BiblioVault - Books about University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Bearing the Torch

The University of Tennessee, 1794–2010

T.R.C. Hutton

University of Tennessee Press, 2022

Bearing the Torch stands as a comprehensive history of the University of Tennessee, replete with anecdotes and vignettes of interest to anyone interested in UT, from the administrators and chancellors to students and alums, and even to the Vols fans whose familiarity with the school comes mainly from the sports page. It is also a biography of a school whose history reflects that of its state and its nation. The institution that began as Blount College in 1794 in a frontier village called Knoxville exemplifies the relationship between education and American history.

This is the first scholarly history of UT since 1984. T. R. C. Hutton not only provides a much-needed update, but also seeks to present a social history of the university, fully integrating historical context and showing how the volume’s central “character”—the university itself—reflects historical themes and concerns. For example, Hutton shows how the school’s development was hampered in the early nineteenth century by stingy state funding (a theme that also appears in subsequent decades) and Jacksonian fears that publicly funded higher education equaled elite privilege. The institution nearly disappeared as the Civil War raged in a divided region, but then it flourished thanks to policies that never could have happened without the war. In the twentieth century, students embraced dramatic social changes as the university wrestled with race, gender, and other important issues. In the Cold War era, UT became a successful research institution and entered into a deep partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratories that persists to this day. All the while UT athletics experienced the highs of national championships and the lows of lawsuits and losing seasons. UT is a university with a universe of historical experiences.

The University of Tennessee’s story has always been defined by inclusion and exclusion, and the school has triumphed when it practiced the former and failed when it took part in the latter. Bearing the Torch traces that ongoing process, richly detailing the University’s contributions to what one president, Joseph Estabrook, called the “diffusion of knowledge among the people.”

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Ice ’n’ Go

Score in Sports and Life

Jenny Moshak with Debby Schriver

University of Tennessee Press, 2013

The 1972 passage of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discriminationin education, was a gamechanger for women and girls in athletics. in the forty years since the law was enacted, participation in sports—especially of girls and women—has grown dramatically. With that growth have come challenges. in Ice-n-Go: A Perspective on Sports and Life, Jenny Moshak, celebrated trainer of the legendary lady Vols basketball team and associate athletic director for sports medicine at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, reflects on the role of sports in society and addresses the high stakes and costs of winning in sports today.

Ice-n-Go is a culmination of the breadth of knowledge and unique insight from Moshak’s more than twenty-five years of work in major college sports. in this highly readable new book, she covers social issues, medical concerns, motiva-tional techniques, gender roles and expectations, the impact of sports on our children, and how the body works, heals, and recovers. though she writes on serious subjects in a serious way, Moshak’s tone is always upbeat and positive with surprisingly simple strategies for improving the athletic experience for all, especially kids.

An outstanding athlete herself, she shares lessons learned on her own demanding coast-to-coast bicycle ride across the united states. in sharing her stories, sound advice and fresh ideas, Moshak seeks to do for us what she has always done for the players in her care: to help protect, nurture, and grow the athlete who is in each one of us.

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Six Seasons Remembered

The National Championship Years Of Tennessee Football

Haywood Harris

University of Tennessee Press, 2004

Smokey

The True Stories behind the University of Tennessee’s Beloved Mascot

Thomas J. Mattingly

University of Tennessee Press, 2012

The band blares “Rocky Top” and the crowd roars as the University of Tennessee football team storms out of the tunnel and onto the field through the giant “T,” their beloved mascot Smokey leading the way. The iconic Bluetick Coonhound has been part of the pageantry and tradition at the University of Tennessee since 1953, delighting fans both young and old.
    For this entertaining and enlightening book, UT sports historian Thomas J. Mattingly has teamed up with longtime Smokey owner Earl C. Hudson to tell the stories of the nine hounds that have been top dog on campus for more than half a century. It was the Rev. Bill Brooks, Hudson’s brother-in-law, whose prize-winning dog “Brooks’ Blue Smokey,” became the first mascot by winning a student body-led contest at a home football game in 1953. The Coonhound breed was selected because it was native to the state, and several (no one remembers exactly how many) were brought onto the field at halftime to compete. But Smokey stole the show when he threw back his head and howled. The crowd cheered, and Smokey howled again. The raucous applause and barking built to a frenzy. The enthusiastic hound won the hearts of the Volunteer faithful that day, and he and the dogs that followed have remained among the University of Tennessee’s most popular symbols ever since.
    The authors have interviewed Smokey’s former handlers, university archivists, sports journalists, and local historians as well as legions of longtime fans. Their recollections provide not only the background of the mascot but a history of UT athletics as well. Vol fans will enjoy reading about Smokey’s adventures throughout the years, from his kidnapping in 1955 by mischievous Kentucky students to his confrontation with the Baylor Bear at the 1957 Sugar Bowl to the time he suffered heat exhaustion at the 1991 UCLA game and was listed on the Vols’ injury report until his return later in the season.
    Filled with photographs and memorabilia, including vintage game programs, football schedules, letters, cartoons, and more, this book brings to life the magic of UT football and the endearing canines that have become such an indispensable part of the experience.

THOMAS J. MATTINGLY is the author of Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years, The University of Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006, The University of Tennessee All-Access Football Vault and The University of Tennessee Trivia Book. He writes about Vol history on his Knoxville News Sentinel blog, “The Vol Historian.”

EARL C. HUDSON’s family have cared for the Smokeys since 1994.

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