This Week in UT Sports History is a weekly column written by RTI columnist Lexie Little
Two weeks remain in the 2019 football season. With one more win, the Tennessee Volunteers (5-5, 3-3 SEC) will be bowl eligible for the first time since 2016. In the program’s history, the Vols hold a record of 28-24 in bowl games with the largest victory (45-6) coming against Northwestern in 2016.
As for basketball, Kellie Harper’s Lady Vols (4-0) took down No. 15 Notre Dame (2-2) in South Bend last week, winning 74-63. The men (3-0) traveled to Canada for a neutral site match-up with No. 20 Washington (2-1), winning 75-62 on Saturday.
As the programs continue to build on tradition, take a look back at prior standout moments in “This Week in UT Sports History.”
Nov. 23, 1968
Nearly 61,000 fans ventured to Neyland Stadium around 4:45 p.m. for a late season match-up against Kentucky in 1968. The No. 8 Vols (6-1-1) were coming off a 31-0 victory against Ole Miss and had moved up three spots in the AP Poll. Wide receiver Lester McClain led the charge for the Vols with two touchdowns against Kentucky on the way to a 24-7 victory.
McClain took the field as the first African American football player at Tennessee earlier that season. He made his debut to a standing ovation against Georgia on Sept. 14, 1968 and went on to play for three years (freshmen were ineligible for varsity ball prior to the 1970s), gaining 1,003 receiving yards on 70 receptions. He picked up seven of those receptions against Kentucky that day.
Kentucky entered the game hopeless, having lost six Southeastern Conference match-ups. They would soon also lose coach Charlie Bradshaw, who announced his resignation midway through the season.
“Because UK’s hope of victory is small, many thoughts are directed at the future—at what will transpire after the final gun,” Courier Journal & Times staff writer Dick Fenlon said ahead of the game. “For Bradshaw, who will leave the university as soon as it decides on a man to replace him, things will be different.”
Different seemed to be the word of the day for the Wildcats. Tennessee installed artificial turf in 1968, requiring special cleats. Kentucky received shoes courtesy of UT athletics for the game. The turf seemed to trip up the Wildcats, whose run game remained stymied because of an injury to running back Dicky Lyons.
Tennessee’s Richmond Flowers held down the backfield for the Vols that season. A track star, Flowers tore his right hamstring while training at UT, missing the 1968 Summer Olympics. The Alabama native, once courted by Bear Bryant, scored the Vols’ sole touchdown against the Tide in a 10-9 victory. Flowers’ father, Richmond Flowers Sr., served as Alabama attorney general under segregationist Gov. George Wallace. Flowers opposed Wallace’s segregation policies and fought for integration in schools and universities, leading to scorn from Alabamans. The University of Alabama’s varsity football team did not integrate until 1971.
“I really wanted to get out of Alabama and get it behind me,” Flowers Jr. said in 1997 as quoted in a profile by Mike Sielski. “I didn’t want all that heavy stuff laid on me about politics and segregation and civil rights. I was a kid who wanted to be a kid.”
The Dallas Cowboys drafted Flowers in the second round of the 1969 NFL/AFL Draft. His story recently resurfaced with ESPN’s “Saturdays in the South” documentary series chronicling the history of SEC football.
The 1968 Vols closed out the season with another win against Vanderbilt before losing to No. 5 Texas in the Cotton Bowl.
Nov. 19, 1995
The 1995-96 Lady Vols opened their season with a 78-51 win against Virginia in Knoxville during the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic. The win marked the first of 14 at home that season. Pat Summitt’s squad only lost one game at home to rival Connecticut nearly two months later, ending a record home court winning streak of more than 60 games.
Prior to the match-up with Virginia, expectations remained rather low for the young squad. Little did critics know, freshman Chamique Holdsclaw would help propel the Lady Vols to their fourth national title by season’s end and a second and third consecutive title in 1997 and 1998.
Holdsclaw scored 13 points in the match-up against Virginia, second only to point guard Michelle Marciniak, who picked up 16 points. Marciniak averaged nearly 12 points per game on the way to the NCAA title.
The atmosphere in Knoxville seemed electric after No. 4 Louisiana Tech upset No. 1 UConn, 83-81, in overtime to end the Huskies’ 35-game winning streak—following a national title— in the first game of the tournament.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press lauded the Lady Vols’ feats.
“Tennessee posted a whopping 66-34 rebounding edge to run its home-court winning streak to 65 games,” the AP reported. “The Lady Vols led 31-21 at halftime and 45-34 with 12 minutes left when [Latina] Davis sparked a run that put it out of reach.”
Davis averaged 12.5 points per game during the 1995-96 season. She and the Lady Vols lost regular season games to only UConn, Stanford, and Georgia—the rest of the Final Four contestants that year—before the NCAA Tournament. They found redemption with a 5-point overtime win against Connecticut in the semifinals before handily beating Georgia, 83-65, for the national title.
The 2019-20 Lady Vols take on Stetson tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. in Knoxville. The game will be available for streaming on SECN+.
Nov. 19, 2000
Coming off a 22-point win against Chattanooga in Knoxville, the 2000-01 Vols looked to earn another in-state (and in-grand division) win against East Tennessee State University. The Bucs traveled to Knoxville, where the Vols handed them a 102-76 loss.
Tennessee, ranked No. 9 in the country, ran up the lead to 55-28 by halftime. Four minutes into the second half, the Vols led by 40 points, 71-31. The most significant statistic, however, was not the score. The teams combined for 53 fouls in the contest. The Vols finished 31-of-39 from the charity stripe while ETSU only managed to connect on 14-of-27.
Tennessee started the season 9-0 before a loss to Virginia, allowing the Cavaliers to pass the century mark in a 107-89 game. The Vols ended the season 22-11, losing five-straight in February ahead of the NCAA Tournament.
The 2019 Vols look to close out the decade with nine non-conference games including two in-state match-ups with Chattanooga and Memphis. Rick Barnes and the Volunteers return to Knoxville to face Alabama State at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
