It was a hot, clear September day with temperatures hovering in the upper 90’s — a rarity in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dad smiled as we drove toward the University of Tennessee, his alma matter. He was from nearby Maryville and had graduated from UT in 1959. The man’s blood ran orange. My blood was about to boil from the heat.
Dad maneuvered our 1963 Pontiac Catalina, Big Red as we called it, to the Ag Campus. That’s where we’d park and take the shuttle to the stadium. At least that was our plan. We saw the hoard of people and looked back at our car. We joined the herd and headed to where you picked up the shuttle.
We were all in now.
It was my first UT football game. Neyland Stadium had just been enclosed and now sat 98,000 orange-clad fans. I’m not sure anyone was ready for the resulting crush of fans because shuttles were few and far between. One pregnant lady said she was going to fake labor to get a ride quicker. My dad said he was going to use me to get on a bus.
“I’m 12, dad. It won’t work.”
“Well fall down and pretend to pass out.”
We pushed like salmon swimming upstream toward the stadium. When we finally made it, we watched as the Georgia Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers warmed up. (Considering it was 98 degrees, they should have been plenty warm.) I looked around at the stadium with awe. Neyland soars 14 stories into the sky. The noises, the sights and the smells lit up my senses. By the end of the first quarter, they had run out of Coke. By halftime, there was no ice. By the third quarter, the Vols led the Bulldogs. It was very, very hot.
My dad asked me if I was having fun. I nodded. Hell yeah I was having fun! Tennessee had the game in hand until Vince Dooley put in a freshman running back named Herschel Walker — who promptly ran over Bill Bates.
Georgia won the game and then went on to win the National Championship. But the loss didn’t discourage me. My blood was turning orange.
I leaned over and told Dad, “I am going to school here.” Six years later, I did.
That was September 6, 1980 — 39 years ago to the day I will be receiving an UT Alumni Professional Achievement Award a few hundred yards away in the student center.
Most days I can’t remember where my car keys are, but I know exactly where our two seats are. I found them the last time I went to a UT game. This Saturday, I’ll be taking my 12 year old to the game. But we’ll be sitting in much more posh seats. We’ll be sitting in the skyboxes, not where Dad and I sat nearly four decades ago.
It will be fun to watch my youngest son’s reaction to everything. I know he’ll catch every detail – The band, the team, the cheerleaders and the crowd. And if he looks closely enough this Saturday, he might see his late grandfather’s spirit sitting next to us.
I still get depressed/mad about that game. Gave it away and UGA wins a national championship. My day was Alabama in 1968. A nail bitter but we won. Get that boy out of the skybox and let him take in the sights, sounds and smells. It will be a bit of a throw back Saturday with all the beer drinking.