The Third Saturday in October

There was a time in my life - forever ago or so it seems - when fall weekends revolved around Tennessee football.  From late August to early December, on Friday nights or Saturday mornings, I drove to Knoxville to watch the Vols play in Neyland Stadium.  Many times, I drove with friends to Athens, GA; Auburn, AL, or Birmingham, AL, to watch the Vols on the road.  It was just what I did each and every fall.

I was a season ticket holder for 26 years.  For the majority of those years, I sat in the newest part of Neyland Stadium - the covered, chair backed seats in the upper deck off the north end zone, away from the river and directly across from the V - O - L - S sign at the top of the south side of the stadium.  Warren Sanger, Todd Blankenbecler, Mike Corley, and I had eight seats together.  Later, my law partner, Mark Puryear, bought seats two seats a row behind us.  

The five of us, often accompanied by girlfriends who became our wives, shared so many good times together.  Lunches at Old College Inn - owned by Warren's father-in-law, Chip Stanley.  Tailgates.  Beers together at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house.  All of this followed by a trek across campus to Neyland Stadium and the long walk up the steep, crisscrossing ramps to our seats high above in section YY7.  The view from the concourse was breathtaking, as I could see so much of the beloved college I called home for almost eight years between undergraduate and law school.  

In later years, when Warren's wife, Jennifer, was pregnant with one of her three boys, we all rode the elevator up to the concourse outside of our section.  Already, then, I could feel things changing a bit, as their were Saturdays when Jennifer didn't join us at the game or Warren sat with one of the boys in his father-in-law's seats.  

Still, most Saturdays, we were there together, through all of the wins and losses, including the last second, miracle comeback win against Arkansas - the hand of God game - when Bill Ratliffe miraculously caused Clint Stoerner (Arkansas' QB) to fumble late.  Phillip Fulmer wisely fed Travis Henry the football over and over again - Cheese! - on the final drive, as the Vols won in the mist in the waning seconds to keep their unbeaten season alive.  Ultimately, improbably, Tennessee won the National Championship in Tempe, AZ, by beating a highly touted Florida State team.  I was there, of course, to see it.  We all were.

Seasons pass, years go by, and priorities change.  That's simply the way of life.  Mike Corley moved to Sarasota and gave up his season tickets.  Sarge gave up his tickets when he began to sit in his father-in-law's seats every game.  After I had a run where I attended one home game in two years, I gave up my season tickets, too.  Todd followed suit and, suddenly, Mark Puryear was the only one of our group who still had his season tickets and went to almost every home football game. 

How did something so important in my life become an afterthought?  

It's simple, really.  Jude and I had JP and Joe and as they began playing sports - and I began coaching them - and there was a paradigm shift in what was important in my life.  Or, put another way, I grew up.  

I didn't want to miss coaching JP, or Joe, and their teammates in fall baseball games.  Later in the fall, I didn't want to miss watching them play basketball and, most games, working as the official scorer and assistant coach.  Things changed for the others in my group in a similar way, too.

It helped, I think, that Tennessee's fortunes took a turn for the worse.  After the Vols fired Phillip Fulmer in 2004, they wondered in the wilderness of mediocrity for more than 15 years.  Bad coaches, bad football teams, losing seasons.  

Then, this fall, something strange happened.  Hendon Hooker returned at quarterback and suddenly, unexpectedly, Tennessee started winning, kept winning, and I find myself sitting at Dose this morning, over coffee, smiling in anticipation of No. 3 Alabama playing No. 6 Tennessee today, in Neyland Stadium, in a matchup of two unbeaten teams.

It's the third Saturday in October, a day that for so many years, meant so much to Tennessee football fans like me.  

The buildup to today's games has brought back a lot of happy memories for me.  Memories of fall Saturdays in Neyland Stadium in years past.  Memories of times spend with my closest friends.  Memories of a simpler time, a more innocent time, before children, before I lost my mom.  Memories of Rocky Top, of a stadium full of orange clad fans - including me - cheering and cheering for the Vols as they ran out of the T formed by the band, directly below us, and John Ward, on the radio, his voice rising to a crescendo, yelled "It's football time in Tennessee!"

Well, today, on the third Saturday in October, it's football time in Tennessee.  Again.

Go Vols!