.
Mears also had his team run through a "T" -- something that Doug Dickey later started having the football team do. Mears' players had run through the "W" at Wittenberg College when he coached there and he brought the idea to Knoxville when he came in 1962.
And, of course, it was Mears who came up with the phrase "This Is Big Orange Country," based on the Marlboro ads that were so popular on billboards in the 1960s. Massillon's high school football team in Ohio had been known as the "Big Red" and Mears told John Ward, who was doing Tennessee basketball on radio at the time, that "Big Orange" would sell. He was right.
The wearing of the orange to games started with the Orange Tie Club at Tennessee and expanded from there. Now, the stands are a sea of orange on Saturdays in football and every time there is an athletic event in Knoxville.
Coach Mears feared several years ago that he was being forgotten. He's not been. He died knowing the Big Orange Nation truly appreciated what he had done for University of Tennessee athletics. He died a happy man.
Ron Bliss is editor of TriCitiesSports.com and covered Mears' teams during the Golden Era of Tennessee basketball in the late 1970s. He is finishing a book on Mears' life that will be published this fall.
http://www.tricitiessports.com/default.asp...rts&he=.com
June 11, 2007
I was driving to Johnson City on Monday when I got the news. Coach Ray Mears had died.
It was a shock because I had just gotten an e-mail from Dana Mears, Ray's wife, via a friend that Coach was doing better.
He had been in a rehab facility in West Knoxville since suffering a stroke. He had had previous strokes that had left him disabled and in a critical care unit. My guess is it was another stroke that killed him Monday.
Coach Mears was close to me. I had covered his team back in the 1970s and was one of the few writers currently covering Tennessee who goes that far back. I spent several months in the spring of 2000 driving to his home on the lake in Loudon to do interview sessions for a book on his life and times.
When we first started doing the book, Coach wanted it to stress the fact that he was being denied his legacy of having coined the phrase "Big Orange Country" by the powers that be. The final chapter, of 32 chapters, covered that subject and, ultimately led to the publisher -- at the last second -- deciding not to go through with publication. When I had first submitted it, I was told it should be a big seller.
Reasons given for not publishing it included the fact that it was "negative" toward Tennessee and they said "negative" does not sell. Also, that Coach Mears had been out of the spotlight too long and few knew who he was.
The first 31 chapters celebrated his life and told stories about how he gigged Adolph Rupp at Kentucky by donning a brown suit, got under the skin of Vanderbilt fans, of his experiences with the famed duo of Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King and how he had made basketball at Tennessee fun in general with his "showtime" antics.
It was because of Mears' success that Stokely Center was built and it stayed packed all the years he coached in Knoxville.
The book was rejected in the fall of 2000. I took Coach Mears to the SEC Basketball Tournament in Nashville with me in the spring of 2001 and on the way back, he told me it was okay to cut out the controversial final chapter. But then Tennessee basketball dipped into mediocrity -- missing the NCAA tournament four straight seasons -- and there was a time I thought it might never get published.
But what Athletic Director Mike Hamilton and Head Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl have done at Tennessee revived interest in Tennessee basketball in general and Mears, in particular, and made it possible to make another effort to get it published.
Now, the story has a happy ending with Coach Mears being given his due by Tennessee and his name back in headlines, thanks to Pearl making the decision to don the Orange Jacket for Tennessee basketball games against Kentucky and Vanderbilt. In his dying days, Mears found himself back on center stage at Tennessee.
By honoring Coach Mears -- as should have been done long ago -- Hamilton and Pearl brought back Mears' players, including Bernard King who is considered by many the greatest basketball player ever in the Southeastern Conference, Pete Maravich included. King made his first appearance at a Tennessee basketball game this spring since appearing on the court as a player 30 years before. King and Grunfeld came back together and Mears was able to hear the cheers of the crowd as his days neared an end.
With the changes in Knoxville and the new reverence for Coach, I had found a publisher for the book in May and am taking time to prepare it for publication this fall. I had hoped it would be published in time for Coach Mears to see it. It will include a treasure trove of pictures from Mears' personal collection and should have 40 or more pages of pictures of the personalities and players of the Golden Era of Tennessee basketball that was 1963 to 1977.
But at least Coach died knowing it was going to be published. Dana told him I had found a publisher and she said it brought a smile to his face.
It has been fun to write and should be fun to read.
Ray was a man ahead of his time -- the Bill Veeck of college basketball who included having a man wrestle a bear at halftime of one game and having reserve player Roger Peltz juggle basketballs while riding a unicycle before games.
He had the Tennessee Marching Band march into Stokely Center and make a lap around the floor before games until the SEC finally banned the custom -- saying it was intimidating to opposing teams. Now the band marches into Neyland Stadium for football games, instead. A pep band replaced the marching band at games and started another tradition. It was from the pep band at UT basketball games that the playing of "Rocky Top" became popular and it is now recognized as Tennessee's fight song.
Mears also had his team run through a "T" -- something that Doug Dickey later started having the football team do. Mears' players had run through the "W" at Wittenberg College when he coached there and he brought the idea to Knoxville when he came in 1962.
And, of course, it was Mears who came up with the phrase "This Is Big Orange Country," based on the Marlboro ads that were so popular on billboards in the 1960s. Massillon's high school football team in Ohio had been known as the "Big Red" and Mears told John Ward, who was doing Tennessee basketball on radio at the time, that "Big Orange" would sell. He was right.
The wearing of the orange to games started with the Orange Tie Club at Tennessee and expanded from there. Now, the stands are a sea of orange on Saturdays in football and every time there is an athletic event in Knoxville.
Coach Mears feared several years ago that he was being forgotten. He's not been. He died knowing the Big Orange Nation truly appreciated what he had done for University of Tennessee athletics. He died a happy man.
Ron Bliss is editor of TriCitiesSports.com and covered Mears' teams during the Golden Era of Tennessee basketball in the late 1970s. He is finishing a book on Mears' life that will be published this fall.
http://www.tricitiessports.com/default.asp...rts&he=.com
