Old timers..

[Nation]

Has there ever been a more tumultuous time in the UT program than right now? Being 35 I only go back so far. I remember the 86 sugar bowl but didn't really start following the in's and out's of the program till circa 1988.

I just can't believe it could be crazier than it is right now.

[real turf fan]

I was too busy studying to follow specifics, but when the moving vans showed up at Bill Battle's house, nobody was surprised. So I'll guess that there were some pretty deep emotions there for some east Tennesseean to put the money down for those vehicles.

[RockyTopCam]

Nation you're way too young to be as crazy as you are.

[Nation]

How exactly am I crazy? Not trying to turn this thread into something about me, just curious.

[LWSVOL]

Has there ever been a more tumultuous time in the UT program than right now? Being 35 I only go back so far. I remember the 86 sugar bowl but didn't really start following the in's and out's of the program till circa 1988.

I just can't believe it could be crazier than it is right now.

don't know about tumultuous, but I would venture to say we are sitting about where we were in 75-76 just before Majors got here. I'm afraid we are looking at a 10 year run like 75-85....

[RockyTopCam]

It was a joke. You get a lot of shit about being crazyor toonie. I feel like i'm in goodfellas now.

[Hermitagevol]

I'd say it was crazier when Dickey left UT to go to UF. He coached UT against UF in the Gator Bowl. I was only at the time, but people were pissed. UT lost and many people never forgave Dickey for that.

[Riversetvol]

General Neyland died in March of 62 and we went 4-6 that year. Bowden Wyatt was having personal problems and refused to ditch the single wing.

The summer of 63 Wyatt was fired for personal reasons and Bob Woodruff was named interim AD and Jim McDonald interim coach. We went 5-5 that year and the BOT after a tumultous meeting, named Woodruff AD and he hired Doug Dickey. The board was divided , one trustee Breezy Wynn, resigned when Murray Warmath, a former player was not hired.

Then in 65 my freshman year we had the terrible tragedy of the 3 coaches(Bill Majors, Bob Jones and Charley Rash) being killed the Monday after the Alabama game. Dicket did a masterful job of re-arranging staff responsibilties in the middle of the season.

[IamtheVolrus]

don't know about tumultuous, but I would venture to say we are sitting about where we were in 75-76 just before Majors got here. I'm afraid we are looking at a 10 year run like 75-85....

Ouch, those were tough years. :madfury:

[Nation]

don't know about tumultuous, but I would venture to say we are sitting about where we were in 75-76 just before Majors got here. I'm afraid we are looking at a 10 year run like 75-85....

Actually, I just wanted to see if I could spell tumultuous without the spell checker kicking it.

[LWSVOL]

Actually, I just wanted to see if I could spell tumultuous without the spell checker kicking it.

hope u got it right, I copied you.:cheer:

[tatar salad]

don't know about tumultuous, but I would venture to say we are sitting about where we were in 75-76 just before Majors got here. I'm afraid we are looking at a 10 year run like 75-85....

Coming from you, that's just about the most depressing thing I've read in a while.

[LWSVOL]

Coming from you, that's just about the most depressing thing I've read in a while.

if we aren't able to snatch some really good lineman in next 10 days or so, looking kind of bleak.. we are just so thin there it will take several years to get established.

[sangle wang]

Wyatt was frequently drunk and the episode of him throwing Alf Van Hoose into a swimming pool at the SEC meeting couldn't be ignored. He died very young at 51--as alcoholics often do. Drinking too much was the "manly" sort of thing for Neyland, Wyatt and Majors (and many others from those eras). It was part o fthe culture around college football and it was how they handled the stresses of the day.


Here's a nice old piece regarding Wyatt and Majors.


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867372,00.html


Warmath had a national championship at Minnesota in 1960 and had been in two Rose Bowls. Dickey was an assistant on the Frank Broyles All-Star Arkansas staff, but more importantly he had been a QB for new UTAD Bob Woodruff at Florida. If there had been internet in 1963, fans would've roasted Woodruff for bringing in an unknown outsider and personal protege from his own "other" school instead of a proven alum.

[Tnphil]

in my 5 1/2 decades of being a Vol fan this is the worst I remember as far as the coaching situation goes....Fulmer fired...CLK hired, brings in good staff....CLK leaves, takes most of good staff with him then and since.....hire Dooley, looking for coaches....some with ties to UT turns us down....etc...etc...etc...all this in a 14 month period..Yep, as screwed up as I have seen it....There has been trial's and turmoil, but in my opinion the last 14 months takes the cake...

[wagee12]

Circumstances are different than they were 30 years ago. Scholarship limits give a program an opportunity to rebound quicker now. I am also hearing that next year may be a slightly "up" year for in-state talent. It all depends on Dooley's recruiting and how quickly he can get a couple of signature wins that will attract the attention of marquee prospects.
It certainly would appear that Dooley is well known and is respected among high school coaches in the southeast. His years with Nick Saban should pay some dividends over the next few years in recruiting.
The main thing right now is to restock the lines on both sides of the ball. Linemen should be priority one over the next 12 days. If you can block and tackle better than the other team, you will probably win the game.
Dooley could have the program competing at a high level again by 2012, but a lot of very good things have to happen and he will need a little luck along the way as well.

[tatar salad]

Man, if ever we needed a 2-3 year stretch of above-average in-state talent, that time is starting now.

[Riversetvol]

Kyle,

I actually saw that game. That was the week we were ranked #1 after beating Tech the week before. However even though we won, Oklahoma passed us up and regained the #1 spot.

It would be 42 years, the week of the 98 Arkansas game, before we would be ranked #1 again.

[rocketcityvol]

Well, I wasn't around, or was too young at the end of it all, but I bet it was pretty tumultous when Wyatt succumbed to his issues and we had an interim coach one year. But, no internet, no talk radio, no ESPN...so, yes, this is the be all and end all of all time.

:au:

[rocketcityvol]

don't know about tumultuous, but I would venture to say we are sitting about where we were in 75-76 just before Majors got here. I'm afraid we are looking at a 10 year run like 75-85....

I dunno...with skollie limitations and the liberalized pass blocking rules, I think you can equalize much quicker than in the mid-seventies when guys like Bryant were stockpiling players just in many cases to keep them from going to play for their competition.

[Stoli]

Nice find Sangle Wang. I was a bit perplexed as to what I was reading until I scrolled back to the top of the page for the date.

[broadwayvol]

I have been around UT football for many years and nothing (absolutely nothing) comes close to what has taken place the past couple of weeks!

This fiasco is unparalleled in the history of UT.

[WestcoastVol]

don't know about tumultuous, but I would venture to say we are sitting about where we were in 75-76 just before Majors got here. I'm afraid we are looking at a 10 year run like 75-85....

The good news is, the Cherry Bowl and the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl are no longer in existence, so it won't be completely like that.

I'll never forget losing to Purdue in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. That was like the first televised bowl game UT had been to in a long time. Depressing.

[aurabass]

My first game was in 48

the worst I ever saw was attending the loss to Chattanooga back in the 50's
I watched them tear down our old wooden goal posts

Then there was drunken Bowden Wyatt and Jim McDonald
all of that pretty much sucked

but the worst I've seen is Phatass Philapotamus from 2002 thru 2008
because he gave us the taste of Top 10 NC wonder and then pissed it away like an old drunk with a crack habit.

this recent event is a massive absurdity but it beats watching Phil kill the program with a slow cancer of mediocrity
better to have a clean slate and some anticipation of better days to come than hanging on with that phat phuk Phil and dying just a little day by day and year by year

Just my humble opinion

[gatewayghost]

Wyatt was frequently drunk and the episode of him throwing Alf Van Hoose into a swimming pool at the SEC meeting couldn't be ignored. He died very young at 51--as alcoholics often do. Drinking too much was the "manly" sort of thing for Neyland, Wyatt and Majors (and many others from those eras). It was part o fthe culture around college football and it was how they handled the stresses of the day.


Here's a nice old piece regarding Wyatt and Majors.


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867372,00.html


Warmath had a national championship at Minnesota in 1960 and had been in two Rose Bowls. Dickey was an assistant on the Frank Broyles All-Star Arkansas staff, but more importantly he had been a QB for new UTAD Bob Woodruff at Florida. If there had been internet in 1963, fans would've roasted Woodruff for bringing in an unknown outsider and personal protege from his own "other" school instead of a proven alum.


Hey Wing, can you post another old article about the big orange. I'd like the Majors era if you got any more of those.

[Napervol]

I have been around UT football for many years and nothing (absolutely nothing) comes close to what has taken place the past couple of weeks!

This fiasco is unparalleled in the history of UT.

but things can change fast.

AS far as "absolutely nothing" matches our current situation....I would agree with River that firing a HOF and Coach of the Year, former Vol captain with General Neyland's death in the same time frame was worse. Not absolutely, but in the scheme of things...the man that invented UT football dies in that time frame with his protege getting canned is pretty high up there on the list.

Wyatt and Majors both adored Neyland to the point of emulating him and sometimes to their own bad consequences....and in Wyatt's case, refusing to change his offense had a lot to do with his firing as well as his drinking.

We, this board, as a group.....is being extremely melodramatic in all of this sheet.....things will keep changing and UT will be fine.

[rocketcityvol]

...and aurabass' "drunk with a crack habit" analogy was terrific.

[OrangeTex]

Garden state bowl is gone too....

No more Steve Alatorre passes in the frigid cold....

[rocketcityvol]

Wyatt was frequently drunk and the episode of him throwing Alf Van Hoose into a swimming pool at the SEC meeting couldn't be ignored.

I dunno...maybe he shoulda got a medal. I've read some of his stuff and he is part of the tradition of alabama media being nothing more than shills for the crimson tide. I guess bama press liked "a good steak and bottle of bourbon".

[Oracle]

Has there ever been a more tumultuous time in the UT program than right now? Being 35 I only go back so far. I remember the 86 sugar bowl but didn't really start following the in's and out's of the program till circa 1988.

I just can't believe it could be crazier than it is right now.

You have been saying you are 35 for the last 7 years. It's time to move on son.

[Voluble2]

I can't believe no one mentioned the time that Fulmer fucked that goat.:troll:

[Oracle]

[QUOTE=Voluble2;94373]I can't believe no one mentioned the time that Fulmer fucked that goat.:troll:[/QU

Was that before or after he was in the Mule Days Parade?

[HAWKVOL]

It was a joke. You get a lot of shit about being crazyor toonie. I feel like i'm in goodfellas now.

"I feel like i'm in goodfellas now"......LAughed my ass off

[HAWKVOL]

"this recent event is a massive absurdity but it beats watching Phil kill the program with a slow cancer of mediocrity
better to have a clean slate and some anticipation of better days to come than hanging on with that phat phuk Phil and dying just a little day by day and year by year "

[Checkered]

I dunno...with skollie limitations and the liberalized pass blocking rules, I think you can equalize much quicker than in the mid-seventies when guys like Bryant were stockpiling players just in many cases to keep them from going to play for their competition.

I agree. The late 70's were bad. We were bad and going nowhere. And it felt different then than it does now. Now, you feel that if you can put a good staff in place and have 2 or 3 years of good recruiting you can get back in the hunt. Turning a program around back then seemed a much more difficult and longer undertaking.

[englishvol]

Lets not forget how bad it was sitting in Neyland watching the Vols go 0-6 under Majors :wife:

[PitiFulmer]

You have been saying you are 35 for the last 7 years. It's time to move on son.

serious lolz right here

[egbert]

The good news is, the Cherry Bowl and the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl are no longer in existence, so it won't be completely like that.

I'll never forget losing to Purdue in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. That was like the first televised bowl game UT had been to in a long time. Depressing.

...and the defense let Purdue come right back to put them back over the top.