KNOXVILLE – One of the benefits of football travel is to explore new landscapes—and a whole lot more. When Tennessee became a fixture on the Georgia schedule, there have been many side trips, which has allowed one to learn a few interesting facts about the history of the state.
With Tennessee’s elongated geography you realize Knoxville is nearer in driving distance to Columbus, Ohio (357 miles) than it is to Memphis (391 miles).
When UGA professor Ed Larson won a Pulitzer Prize for his book about the well-known Scopes Monkey Trial, which took place in Dayton, Tennessee, that brought about a trip to the site of the trial—to have lunch in the town and to visit the local settings that he wrote about in Summer for the Gods.
Ninety-one miles east of Knoxville is the community of New Victory, Tenn., where the Tester family gave up three sons during World War II. I learned of their tragic story while visiting an American cemetery in France one summer.
On a trip to Knoxville a few years later, I organized a trip from Knoxville to New Victory to see the memorial to the Tester brothers, taking along my long-time friend, Tennessee coach John Majors, and his friend Gene Hartman.
Playing Tennessee in 1908 brought about a one of those believe-it-or-not circumstances, which was told to Bulldog historian John Stegeman by former President Steadman Sanford, for whom the stadium was originally named.
An accomplished raconteur, one of Dr. Sanford’s favorite stories had to do with the time Georgia was engaged in a heated battle with Tennessee in Knoxville.
The game took place in 1908, and the Bulldogs, coached by Branch Bocock, were marching goalward. When a back swept end but came up a yard short of a touchdown, the partisan crowd was urging the Volunteers to “hold that line.”
Dr. Sanford, a young professor at UGA at the time and already an avid football fan, saw the players un-pile after the play—when suddenly the spectators swarmed the playing field.
According to Dr. Sanford’s story, a mountaineer in a long-frocked coat and a four-gallon hat suddenly pointed a .38 revolver in the face of Georgia quarterback Johnny Northcutt.
“The first man that crosses that line will get a bullet in his carcass,” the mountaineer drawled. But on the next play order and peace prevailed as Georgia fumbled and Tennessee recovered. Tennessee won 10-0, and this incident became known as the day Tennessee stopped Georgia with a .38.
Since the seventies, Tennessee fans have swooned to the playing of the bluegrass hit “Rocky Top.” Others are not so passionate. The history of how the song came about is quite interesting, however.
It was written by a songwriting couple, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, about a city dweller’s frustration over losing a “simpler and freer” existence in the hills of Tennessee. It took fifteen minutes for the duo to write the lyrics to the song.
Georgia fans will appreciate this version of one Tennessee fan’s passion for his favorite song. Seems that a Georgia aficionado and a Tennessee advocate were working for a contractor in the Middle East and were arrested for some trifling charges and sentenced to face a firing squad.
The ringleader of the group asked if they had a final wish. The
Tennessee guy, with great testimony, said a few things about his family and closed with, “I just want to hear ‘Rocky Top,’ one more time.”
The accusers then asked the Georgia man for his final wish.
He replied, “Shoot me first.”