Some indiscreet sniping from both sides
By Tom Mattingly
Over the years, the story of Tennessee football has been written by such journalists as Tom Siler, Russ Bebb, Ben Byrd, Marvin West, Haywood Harris and Gus Manning, Tony Barnhart, F. M. Williams and Jeff Hanna, Barry Parker and Robin Hood, Clay Travis, Ward Gossett, Jay Greeson and Stephen Hargis… and many more.
Media such as the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Tennessean (Nashville’s morning newspaper), and the Chattanooga Times-Free Press have also written about the Vol program with unquestioned zeal, on a daily basis and in special books about notable games and events.
I noticed one notable omission in their coverage at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. I had been in regular contact with John Park (Memphis), Allen Spain and Dr. Bill Harb (Nashville), and Barry Rice (Rogersville). They are hardcore Vol fans and professional Tennessee historians. They are inveterate collectors who regularly search the Internet for Vol “stuff.” Their collections are amazing.
Bill called one day last year and said he had bought a number of Tennessee-related football photos from the late 1940s. As I perused the collection, the picture attached to this story caught my attention.
The picture in question came from the season-opening 1946 Georgia Tech game, a key contest in the Vols’ drive to the SEC title. The Yellow Jackets were dressed in black jerseys and were heading off the field to the southeast corner of the field below Section F. That’s where the visitor’s dressing room was located in those long-ago days.
You didn’t know that? None of us did. Nobody alive today probably knows that. One of us had thought the visitors might have dressed somewhere in Alumni Gym, but not so.
We all know about the Vol dressing room under the East stands that was replaced starting with the 1983 LSU game by a new one at the North end. We also know about the visitor’s dressing area under the South stands, where visiting teams enter Shields-Watkins Field to a chorus of boos before each home game. That area has been in place since the 1948 stadium expansion that brought 15,000 seats to the “Home of the Vols.”
The question arises logically. If you’re going to host a football game, where does the visiting team dress out in preparation for the contest? Where do members of the media meet after the game to talk to visiting coaches and players? Return with us now to Sept. 14, 1968, and Nov. 1, 1969, both games against Georgia.
For example, Tennessee had not played Georgia in Knoxville since 1937 or in Athens since 1936, but it didn’t take long for things to heat up. The series got “hot” very quickly. Georgia athletic director Joel Eaves and Tennessee head coach Doug Dickey engaged in some indiscreet sniping in their remarks once the series was renewed.
Sports Illustrated (Dan Jenkins and photographer Walter Iooss, Jr.) covered the 1968 game. Controversy erupted about a TD catch by Gary Kreis seconds after the final horn sounded. It appeared, at least from the Georgia side, to have been dropped and therefore incomplete. That would have sealed a 17-9 Bulldog win. Tennessee fans accepted the call on the field and looked forward to the next week’s game. No replay was forthcoming.
The week after the game, Kreis received a letter from a fan that illustrated the feelings of Bulldog Nation.
“It’s never too late to right a wrong. Why don’t you confess?” the apparently peeved fan wrote. “She also told me to stay out of Georgia.” Kreis made the trip to Athens the next year without incident.
Eaves had also objected to Tennessee putting in artificial turf on Shields-Watkins Field without consulting with Georgia and the rest of the Southeastern Conference. He threatened to cancel the game.
In 1969, Dickey contended that Georgia’s dressing room and visitor media area were not up to SEC standards. That came during post-game interviews after a 17-3 Tennessee victory at Sanford Stadium.
“I want to say that this place is a disgrace for a Southeastern Conference school,” said Dickey in an Associated Press (AP) story on Nov. 2, 1969. “They criticized our field, but we did spend $200,000 to put in the field (Tartan Turf).” The AP writer did add that, “The quarters are extremely small, giving them a vintage look reminiscent of button shoes and derby hats.” That was a charitable assessment. (Tennessee’s visitor’s dressing area is nothing to write home about. Even now.)
All that posturing got the renewed series off to a rousing start 57 years ago. Things haven’t calmed down since, even if sportswriters don’t write very many stories about the condition of the field and dressing rooms across the ever-widening expanse of the conference.
John Park provided invaluable assistance in helping find Dickey’s remarks on Georgia’s dressing room and media areas from the Knoxville News Sentinel microfilm.
