A box full of Tennessee football memories found me | Mike Strange

Posted by author January 22, 2025 Football

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Mike Strange
| Shopper News columnist

When I walked out of the News Sentinel newsroom for the last time in 2017, I traveled light. I left 34 years of box scores, media guides and clipped articles behind. Didn’t figure I’d need them in retirement.

Then I got recruited to return to the keyboard for the Shopper News. I admit in the years since, there were times I wished I could reach for those left-behind files to flesh out my memories with details.

Recently, a mysterious email landed in my Inbox. A name at the News Sentinel I didn’t recognize informed me that another name I didn’t recognize had a box of stuff that I would surely want to recover.

Long story short, somehow a box with my name on it had traveled over the years from the former newsroom on the second floor to a cabinet in an office on the first floor, now occupied by a private business.

It was filled with transcripts of my career covering the Vols. There were media guides, game programs, folders of official ‘’final stat books” from years of Tennessee football games. I agreed to take it off their hands and loaded the car.

On a winter’s day, I opened the box and ventured down memory lane.

There was the 2012 UT football media guide. Tyler Bray, Da’Rick Rogers and Justin Hunter on the cover. I don’t think anyone really wants to relive that era. Dig deeper in the box.

The 2007 media guide cover was a montage. Phillip Fulmer, the Vol Walk, Erik Ainge looking for a target, a locker room celebration.

Unlike 2012, there was reason to celebrate in ’07. That team would make it to the SEC championship game. We’re 17 seasons down the road and Tennessee hasn’t been back on that stage.

Rewind to ‘98. The SEC championship game official program, the one on sale to fans, cost $7. (Last year’s program was $15.) The ’98 program included an article by yours truly, “Title Time in Tennessee,” which reviewed the ’97 championship game victory over Auburn.

The ’98 win in Atlanta over Mississippi State necessitated that UT produce a media guide for the Fiesta Bowl national championship game. On the cover are Fulmer and his captains – Jeff Hall, Al Wilson, Mercedes Hamilton and Shawn Bryson – all in shirts and ties with sports coats slung over their shoulders. Message: There’s still work to do.

All those final stat books from all those games are interesting to revisit. Moments that are etched in every Vol fan’s mind are recorded in succinct fashion by the play-by-play recorder.

From Nov. 14, 1998:

UA 49, 2-12, Stoerner keeps, stumbles, fumbles. Ratliff recovers fumble. 6-yd loss.

Everybody knows that one. It was so much more than a 6-yard loss.

How about Dec. 1, 2001:

01:10 UF – Carlos Perez 2 yd pass from Rex Grossman (Rex Grossman pass failed). 34-32

If Arkansas’ Clint Stoerner made the most famous fumble by a UT opponent, Grossman’s incomplete pass might be the most famous failed two-point conversion attempt by a Vol opponent. It sent the Vols back to Atlanta.

The Notre Dame play-by-play typist in 1991 wasn’t quite as terse. Here’s the official recording of UT’s final touchdown that completed the “Miracle in South Bend” comeback:

2-3, N26 A. Kelly throws screen left against a blitzing defense with man-to-man coverage and Hayden runs into the end zone unmolested (4:03). Becksvoort, with Julian holding, converts PAT.

SCORE: TENNESSEE 35, NOTRE DAME 34

I could go on. This box was all football. I hope somebody finds another one filled with basketball memories.

Mike Strange is a former writer for the News Sentinel. He currently writes a weekly sports column for Shopper News.