There’s a flag on the play

  By Tom Mattingly Never was John Majors happier to see a flag dropped. It was Nov. 5, 1988, and the Vols had a one-game winning streak, after a win two weeks earlier at Memphis State. That doesn’t sound like much, but the Vols had dropped six in a row to start...

Another Elite Team

By Tom Mattingly When Vol fans discuss the great teams in Tennessee football history, several squads come quickly to mind, e.g., 1928, 1938, 1939, 1950, 1951, 1956, 1967, 1970, 1985, 1989, 1995 and 1998. Here’s one vote for the 1965 team to be included among those...

‘Trees in a Lynchburg Cemetery’

By Tom Mattingly For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That’s what teachers have told us over the years. In Moore County, if you did or said something Elizabeth Majors might not have liked, you were going to hear about it. That was just a fact of...

‘Hold that line’

By Tom Mattingly For fans who listened to University of Tennessee football broadcasts on WROL/ WATE/WETE, 620 on every AM radio dial, during the 1950s, 1960s, and even into the 1970s, there was some great locally produced Saturday football programming. Examples...

The Peyton Manning of his day

By Tom Mattingly Over the course of the University of Tennessee football program’s history, there are connections that aren’t readily apparent, but they make sense once you realize what they are and how they manifest themselves. These connections go back to the 1930s,...