Why are you a Vol fan?

#101
#101
NO SIR EEE said:
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.
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My uncle played for UT under majors. My cousins and I used to flags cars in when there were parking lots on game days on the strip. John Chavis spoke at my uncles funeral. Many Vols have eaten at my grandparents house. Neyland is Home.
 
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#105
#105
NO SIR EEE said:
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.
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I was born and raised in KY, their basketball made me hate them 🤣. I've lived in Georgia since January 1st 1999, but their fans made me hate them!🤣 That said, you see that orange ring around my pupil? God intended for me to be a Vol!IMG_20210824_203304005.jpg
 
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#107
#107
NO SIR EEE said:
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.
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Raised in Knoxville and I love CFB. Every other answer is probably related to those two facts.
 
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#108
#108
My Great Grandpa settled at Campbell's Station (now Farragut) then moved to the Sequatchie Valley...Always been a Tennessee boy. The worst kind of Bama fan is a Tennessee traitor! I'm staying the course.
 
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#111
#111
AF_VOL said:
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!

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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
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Every single time I get to the part about the trees trying to out-pretty each other, I get goosebumps. This is a very welcome tradition. Thank you for posting it again.

Go Vols!
 
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#112
#112
All my family is from southeast Tennessee. My dad was in the Army so we moved a lot but we always called southeast Tennessee home. When my dad went to Vietnam all of our family (dad’s side and mom’s side) took extra special care and attention to me, very blessed. My dad’s dad was a very quite man and he very rarely showed any emotion. One particular Saturday he invited me over for lunch that grandma cooked and after lunch my grandpa and I went out to the front porch. My grandpa turned on the radio and I listened to my first Vols football game and watched my quite grandpa transform to a loud and crazy man, I was hooked. I will never forget and now 52 years have passed and I still love, no matter were I am or what I am doing when “It’s football time in Tennessee “ Go Vols!!
 
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#116
#116
MichaelT said:
Same here. Can’t root for anyone but the Vols no matter what they put me through.
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My dad took me to Neyland Stadium for the first time when Billy Graham came to Knoxville with Richard Nixon. I have been coming back ever since. Got two degrees from Rocky Top. You don’t get to choose who your team is - it chooses you. Here’s hoping the dark days are fading and a new era is beginning.
 
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#118
#118
vols 30 said:
Born in East TN, so it was there from birth.

The fans born here that decided to be Florida or Bama fans are the worst kind of fans.
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Because I was born and raised in Tennessee. These idiots born in Tennessee who claim to be Alabama fans, (they’ve never even been to Tuscaloosa,) or, in days gone by Florida fans, pleeez! No character!!
I’ve lived in Alabama since 1996, but my blood runs as orange today as it did in 1975!
 
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#119
#119
I can walk down the street and can take a picture of Grudens field tomorrow.

The field they played the first nfl game is across the street.

that gives me hand.
 
#120
#120
MichaelT said:
My dad took me to Neyland Stadium for the first time when Billy Graham came to Knoxville with Richard Nixon. I have been coming back ever since. Got two degrees from Rocky Top. You don’t get to choose who your team is - it chooses you. Here’s hoping the dark days are fading and a new era is beginning.
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My dad took me up to the top of the physics building and we could see the Graham/Nixon event from up there.
 
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#121
#121
Born into Vol fandom and saw my first Vol game in Nashville, and was told I was quite a pill when parentstraveled to Knoxville or elsewhere to attend Vol games. Started going to UT games during Bowden Wyatt years, paid my dues often sitting in Section X (?) and bleachers but fail to recall awhen i graduated to one of the Section R seats. Sold cokes at games in early Dickey years, stayed wed to Big Orange through trips home and by radio while away at college. Became huge basketball fan early as we got season shortly after arrival Ray Mears.


Mom and Dad were both UT alums, and dad returned to UT to earn a graduate degree. Dad got chance to return home in 1957. Dad was born in Knoxville and his family has been wed to Tenneesse and Knoxville since Tennesee broke away from NC. Dad became avid Vol football fan in 1930s.. Mom moved to Knoxville in 30s, and her parents soon became season-tickdet holders.

Work brought me to Alabubba in 1982, and my Vol fandom jumped exponentially, Diagnosed with BVS by Bham doc (and UT Med Schoo,grad) during Dooley years
 
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#124
#124
Grew up here in Ohio watching the Vols. I was around 10 during the Manning years. Love the color Orange. Always favored the south since i was young. Tennessee football always facinated me and most of my life Tennessee's been good. Told my wife hey lets shoot down for a game. Came down in 2010. Been hooked since.
 
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#125
#125
My mother and father didn't want me after a few years. I was put into a different home that I didn't like. I became withdrawn to the point of not wanting to live. I turned the radio on and heard John Ward broadcasting a Tennessee basketball game. After that I never miss a broadcast. Football or basketball.....It became my outlet and saved my life. So the phrase " die-hard" Tennessee fan has a whole different meaning to me. At 61 years old, I'll always be a VFL. Whether 0 wins or however many...
 
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