Tennessee Volunteers
The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as a member of the Southeastern Conference. In January 2021, Danny White was introduced as the Volunteers' Director of Athletics.
Men's teams are called the Volunteers and women's teams are called the Lady Volunteers. These names come from the nickname of Tennessee, ''The Volunteer State.''
Overview
The Tennessee Volunteers have competed in the Southeastern Conference since its inception in 1932 and have consistently been at the top. The Vols have adopted a tradition for competing in every sport often resulting in many teams being ranked in the top 25. Tennessee has been known for its football and women's basketball programs that have both featured several famous coaches including Robert Neyland and Pat Summitt. Tennessee's football team won the first ever BCS National Championship Game and also represents the 9th winningest program in the NCAA. Tennessee women's basketball team won the 2007 and 2008 National Championships earning Pat Summit her eighth NCAA national title, which was at the time the most in college basketball. Overall Tennessee has won 158 regular season SEC championships, 41 SEC tournament championships, and 23 national championships in women's basketball, football, men's indoor and outdoor track & field, women's indoor and outdoor track & field, and men's swimming & diving. The only Tennessee sport that does not compete in the SEC is women's rowing which competes in Big 12. The rowing team formerly competed in Conference USA. They won the 2010 Conference USA rowing championship.Many of Tennessee's traditions come from the early 20th century. Tennessee's orange and white colors were selected by Charles Moore, a member of the first football team in 1891. They were later approved by a student body vote. The colors were chosen because of the common American daisy which grew on The Hill, an area of campus surrounding UT's most notable building, Ayres Hall. The orange color is distinct to the school, dubbed "UT Orange", and has been offered by The Home Depot for sale as a paint, licensed by the university. Home games at Neyland Stadium have been described as a "sea of Orange" due to the large number of fans wearing the school color; the moniker Big Orange, as in "Go Big Orange!", derives from the usage of UT Orange.
Tennessee adopted the name Volunteers, or more commonly Vols, because of a now-official nickname that Tennessee received due to their propensity to Volunteer for the army in large numbers at the outbreak of many early American wars. The origin of the name comes from the 1,500 Volunteers from Tennessee that made the trek to New Orleans to help Andrew Jackson in its Defense during the War of 1812. Then Davy Crockett and other Tennesseans Volunteered to help fight for the Republic of Texas in their war of Independence, and was further reinforced when, during the outbreak of the Mexican American War, U.S. President James K. Polk called for 2,600 Volunteers from Tennessee, however, over 30,000 men signed up instead. UT Football players would adopt the name as their unofficial nickname in 1891, and it would greatly grow in popularity when again Tennesseans Volunteered en masse to fight in the Spanish American War in 1896. The name was cemented after UT's 1902 victory against Georgia Tech when local sports media started using it. However, it wouldn't be until 1905 when the school adopted the Volunteers as its official nickname, as prior to then the athletic teams used the nicknames Tennesseans or Varsity to varying degrees.
The iconized 'T' that represents the men's Tennessee sports programs was introduced by Doug Dickey and then re-designed by Johnny Majors. The once-separate men and women's programs allowed the women's sports to adopt a separate identity apart from the men's by not only referring to themselves as the Lady Vols but also adopting the color Columbia Blue into their uniforms and adopting a different logo with a different 'T' that represents the Lady Vols. The famous Smokey mascot was introduced in 1953 by Rev. Bill Brooks who entered his prize-winning blue tick coon hound, "Brooks' Blue Smokey," in a contest at halftime of the Mississippi State game that season. The dogs were lined up on the old cheerleaders' ramp at Shields-Watkins Field and each dog was introduced over the loudspeaker and the student body cheered for their favorite, with "Blue Smokey" being the last hound introduced. When his name was called, he barked. The students cheered and Smokey threw his head back and barked again. This kept going until the stadium was in an uproar and UT had found its mascot, Smokey. The widely known and unique tradition of running through the 'T' on game days began in 1965 when Doug Dickey moved the teams' bench to the east side and had the team enter and simply turning around back to their sideline through a giant 'T' performed by the Pride of the Southland Band. One of the biggest and most popular trademarks and most recognized sights of Tennessee sports is the orange and white checkerboard end zones that was introduced in the 1960s and reappeared in the 1980s, inspired by the checkerboard design that Ayres Hall features on its outside brick work, and can also be found in the Thompson-Boling Arena on the basketball court.
The Hill is another highly memorable aspect about UT because since the 19th century, The Hill has been symbolic of higher education in the state of Tennessee. The university, founded in 1794 as Blount College, moved to "The Hill" in 1828 and quickly grew around it. The main part of UT's old campus stands on this rise above the north shore of the Tennessee River. Neyland Stadium sprawls at the base of The Hill, between it and the River. The Vol Navy is one of the most unusual experiences for a game day at any school because only UT, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Washington are adjacent to major bodies of water. Today, approximately 200 boats of all shapes and sizes make up this giant floating tailgate party on the river every fall, and boats begin arriving days in advance of home games.
The "Pride of the Southland" is one of the most recognizable bands in the country and has represented the state of Tennessee for the last 50 years at eleven Presidential Inaugurations, from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Obama's first inauguration. The band has also made more than 40 bowl appearances, including the Sugar Bowl, Astro Bluebonnet Bowl, Citrus Bowl, Gator Bowl, Hall of Fame Bowl, Garden State Bowl, Sun Bowl, Liberty Bowl, Peach Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, and the Rose Bowl. One of the most notable college fighting songs in the country is the beloved Rocky Top, the unofficial fighting song for the Vols, which has become a ritual for every sport at UT to play at games.