By Steve Hunley School Board Follies Last week, the Knox County Board of Education had some 60 people sign up to speak. What do you suppose had folks all stirred up? Test scores? Curriculum? None of the above. It was, yet again, masks. It seems like nothing has...
By Steve Williams Lee Beeler scored the first touchdown on Central High’s new football field in 1971. “It’s a record that never will be broken … my claim to fame,” said Lee recently in a light-hearted manner as he reflected on that historic opening game and team of 50...
By Ray Hill Most figures in history are ephemeral and float through the pages of books only fleetingly. Some never even make the footnotes of history, yet probably should. There are any number of historical figures which were larger than life, the subject of...
By John J. Duncan Jr. After I took the Bar Exam in July of 1973, I spent almost all my time at the Knox County Courthouse watching jury trials. I had watched several trials in my Uncle Joe’s court in earlier years while I was in undergraduate school at UT and...
By Dr. Jim Ferguson There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries. -- Brutus from William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” In 42 BC, Rome...
By Harold A. Black This is not a politically correct article. For the life of me I can’t figure out how things that are so politically incorrect are labelled as being “politically correct.” My friends on the left will probably tell me that I am a bigot but it...
By Tom Mattingly The year was 1971, 50 years ago. Neyland Stadium seated 64,429, with a new southwest upper deck scheduled to open in 1972. Fifty years is an eternity by anybody’s standards, but for veteran Vol fans, 1971 was an amazing time, a season that had enough...
By Ken Lay The 2021 high school football season is three weeks old and Farragut High School is still in search of its first victory. But longtime Admirals head coach isn’t discouraged. “These kids continue to slowly get better,” Courtney said after Farragut dropped...
By Ralphine Major The first news report I heard said Knoxville. The next one, Corryton. A third identified him as a Gibbs High School graduate. United States (U.S.) Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss was one of the 13 American heroes who died in the recent attack on...
By Mike Steely Senior Writer steelym@knoxfocus.com “Over 2,200 more people voted early in-person in 2021 than in 2017, with New Harvest Park being the site with the most voters,” Chris Davis, Knox County Election Coordinator, told The Focus Friday. Davis attributed...
Since 1982, Smoky Mountain...
By Steve Williams Karns is...
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More than 20 volunteers...
By Adam Sullivan It’s not...
Rosie Moore celebrated her...