Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

Status
Not open for further replies.
#184,878
#184,878
I've always thought this should be posted once every year, so the tradition continues ....

LWSVOL said:
"I grew up just down the river from Knoxville's Neyland Stadium in the poor direction-out toward the rock quarries, dairy farms and tobacco patches. On a crisp mid-October Saturday you could climb a hill, and if the wind was just right, you could hear the rich people booing Bear Bryant and the Tide. I spent a lot of time climbing those hills and listening. Football was the second favorite sport out in the greater Forks of the River metropolitan area, right behind squirrel hunting- which you didn't need a ticket to do.

Sometimes the squirrel hunters would carry transistor radios so they could listen in on John Ward, the Voice of the Vols, calling the shots for that other sport. If Tennessee was driving for a score, there would be a general, temporary cease-fire. Now that is devotion. Anything that gets a Tennesseans mind off hunting is something special. If it was a particularly big game, even the dogs would stop barking. They knew Ward's voice, and they could tell when he was getting serious, a fact that may seem like a stretch to some but you've got to remember we had some mighty good dogs. Out in my part of the woods, an affection for the Big Orange was something you took up early in life and held onto.

One of my first memories is of sitting on the front porch in a swing with my grandfather, that's Pappaw in East Tennessean, listening on the radio to Tennessee play Ole Miss. That was back in the days when the forward pass was considered an alternative lifestyle, something you did if you weren't man enough to play real football, and both teams rushed about 300 times for a total of about 150 yards. Every time Ole Miss would gain a step, Pappaw would cuss and spit tobacco juice. By halftime, the side yard looked like an oil spill.

What's most remarkable about this is that I don't think Papaw had any notion of what a football game was. It wasn't mentioned in the Bible, so he had no reason to have ever read about it; and he sure had never attended a game. He had no idea what those Mississippians were doing. .But he knew they were doing it to "us." And he was against it. He never set foot in the University of Tennessee campus in his life, but he was a Vol and a mighty good one if I say so myself. If you can understand my Pappaw, you can probably understand the relationship between Tennessee football and Tennessee football fans. If you can't, there's not much reason to try to explain it. It's an "us" vs. "them" proposition. If you're one of us, you know how we feel; if you're not, I'm not sure you want to know.

Some people make the mistake of separating the game from all the stuff that surrounds the game and therefore can't see what's the big deal. College football in general, Southern college football in particular and Tennessee Volunteer Go Big Orange college football, to be precise, is much, much more than that. It's crisp autumn afternoons with chicken barbecuing, bands playing and trees trying to out-pretty each other. It's riding down the river as part of the Vol Navy and singing "Rocky Top" 400 or 500 times in an afternoon. It's a cold beer and a turkey sandwich at Sam & Andy's down on Cumberland Avenue before the game. It's tailgating around Kent Boy Rose's orange and white motor home-one of the hundreds of that color that line Neyland Drive on game day, right outside Neyland Stadium where Neyland used to coach.

It's memories of Tennessee Walking Horses strutting the sidelines and of cannons in the end zone. It's Ole Smokey howling for a touchdown. It's John Ward hollering "GIVE HIM SIX" when the good guys score and hollering "STOPPED BY A HOST OF VOLUNTEERS" when the bad guys get stuffed. It's Bobby Denton calling the play by play and telling a fired-up crowd "It's fooootball time in TENN-E-SSEEEEE!" It's old women and little babies decked out in orange. It's African-Americans and redneck farmers high-fiving, hugging and saying "How 'bout them Vols?" after a touchdown. It's touchdowns. It's road trips to Birmingham, radio talk shows, shakers, and flags flapping in the wind.

It's dancing to the Tennessee Waltz after the game and sipping illicit Tennessee whiskey during it.

It's memories: The time we beat the unbeatable Auburn and the unstoppable Bo Jackson couldn't go anywhere but backward; the undertalented Daryl Dickey shutting the overactive mouths of a Miami team in the Sugar Bowl we were supposed to lose by 22 but won by 28; holding Larry Csonka and Floyd Little out of the end zone to preserve a bowl victory over Syracuse; reminding Ken Stabler that left-handers can lose football games too; Condredge Holloway hopping out of an ambulance to return to the UCLA game and rally the troops to a tying touchdown; Jack Reynolds cutting his car in half after a loss and earning the Nickname "Hacksaw."

It's Doug Atkins, the Majors boys, Bob Johnson, Charlie Rosenfelder, Karl Kremser, Richmond Flowers, Herman "Thunderfoot" Weaver, Dewey "Swamp Rat" Warren, Tony Robinson, Curt Watson, Steve Kiner, Willie Gault, Peyton Manning, Al Wilson, John Henderson, Heath Shuler, Carl Pickens and Reggie White and all our other heroes running through that big "T" while the Pride of the Southland band plays and over 100,000 of us holler and carry on like free-will Baptists having a spell.

I could go on, but you probably get the picture. If you don't, you won't ever so there's no reason to go further. It's also memories of my daddy sitting on the front porch during the last autumn Saturdays of his life listening to the game on the radio and cussing and spitting tobacco juice every time an opponent gained a step on us. He would understand what I'm talking about. So would Pappaw. I guess it's the kind of feeling that just runs in the family."
Click to expand...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neyland Rising, Brillovol, drvenner and 25 others
#184,880
#184,880
volatil said:
Thanks for posting this. 1993 I was stationed in Atsugi Japan. Tennessee was playing Florida and the game was broadcasted on Armed Forces Network. I was so happy to hear John Ward and he dropped no matter where you are across the world ITS FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE.

Tears were shed
Click to expand...
Wow!
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmokinBob, VolGee4, volatil and 1 other person
#184,883
#184,883
Catbone said:
Protip: When staying with family, don't accidentally screen cast pr0n to the living room television while in the bathroom taking a shower to get ready.
Click to expand...
I don't imagine they'd be offended by nat geo or whatever cat porn you were watching. Probably just thought it was a nature show.
 
  • Like
Reactions: titansvolsfaninga, Neyland Rising, Brillovol and 13 others
#184,884
#184,884
Oregon has had our back in the past. Love the Ducks.

Showed up and partied in Knoxville with “We hate Kiffin too” T-shirts.

Their band played Rocky Top at USC as they beating the dog piss out of Kiffin.


Duck can pull a truck.


Will always pull for them unless you know.

Also Auburn cheats and they can go to hell
 
  • Like
Reactions: titansvolsfaninga, Neyland Rising, Brillovol and 21 others
#184,887
#184,887
Catbone said:
Protip: When staying with family, don't accidentally screen cast pr0n to the living room television while in the bathroom taking a shower to get ready.
Click to expand...

I laughed at this, picturing MOMMA catbone sitting down with her morning cup of coffee and turning on the tv to the catbone provided entertainment television channel.
 
  • Like
Reactions: titansvolsfaninga, Neyland Rising, Big Orange#1 and 7 others
#184,888
#184,888
volatil said:
Oregon has had our back in the past. Love the Ducks.

Showed up and partied in Knoxville with “We hate Kiffin too” T-shirts.

Their band played Rocky Top at USC as they beating the dog piss out of Kiffin.


Duck can pull a truck.


Will always pull for them unless you know.

Also Auburn cheats and they can go to hell
Click to expand...

volatil is game ready.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brillovol, Big Orange#1, ionaVOL and 3 others
#184,891
#184,891
volatil said:
Oregon has had our back in the past. Love the Ducks.

Showed up and partied in Knoxville with “We hate Kiffin too” T-shirts.

Their band played Rocky Top at USC as they beating the dog piss out of Kiffin.


Duck can pull a truck.


Will always pull for them unless you know.

Also Auburn cheats and they can go to hell
Click to expand...
Yeah, Oregon has had our back a couple of times. **** Auburn, Go Ducks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SmokinBob, bignewt, ionaVOL and 3 others
#184,892
#184,892
I never like anything you have to say but damn you on point with this one

Edit: stupid ass glitch not replying to who I replied to
 
Last edited:
#184,895
#184,895
Dear Lord,

Thank you for another year of Tennessee Football! I also thank you for this group of posters that we can discuss football together! Let us always remember this is just a game and what really matters in well beyond the Orange and White!


Also please be with those that don’t appreciate the orange & white in the same way we all do here. They really need forgiveness for their sins!


GBO!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Neyland Rising, DMG, SmokinBob and 12 others
#184,896
#184,896
I have been waiting for today since I walked out of that crap stadium off West End last year; ready to get that horrible taste of defeat out of my mouth. I am much more excited about this season than I was last years team at this time. Boys and girls it is FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE!!!!! GBO beat GS. Hope everyone has a safe and GREAT LABOR DAY WEEKEND!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: titansvolsfaninga, SmokinBob, CurtWatson31 and 2 others
#184,898
#184,898
ChattaTNVol said:
I've always thought this should be posted once every year, so the tradition continues ....
Click to expand...
Always irked me that he didn't give credit to author (Jake Vest) though, silly, I know.
But he never does when he brings stuff over from VQ either. Just posts it and doesn't correct anyone that assumes otherwise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: drvenner, Sleegro and butchna
New posts
Status
Not open for further replies.
Advertisement



Back
Top