‘Likely to be in the record books forever’
By Tom Mattingly
How do fans react when their team loses a game and doesn’t make a first down? That’s the story for today, harking back to Sept. 28, 1958, on Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. An announced crowd of 46,000 gathered for the season opener for both teams.
Over the recorded years of Tennessee football, there have been those games that have caught the attention of Vol fans… and not in a good way. Take, for example, the 2024 Ohio State game (a 42-17 loss), the 2022 South Carolina game (a 63-38 loss), and the 1969 Ole Miss game (a 38-0 loss), all games that put a damper on otherwise successful seasons.
That day will long live in infamy in the recorded history of Tennessee football. No Vol fan woke up in a good humor the next morning. Looking back 67 years, there are all kinds of angles present for history-minded Vol fans.
“Auburn’s late push trips Vols, 13-0,” read the Knoxville News-Sentinel’s headline. Red Bailes had the byline. Ed Harris’s byline in his Knoxville Journal game story was, “Wyatt Seeks Offense To Support Gritty Vol Defense.”
One glaring statistic tells the whole story.
First downs: Auburn 11, Tennessee 0.
You read that one right. It was a full 60 minutes of football, without the Vols moving the chains even once – not by rushing, not by passing, not even by penalty. It hasn’t happened since in the annals of major college football. Even in games that turn out to be complete and total mismatches, the losing team still manages to convert more than a few first downs.
That day, Red Grange and UT’s own Lindsey Nelson were on the broadcast for NBC. Nelson knew this drill well. He had been on the air for NBC in 1953 with Mel Allen, the legendary “Voice of the New York Yankees.”
Bowden Wyatt, captain of the 11-0 1938 Vol squad and twice a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, had compiled a 24-7-1 record in his first three years back in Knoxville, with the SEC title and No. 2 national ranking being the big prize two years earlier.
As always, Tennessee fans were looking for big things from their team. As it turned out, the Vols were definitely playing with a short stick.
Russ Bebb (“The Big Orange,” 1973) wrote that “there was a glaring weakness, and it was at the worst possible position – the sensitive tailback post.” There was no shortage of candidates. Carroll Young had seen little action a year earlier. George Wright and three sophomores, Bill Majors, Gene Etter, and Bobby Finley. added to the list. Those names did not, however, seem to strike fear in the hearts of Vol opponents.
Russ called it an “all-time low” for the Vols and the single wing. The Vols had minus–49 yards rushing and 19 passing.
“The only thing we can do now is start from scratch and try to get an offense going,” said Wyatt, described by Bebb as “dejected. “The ball carriers didn’t have a chance. The blocking wasn’t there. As everybody could see, we simply couldn’t move the ball. So, we had to kick and scratch, and that’s what we did.”
This was in the early days of television timeouts, something that was so new that it occasionally got in the way of the ebbs and flows of the game, much the way it happens today.
Tiger loyalist David Housel reported one comment made by Auburn center Jackie Burkett, stopped from snapping the ball because the game was in a commercial break.
“Listen here, mister,” said Burkett said to the SEC referee on duty. “We came here to beat Tennessee, and ain’t no dad-blamed TV commercial going to stop us.”
The Auburn game led to an up-and-down season. The Vols defeated Mississippi State at Crump Stadium in Memphis 13-8. End Murray Armstrong scored both Vol touchdowns, one on an interception return, the other on a 15-yard TD pass from Majors with only 61 seconds to go.
The Vols lost to Georgia Tech and defeated Alabama in Bear Bryant’s debut on Shields-Watkins Field. Then came losses to Florida State, North Carolina, and, of all people, Chattanooga. That led to a major fracas on the field after the game.
That put the Vols at 2-5, with a powerful Ole Miss squad coming into town for Homecoming. An announced crowd of 27,100 showed up and saw a major upset. Tennessee was a 14-point underdog, yet somehow won 18-16.
There were two major occurrences in the fourth quarter. Etter had a classic 76-yard run for the go-ahead score, despite leaving his shoe at midfield after escaping the grasp of a tackler. In the final minutes, Bob Khayat, a future University of Mississippi Chancellor, missed a gimme field goal at the South end.
The season ended at 4-6, with a loss to Kentucky and a win over Vanderbilt.
In the bright light of recollection, however, the Auburn game that season will probably be the grist for bar bets and other reasoned discussions of Vol football.
When was the last time Tennessee didn’t make a first down in any game, home or away?
Now you know.
