Something Nice - Tennessee To realize just how enormous Neyland Stadium really is, stand at it's base on it's Southeast corner, and look up. It has to be the tallest stadium in the world. Now turn around, walk across the street, and go into a restaurant named Calhoun's. Have some BB-Q and a few beers and go back over to the stadium and look up again (It will still look the same, but you'll feel a hell of a lot better). Neyland Stadium is indeed huge. It's the largest football stadium in the country. Please don't give me any of that nonsense about Michigan's stadium and it's expansion. I don't care if the Wolverines add 50,000 more seats, it still won't be bigger than Tennessee's. Neyland is a true stadium. Michigan's is a glorified hole in the ground (I drove by the thing twice without noticing it and I was looking for the damn place!). As far as expansions go, Neyland has had more additions than Dean Martin has had cocktail parties. In order to reach it's current capacity of 102,544 there have been a total of 15 expansions. 102,544 seats sure is a long way from their previous home, Wait Field. The field (and I use that word loosely), was a hard packed, gravel filled, mess. It was used up until 1920, when a section of the bleachers collapsed and the place was deemed unusable. W.S Shields, the president of City National Bank in Nashville, offered to pay off the debt the University would have to incur to purchase land for a new stadium. He had one catch, the university had to match his gift of $22,453 and use the money to prepare the playing field and build a stadium. In celebration of the gift, Dr. H.A. Morgan, the school's president cancelled classes on March 16, 1921. He then asked for volunteers to use the day off to help work on the field. Over 2,000 people showed up. 50,000 yards of dirt was used to fill in the place (like Georgia's Sanford Stadium, it was built in a ravine) and by the end of the day the field and track around it, were about finished. Three days later Tennessee and the University of Cincinnati played a college baseball game on it. The stadium was known as Shields-Watkins Field (the Watkins comes from his wife. Her maiden name was Alice Watkins), up until 1962. That is when it was re-named Neyland Stadium at Shields- Watkins Field. It was named after General Robert Neyland (Yes, he was a real General), who coached at UT on three different occasions (1926-'34, '36-'40 and '47-'52). During these periods he compiled a 173-31-12 overall record and a 62-15-5 SEC record. Neyland's tough disciplinary style of coaching made him a legend. One of my favorite stories involving Neyland comes from Austin White, former sports editor of the News-Free Press in Chattanooga, and goes back to the 1951 Cotton Bowl. UT placekicker Pat Shires had just missed an extra point that would've tied the game against Texas. With five minutes left in the contest, Shires walked to the sidelines with tears streaming down his face. Neyland walked over to him and said loudly enough for the rest of the team to hear, "Don't worry son, we didn't come here to tie". Here's what White wrote about that moment: "Prophetic or not, the General's consoling words brought the Tennessee bench to it's feet. And ultimately, Texas to it's knees." The Vols went on to win 20-14. Through the years, Neyland Stadium has seen it's share of great games: -In 1959, less than one week after their famous 7-3 win over Ole Miss, the LSU Tigers brought their 19 game win streak to Shields- Watkins Field. Not only did the Bayou Bengals have a win streak going, they had a streak of 38 straight quarters without allowing an offensive touchdown. With a 7-0 halftime lead, both of these streaks looked safe for LSU, but the second half would yield some strange results. The Vols came out of the lockeroom and scored two quick touchdowns. When the Vols stopped the LSU offense on the next possession, it looked like the Vols might run away with things, but it would only get more interesting. On the punt, the ball glanced off of UT returner Johnny Majors and the Tigers recovered the ball at the UT 2 yard line. LSU quickly scored a touchdown, but their attempt at two-point conversion came up inches short. Billy Cannon had gotten the call, but came up just shy of the goal (with Majors making up for his miscue, by coming up strong with support on the tackle). LSU would later block a UT punt and threaten again, but unlike the week before, it was Cannon's turn to play the goat. From the Vol 12 yardline, Cannon took a handoff and for a split-second, appeared to break free with nothing but endzone in front of him. But he forgot one thing, the ball. Cannon fumbled and UT recovered and were able to hold on for a 14-13 win. -In the late 1960's, the college football world (and pro sports for that matter) was hit with a major disease called Artificial Turf Envy. It seemed like every school was replacing their beautiful natural grass for this plastic substance. UT was hit by the bug early, as head coach Doug Dickey had Tartan Turf placed on the field the Summer before the 1968 season. Tennessee was the first SEC school to do this and was met with some resistance. Georgia athletic director Joel Eaves (who's team was scheduled to open the season at Neyland),was livid over the Vols decision. Eaves had this to say about the new turf, "It's a radical move that should have been considered by the conference. Why didn't Tennessee bring this matter up when all of us met at Biloxi in May?. No one from Tennessee mentioned the possibility of installing such a field. No one knows anything about this field, what it's like when it's wet or anything else (Hey Joel, here's a hint: It can be slick as ice when wet. Hard as concrete when cold and hot as Hell when the weather is warm). We're thinking of voiding the contract." Tennessee AD, Bob Woodruff (Former UF head football coach) offered to send Georgia special shoes to wear for the game. UGA declined (which was probably a good idea. A year later Auburn's Shug Jordan asked for advice from UT on what kind of shoes to wear on artificial turf. UT wrote back and highly recommended a certain type of shoe. Jordan wasn't too amused to arrive on gameday and find the Vols wearing another kind). UGA agreed to honor the contract and showed up in Knoxville on Sept. 14th to play the Vols. They played well enough to hold a 17-9 lead with only seconds left in the game. >From the Dawg twenty, Vol QB, Bubba Wyche was able to find Gary Kries for a touchdown. The clock showed :00 when UT lined up for two. Wyche this time found Ken DeLong for the conversion. The first game ever on Doug's Rug ended in a 17-17 tie. -"The folks in Knoxville are happy. The folks who graduated from Tennessee are happy. The folks who live in Tennessee are happy. And all of those folks have every right to be happy. They lined up and beat us." Bear Bryant after UT's 35-28 win in 1982 Tennessee had lost 11 straight to Bama and this year it didn't look like much would change. Bama was ranked second in the nation, while UT came in with a mediocre 2-2-1 record. After leading 14-3 early, the Tide took a 21-13 lead into the lockeroom. But the second half was redemption time for Tennessee. When Vol fullback Chuck Coleman ran 34 yards for a TD, it gave UT a 35-21 lead with just over 7 minutes left. The Tide fought back and cut the lead to 35-28. They had the ball inside the Vol 20 with under a minute left, but UT defense end Mike Terry, intercepted a pass to seal the win for Tennessee. "I saw the ball pop loose. It was just hanging there for somebody to catch. Why not me? Glory to God. It was a precious apple." said Terry. The Gators' have met with mixed results in Neyland. UF lost their first 6 games played there, including the 1928 game that may have cost them a Rose Bowl bid. The Gators had a high scoring team that year and would eventually lead the nation in total points scored. The game was played on a frigid December 8th and the field was a very icy (some have accused UT of watering the field the night before the game) and UT won 13-12. It wasn't until 1954 that the Gators finally won in Knoxville, and ended their six game skid there. Since the end of that losing streak, the Gators have gone 4-3 at Neyland, including 1994's 31-0 win, which was UT's worst home loss ever to an SEC opponent. I'll be the first one to say, I'm not a huge Tennessee Volunteer fan. But I will say this, I respect their team, their tradition and that big damn place they call home. Knoxville on a Fall Saturday has it all, the Vol Navy, running through the T, Rocky Top and the biggest football stadium in the land. Ann Arbor can only wish they had a place like that.