Tuesday, November 25, 2014

1962 UT vs UK

 Back in the middle of October Bradley Reeves of the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS), posted a short video on facebook.

The text that accompanied the post said:
A great 8mm home movie shot in Knoxville, Tennessee during the early 1960s. Look out for behind the scenes footage of the filming of the James Agee-inspired film "All the Way Home", a classic UT football game, and the late Martin Hunt himself in a blazing red coat, hanging around with his aunt Mary Gill.
Hmmm.  Which classic UT football game?  The film shows a marching band, some football plays with the opponents in blue jerseys, UT cheerleaders, the UT marching band, a few more plays, then the scoreboard.

Ah, they were playing Kentucky in Knoxville.


But when?  The text only indicated that it was the early 1960s.  This is when the 2014 UT Football Media Guide comes in real handy.  UT and UK alternated sites, with UT hosting the even years during this time period.  I looked and looked through the guide but couldn't find a listing of the game with that sort of scoring configuration.  Then I noticed that the 1962 season didn't have a game listed against UK.  The W-L Results don't add up.  The score totals don't add up.  But if you were to insert the Kentucky game info (Date: Nov. 24, Site: Knoxville), with a final score of 10-12, then things are in sync.

2014 University of Tennessee Football Record Book (page 167)

How did I know what the final score was?  By looking through GenealogyBank.com.


The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) - November 25, 1962

This was verified by the schools' yearbooks (UT and UK).

1963 UT The Volunteer yearbook  - page 160
Near the end of the just over one minute football portion of the video we see triumphant Wildcats carrying their coach off the field.


The top photo in the UK yearbook (below) was probably taken within seconds of the film being shot.

1963 UK  Kentuckian yearbook  - page 153
The UK yearbook shows several of the players hoisting "The Barrel" a symbolic trophy used from 1925 until the late 1990s when a tragic, alcohol involved traffic accident took the life of a UK player.  UK took a firm stand against student athletes and alcohol abuse and the barrel trophy was retired.  More info on the story can be found at the Athens Banner-Herald and Wikipedia.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Harrison-Chilhowee Baptist Academy team - 1939

The Harrison-Chilhowee Baptist Academy was still a young football program, having just started in 1929.

In this photo, taken from the 1940 yearbook, we see Clell Huskey in uniform.

The Chilhowean - 1940 HCBA yearbook

We also get to see coach Clifton Meredith.  When he wasn't coaching he taught mathematics.

The Chilhowean - 1940 HCBA yearbook

The records for this team are incomplete, but they played at least two games, losing both:

  • 0-19 vs. Carter
  • 0-7 vs. Rule

images from Ancestry.com

Saturday, November 15, 2014

When UT welcomed UK to town in 1924

On Thanksgiving Day, 1924, the Wildcats played on Shields-Watkins Field against the Volunteers in Knoxville. The hometown boys were defeated 27-6.

From the Abe Thompson scrapbook (available at the Kentucky Digital Library), come these first two undated photos.  I'm assuming that they are from 1924, mostly based on the official in image 63 (white shirt).  You can see a similar person in the UT Yearbook photo at the end.





Lexington Herald - November 28, 1924

Explore KY has the University of Kentucky yearbooks online.

The Kentuckian - 1925

The University of Tennessee Libraries host the UT yearbooks.

The Volunteer - 1925

The University of Tennessee went 3-5 that season (1924), beating Emory & Henry, Maryville, and Carson-Newman.