by design | Dec 30, 2024 | Columnist, Mattingly
December Saturdays to Remember By Tom Mattingly Rarely have three consecutive December Saturdays been as significant as Dec. 4, Dec. 11, and Dec. 18 were in 1965, following a successful Tennessee football season. These were December Saturdays that forever changed the...
by design | Dec 23, 2024 | Columnist, Mattingly
Two games in one night By Tom Mattingly Ray Mears did not come up with all the gimmicks surrounding Tennessee basketball by himself. Ray did his share, but one of the more interesting ways to try to get people in the seats at the Armory-Fieldhouse came in the...
by design | Dec 16, 2024 | Columnist, Mattingly
‘A basic flaw in the college game’ By Tom Mattingly “There is a basic flaw in the college game, one that courses through its body like an infection. It is called recruiting, and it is the bane of college football.” Sports Illustrated’s John Underwood (Nov....
by design | Dec 9, 2024 | Columnist, Mattingly
Defense by DeLong, Steve and Keith By Tom Mattingly If you wanted to go to war on the gridiron, you’d need to have Steve DeLong on your side. Steve DeLong could play the game… and play it at a high level. Steve died Aug. 18, 2010, at age 67, but left Vol fans a...
by design | Dec 2, 2024 | Columnist, Mattingly
‘He was as good to me as anybody in my lifetime’ By Tom Mattingly Over the years, it hasn’t mattered how players ended up at Tennessee to play football. It didn’t matter who you were, or what your “credentials” were. Once players arrived in Knoxville, they...
by design | Nov 25, 2024 | Columnist, Mattingly
‘There’s no hero like the first hero’ By Tom Mattingly There’s no hero like the first hero, the saying goes. The passage of time cannot erase the memories that begin at a young age and continue across the years. Throughout the years, schoolboy football...
