‘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 had to prove themselves.
For those who did, there were great rewards.
Col. Thomas French Elam of Union City, the long-time trustee and athletics board member, always loved telling this story about local player Stockton Adkins.
In June 1988, Doug Dickey had “suggested,” that I go to Union City to assemble a VOLUNTEERS Magazine story about Elam titled “King of the Hill.”
There are three ways to get from Knoxville to Union City, none of which is easy, one going through portions of Central and Western Kentucky. It’s an all day trip, regardless of the route.
There was a Friday morning interview, lunch at the Rotary Club, and a couple of hours back at his office before finishing the interview and heading home.
During his undergraduate days at Tennessee, the Colonel had been involved in a number of campus activities, capping his career as the editor of the 1931 Volunteer yearbook.
“I was the associate editor of the annual in 1929-30,” Elam remembered. “The group that put the annual together wanted to dedicate it to Maj. Neyland. I said that would be putting too much emphasis on athletics, and I sold them on that idea.”
But that was not the end of the story, said Elam.
“Guess who the annual was dedicated to in 1931, the year I was editor? I was determined that my annual was going to be dedicated to him.” And it was.
From those humble beginnings, he became close enough to Neyland that he could offer advice, mostly unsolicited, about recruiting and other matters.
There aren’t many people connected with the Vol program who could have gotten away with that, but Elam always firmly believed in the scriptural injunction, “You have not because you ask not.”
In the mid-1950s, Elam had a strong suspicion that Atkins could have a significant impact on the Vol football program.
He queried Neyland about the possibility of putting Stockton on scholarship and received a quick and terse response.
“Neyland looked me in the eye with that cold, piercing stare, and these are the words he said: ‘You country son-of-a-gun, what the heck do you think you know about recruiting a football player?’”
Neyland’s question brought a quick rejoinder.
“I told him I did not categorize myself as a football scout or recruiter. I said, ‘I know this boy, and he can play football for you. You’ll make a mistake if you don’t take him.’”
Then came the clincher, as Elam offered a “money back guarantee.”
“If you do take him, and he doesn’t pan out, I’ll pick up the tab on his scholarship.” I don’t think that was illegal in those days.
The crafty old colonel, the self-described “shade tree lawyer,” knew whereof he spoke. Atkins did come to Tennessee and started at blocking back in 1956 and 1957.
Fulfilling Elam’s promise to Neyland, Atkins won the Jacobs Trophy, emblematic of the SEC’s best blocker, in both seasons, playing at 5-10, 183 Pounds.
“It was nice of him to do that,” Stockton said in a 1988 interviews. “It surprised me when I heard about it. It didn’t suit me too well at first, because I didn’t want anybody to give me anything. I appreciate him helping give me the opportunity. I wouldn’t take anything for that experience. He was as good to me as anybody in my lifetime.”
This is merely one of a number of vintage Tom Elam stories highlighting a lifetime of influencing significant events across Big Orange Country.
He often recalled the Nov. 23, 1963, Saturday afternoon he first met Dickey, about a week before Bob Woodruff named Dickey the university’s new head football coach.
The two men steadfastly disagreed on the location of the meeting. Elam was firmly convinced that he and wife, Kathleen, drove to Memphis to meet Dickey, while Dickey is equally convinced he flew from Fayetteville, Ark., directly to Union City to do so. Such are the vagaries of history. Journalists Tom Siler (Knoxville News-Sentinel)) and Russ Bebb (Knoxville Journal), each of whom have covered and written histories of the Vols, agreed with Elam.
What did result was Elam being exceptionally impressed with Dickey.
“He made an impression on me, and I was sold. Once I have a firm impression, I stay with it.”
Those stories and many more came out of an interview on a Friday in June 1988, We sat in his law office at Elam, Glasgow, Tanner & Acree in downtown Union City, a long way from Knoxville. Elam held court for nearly five hours offering insight into nearly 60 years of the history of the University of Tennessee. Memories are made of such moments.
Elam came as close as anyone to being a “one-question” interview. You just asked the right question and kept that tape rolling.
