Why are you a Vol fan?

[tbh]

Similar to me although I grew up in Atlanta. Have lived here ever since with the exception of one year in Chicago. However before I die I will live in East TN again.

I have promised myself the same... (ok, a cabin in E. TN for the autumn and springtime, and a place in Costa Rica for winter and summer months...a feller can dream, right?)

 

[Remy]

I grew up in Tennessee, graduated high school there. I have both maternal and paternal family there. I've been a UT fan since the days of Swamp Rat Dewey Warren. I have come to an unfortunate reality in my senior years that I have a masochistic streak that keeps me coming back for more pain watching the poor product UT puts on the gridiron at home and away. I tolerate failure of the UT football program as a fan that I have not tolerated in any other phase of my life. In all other areas, by most any objective measure I'm a winner. However in this one deep dark corner of my life I am a loser along with other UT fans lo these many years. I hope to see it turned around soonest, like before my demise.

 

[Smokymtnbullet]

Born and raised in East Tennessee.I sold programs in and around Neyland in the early 80’s at the age of 10-12.

 

[Warriorvol]

Since birth, blood runs orange.

Started up on 85 sugar Vols with grand dad. Been hooked since. All vol, not just football. Support and pull for all athletics. Everything goes in cycles. Hope we're on the up swing with coach Hype. Would it not be great to be all in with the current programs and coaches. Football, men and women's hoops, softball and baseball.

Go Vols.

 

[lukeneyland]

Whole family is from there or Virginia/ Carolina. Had the misfortune of being born in Texas. Was raised right though, he made my middle name Neyland if that’s any indication

 

[Vol524]

I can't explain it. Some of my earliest memories are of TN football. I am talking about when I was an infant. Mom says the first thing she can remember me ever asking for was an orange and white TN football. She said I used to sleep with it. SMH

 

[TheTimeIsNow]

I like having anxiety and depression.

 

[JoAllan]

I would rather see Any (non Pruitt coached) Tennessee team lose than see any other football team win, lose or score 500 points.

Sure I want to see wins……..but I’d see a Tennessee loss before seeing any other team.

It’s the orange and white. It’s the checker board. It’s the Power T!

It’s Holloway, White, Gault, Lewis, Manning, Little, Martin, Carter, Dobbs, Kent, Wilson and all the rest.

It’s hard to explain……it’s just Tennessee!

 

[amstelman]

Because I went there.
Because I'm a native Tennessean.
Because of the excitement of game day. (yeah it's faded some)
Because Dad hated Vanderbilt.

 

[Volprofch05]

Been a faculty member at UT for > 15 years, was a fan from day one, but have been roped in more over the years.

Though I’m a transplant who had barely set foot in TN before turning 30, my kids are born and raised here and are all Vol (for better or for worse….).

 

[Volprofch05]

Physics

That is right next door!

 

[norrislakevol]

Many family ties to the University and was born and raised in East Tennessee.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

Born within sight of Neyland across the river in the recently demolished Baptist Hospital... Took Cumberland Ave. to get to my home in Bearden. Grew up with lots of friends of the family serving as ushers at UT games and took in a lot of games in the immediate post john Majors years I think starting in 59'. Early family season tickets is Section V in the dry After they added in the upper deck, but I did not sit there often.

Best gig I had was serving as a heart attack spotter for the Red Cross my Soph and JR years in HS. A Coach from Bearden left teaching and took over the Red Cross, and was also in the family friend class. In a white jacket, white hat with a cross on it and a walkie talkie you can go anywhere in the stadium. Free hotdogs from a room in the N. wall of Section A during the horseshoe years. Shared several with Andy Holt as he made it a practice to come by and thank folks for their efforts. Super nice guy.

In my younger not so cute fat kid years arriving with some of the head ushers early in the day, I got to ride some walking horses, the Army mule and a quick spin in the Rambling Wreck. Their station was the dead south endzone when everything entered there, including the visiting team. I count myself among the luckiest ever Vol fan's for these experiences....

It all came to an end when I had to work Saturdays as a SR and then went off to college rather than live at home and commute..... Great deal while it lasted.

 

[vader]

Grew up in west TN and got my degree at UTK

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Born into it, but not in a rabid way. No indoctrination, no enticement, not really even much encouragement. I simply grew up in a house where my dad (and, more and more over time, my mom) loved following Tennessee football. Could count on them listening to the game on the radio every week.

So if I was out on the carport helping my dad work on the car, I was de facto listening to the game with him. He never said, "hey, you gonna come listen to the game with me later?" the way a dad or mom might today. At most, he only said, "shush, I'm listening to the game."

So I became a fan by slow osmosis, up to the age of 10 or so.

Then I got to go to my first game, as a reward for our Pop Warner team winning the county championship. Being in Middle Tennessee (Tullahoma), it wasn't that easy to get to a game. You had to really want to. It was against Penn State, and we won. And the players looked about 30' tall. And we got to run out on the astro turf and shake some of their hands after the game.

That's all it took. I was solid hooked from that day on.

But I'd been getting the slow immersion for years before that.

Go Vols!

 

[Volprofch05]

We moved to Columbus from Knoxville when I was 16 because my dad was offered a better position at OSU. I was so upset when we moved, I despised the Buckeyes. But I tried to give them a chance but never felt a connection. Still a Vol to this day.

Faculty members sure move around a lot. At one point, 4 out of the 6 people hired before me in my department had left for another institution. Never understood that. Sure, there are things that could be better, but I’m happy to be in it for the long haul here. Plus, I agree that the Buckeyes suck!

 

[AF_VOL]

I usually post this every couple of years. It was written over 25 years ago by Jake Vest (a UT alumni) of the Orlando Sentinel. I think it embodies what makes Volunteer fans so passionate. All of us have stories on why/how we became UT fans. Not everyone has attended the University, but for many, UT football has always been a part of life. It's the memories we share with family and friends that makes us fans. GO VOLS!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Afternoons With Pappaw, 'Rocky Top' Nurture A Vol

"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, 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."

December 30, 1995|By Jake Vest of The Sentinel Staff
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[VOLnMiami]

I thought this would be cool to see some good stories.

Mine: I was born in Georgia and have been a lifelong resident here. My father was born and raised in Tennessee. I've been a UT fan since birth you can say.

Born at the University of Tennessee hospital...My first diaper was orange and white...I never say it is a right, I say it is a previlege to be born a VOL fan...Almost 57 years and going strong!

 

[Pacer92]

Born in rural Middle Tn back when it was the only way...the only team.

 

[OldandStillaVol]

Grew up outside of Knoxville. I have 2 brothers but none of us were really close to each other because of large age gaps. Despite that, UT football was something we all followed and could talk about. That is still true; we can discuss the Vols among ourselves for hours.

 

[Vol49er]

Won’t be as cool/monumental as many folks’ stories I’m sure, but my dad took me to the 2008 MS State game when I was 9. I was very casually interested in the Vols before then, but when Eric Berry got that pick and weaved through MS State and took it back for a score, I was in awe. Have been a huge fan since, and graduated from UT in May only has made that more true.

 

[Vol Farmer]

My dad graduated from UT in 1950 via the GI Bill. I can remember my parents going to games with him wearing a coat and tie and mother in heels and dress. My first game was watching Bobby Majors returning punts. I still have several of the Smokey’s Tails reports of the games that would come in the mail. Took my Daughters to their first game at four and five years old dressed up like UT Cheerleaders. No better place on earth than Knoxville on game day!! GBO

 

[Iam4utalways]

Thrill of Victory!

 

[wboro33]

because i was raised in big orange country and i love big orange country and i live in big orange country!! GBO or GTFO!! how u like me now!!

 

[VOLS INC.]

Most of my family was born in Alabama. My Aunt was born in Tennessee. When we would visit family, she always wore her orange. Took me to a game when I was little. As soon as I saw the sea of Orange and felt Vols football in the air, I was All Vol! Never looked back