It’s wild to think about how many memorable passes have been thrown in Neyland Stadium: Condredge Holloway’s game-winning conversion to Larry Seivers in 1974 to beat Clemson, any of Peyton Manning’s passes to Joey Kent, Hendon Hooker’s five touchdown passes to Jalin Hyatt on the Third Saturday in October, the list goes on and on.
But what about sophomore engineering major Johnny Smith pelting junior business major Michael Wicks with a snowball in the winter of 2015?
I mean, if you could have seen the accuracy Smith’s snowball had traveling to the east sideline, you might’ve been calling for a quarterback change for the following season.
Or what about the textbook quarterback slide that freshman Jake Walls had? In fairness, though, that one may have been accidental and looked more like the Mark Sanchez “butt-fumble” on the slippery surface.
While those names are fictitious, the snowball fight sure wasn’t. The great Neyland Stadium snowball fight will live forever for a certain group of University of Tennessee students in 2015. A day full of snow and fun that ended with the police taking everyone out of the stadium.
With Knoxville under a massive blanket of snow at the time of this publication, there is perhaps no better time to revisit one of the great moments in Neyland Stadium history – that didn’t include the Vols.
Neyland Stadium Plays Host to Snowball Fight(s)
What’s funny is that the event in 2015 was actually the second straight year that students entered Neyland Stadium to play in the snow. Members of the Tennessee student body did so in February 2014, too.
While it’s well known that the 2014 snowball fight was broken up by police with some citations even being given out, legend has it that even then-quarterback Josh Dobbs was hanging out in the snow with his fellow classmates.
Group Pic with @josh_dobbs1 pic.twitter.com/twGTyntzeG
— Bishop Sycamore (@fakenewscnn94) February 13, 2014
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The Daily Beacon’s RJ Vogt reported in 2014 that the students were only on the field for about 20 minutes until the police came and that eight citations were handed out for either trespassing (6) or underage drinking (2).
Funny enough, Tennessee Football’s social media account posted a photo of a snow-covered Neyland Stadium just about 12-14 hours before the students eventually made their way in.
#VolNation send us your snow photos showing your #Vols pride! pic.twitter.com/fsG9wPGnbp
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) February 13, 2014
Neyland Stadium isn’t necessarily a fortress as some of these brand-new NFL stadiums are.
The stadium was originally completed in 1921 and continued to grow and grow as expansion engulfed nearby buildings en route to the 100,000+ seat mega-structure that resides on the edge of the Tennessee River today.
That all being said, students have inevitably found ways in from time to time, through gates or over fences, to enter the legendary football venue. It’s unclear how the students in either 2014 or 2015 got into the stadium, but they sure did.
Almost exactly one year after the 2014 snowball fight, it happened again.
In late February 2015, students made their way back into Neyland Stadium during a huge snowstorm.
#NeylandSnowballFight This time without arrests… http://t.co/Baov6eHI0A pic.twitter.com/KurHb975vN
— 106.1 The River (@river106) February 26, 2015
Tennessee’s grounds crew couldn’t have been happy with all the activity. Despite the padding of snow between the shoe and the grass, the footprints could still leave a lasting mark when everything melted away sometime later. But, nonetheless, the big snowball fight left a lasting mark on the students involved, for better or for worse.
It’s not hard to imagine that a full decade after the 2014 snowball fight, Tennessee’s administrators have a tight lid on Neyland Stadium. But… would it really surprise anyone if some of the students were at least thinking about it?
Fortunately for U.T., classes haven’t started just quite yet.
Oh, by the way, this is not Rocky Top Insider telling anyone to go have a snowball fight in Neyland Stadium. Tickets await those who do!
