There Are Only So Many Of These.

#101
#101
Very Nice Hat!!

I was a freshman at UT in 1982 and it was the Bears final year and the Goal posts came down and the strip was blocked off due to the 30,000 people there!!

I will never forget that day! :rock::rock::rock:
 
#102
#102
Forget about what we're prognosticating about this game.

Here's to one of the BEST DAMN RIVALRIES IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

Listen to me hollering from my couch in Portland on Saturday.
 
#106
#106
Great Post......

My first football game was the Tenn vs Alabama game 1980... I was with my father, what
a wonderful day in my life.. What great memories.. I still have the ticket stub.. Charlie Daniels was the Halftime show that rainy saturday.. My father tought me alot that day
about the traditions and rivalry at Tennessee.It's great to be a Tennessee Vol no matter the outcome on saturday... GoVols
 
#107
#107
I share your sentiments regarding this game. This is truely a magical time in the middle of the football season. It's so special as a life-long fan, I even wrapped this weekend into my personal life - I proposed to my wife before the 1996 game sitting on a bench behind Ayres Hall. Now every other year we sit on that bench on The Hill and relive that special moment in our lives.

But I can't help but fear that special tie between UAT and UT is fading. Through the decades the hate/respect was passed from team to team as you stated. But the common bond was the coaches. Both teams were unique in that they had a coach with a deep tie - Alum, coaching decendant, lettermen.

In this day and age coaches are brought in to win. They even say, "the most important game on the schedule is the next one". If Dooley and Saban stay around long enough they will without doubt form a rivalry, but neither brings a lifetime of distaste for the other from the gut.

For all of Fulmer's faults, the goofiness of Shula, the stoic nature of Stallings - you knew they understood what the game meant. You knew they prepared differently because they knew this game was not like every other on the schedule.

I fear that special "Third Saturday in October" feeling may get lost in time in the new era of college football. The fans will carry the tradition, but will the players?
 
#110
#110
Kingston Vol said:
I'm 16 and haven't seen many of these, and most of the ones I remember haven't resulted the way I would like, but there's something different about the week before a 'Bama game.

It's truly a special feeling.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I hate it for the younger fans right now. We have lost four of the last five, I believe, but we still have won 10 of last 16. This recent downturn makes it look bad but we dominated bammer under Fulmer, and we will be back soon.
 
#111
#111
justingroves said:
The 1990 game is the first one I really remember.

The 1993 game cemented my hatred for the Crimson Tide
Click to expand...
That was the reverse to Palmer game right? Or was that 92. That game made me sick. We kicked their butts up and down the field that day and for it to end that way was just terrible.

Had to be 93 they won it all in 92 my bad.
 
#112
#112
excellent post. there are a lot of 3rd saturdays in october that i'll never forget, especially the first time i saw us beat the bammers in person at neyland.

i like to expand this attitude to the whole of UT football. that is, we should aspire to championships and being disappointed at falling short is to be expected, but we all only get a limited number of seasons to enjoy and if one can find no satisfaction except in a championship season then the good times will be limited.
 
#113
#113
Cartervol said:
That was the reverse to Palmer game right? Or was that 92. That game made me sick. We kicked their butts up and down the field that day and for it to end that way was just terrible.
Click to expand...

The reverse to Palmer. I may have the years wrong, it could have been 1992 that it happened.

I just remember my dad being a little scared at how I reacted to it. He still laughs about today.

EDIT: I'm an idiot, they won it all in 1992. To quote Clemens "I misremembered"
 
Last edited:
#114
#114
Cartervol said:
That was the reverse to Palmer game right? Or was that 92. That game made me sick. We kicked their butts up and down the field that day and for it to end that way was just terrible.

Had to be 93 they won it all in 92 my bad.
Click to expand...

yep it was 93. Everyone knew who was getting the ball we just couldn't stop it. 90 was bad, thought we had a shot in 92 and 94 but finally got to see my first win vs bama in Neyland in 96. Special night
 
#115
#115
Funny the 90 game was such a dud of a game i don't have to many memories of it. 9-6 is probably why. I remember we were ranked highly and supposed to mop the floor with them and it didn't happen, sounds familiar. I remember them kicking the winning field goal though and having that sinking feeling.
 
#116
#116
This is the kind of post hat usually bashes. Telling the OP how miserable they are gonna be this saturday. While saying how the OP is looking through his orange colored glasses.

However, good post! Try it some more hat! We will be back soon, and maybe try to remember that next time someone maybe in this sort of mood when your not and dont bash em.
 
#117
#117
Until LSU this year, the 1990 and 1993 Bama games were the sickest I had ever been at a football game.

Even though we lost, I can still remember Heath Shuler scoring that 4th quarter TD and his celebration like it was yesterday.

The 95 Manning bootleg may still be my favorite UT play of all time. And even up 3 TDs in the 4th I was terrified we would find a way to lose it, because it was Bama.

In 98, the Price TD return was the first time I'd ever gone from that happy to that sad to that happy again.

It's Bama week.
 
#118
#118
Didn't get on last night to see this, but I have to say this may be the best post I've read on this site. Thanks a lot Hat.
 
Last edited:
#119
#119
My first Bama game was my freshman year...2008. I'm glad I co-oped, now I'll be a 5th year senior with atleast one more shot at Florida and Bama at home before I graduate. I'll treasure this year however, as many of my friends will graduate before me, this being their final Bama home game. I'll be in section F, row 2, til the final whistle. Go Vols!
 
#120
#120
That 93 game was truly when I realized it was possible to hate a group/and/or culture. U could call me Bama-cist after that game...

95 turned that all around though, made my first trip to Bama that year and the first play of the game Manning to Kent TD was one of the happiest moments of my life.

Cmon boys, lets let em know they played the VOLS come Sunday. GBO!
 
#121
#121
Dang, that 1 st line makes it seem like I expanded to hate other groups, My Bad! Not my intentions. I don't hate any group or culture of people...

Except Bama, UF, and UGA fans...
 
#123
#123
When I was about a month old my granddad set me down on his lap and I watched my first TN game. I've watched many of games with him since a lot of bad ones from the 90s that were still great games and memories. Now I'm sitting here hoping he holds on long enough to go watch one more Vols vs. Tide game with him this weekend(final stages of terminal cancer). Win or lose these games will always be ones we remember. All of the football games that I remember except for an occasional Florida game from my childhood are all Alabama games.
 
#124
#124
hatvol96 said:
Anyone who's been around this site knows I'm not prone to sentimentality. However, an email I received today got me to thinking about how really special the Tennessee-Alabama game is to me. An old friend sent me a picture of us at Nick's English Hut(arguably the best college bar in America after the closing of the Roman Room)in Bloomington before an IU-Purdue basketball game. As I was thinking back to how awesome it was to see Calbert Chaney and Glenn Robinson go to battle in one of college basketball's true holy wars, it dawned on me how fleeting those moments are. That game will be 18 years ago this winter. It seems like yesterday in my mind.

My point? Even if one lives a long and healthy life, you really don't get that many Tennessee-Alabama Saturdays. Tennessee's current dire circumstances on the field shouldn't obscure that. I've seen the best and the worst of the modern series with Alabama live. They are among the most vivid memories I have. From being a child marveling at the brightness of the orange and crimson worn by the fans to being a grown man dancing around the streets of Tuscaloosa after the Vols won there in '99 and all the mountains and valleys between and since, it's been a magnificent ride.

The reason? It's the best rivalry in the SEC. There's a reason Bear Bryant considered the Tennessee-Alabama game the ultimate test of football manhood. The games are played with nuclear intensity, but they are almost uniformly clean. That's because the decades of respect between the combatants is passed down to each new class. This isn't a rivalry built on intrastate hatreds or feelings of geographic or cultural inadequacy/superiority. It's built on dozens and dozens of sublime October Saturdays with gallant participants and passionate fans putting everything they have into the effort.

In closing, I'd like to say this to my fellow Tennessee fans: No matter how bad it gets Saturday night, it's still special. Unless you're a genetic freak, you're only getting 80 or so of these. Tops. Make the best of it. Savor it. The worst Tennessee-Alabama Saturday is still far more wonderful than the vast majority of the good days in your life.

Go Vols.
Click to expand...

I like this part.
 
#125
#125
Chilmonty said:
Very Nice Hat!!

I was a freshman at UT in 1982 and it was the Bears final year and the Goal posts came down and the strip was blocked off due to the 30,000 people there!!

I will never forget that day! :rock::rock::rock:
Click to expand...

Same here. I also remember the game here in 1980 I believe when the strip was blocked off the Friday night before the game...it was crazy, even though we lost the game the next day. I'll never forget this van trying to come up cumberland that was full of bama fans. A bunch of ut students got on all sides of it and started rocking their van back and forth. The look of fear on those peoples faces was something I'll never forget....not to mention how stupid they were for trying to even drive down that road. I don't think they realized, until it was too late, what they were getting themselves into.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.
Advertisement



Back
Top