Sec Football Religion of a Region

By Kelly McKeethan

SEC Football: Religion of a Region celebrates the passion of America's greatest conference through the eyes of an intense, devout, and fanatical follower. Author Kelly McKeethan relives the last thirty-plus years of SEC football action season-by-season with details of games played during his lifetime. In addition to presenting statistics, scores, big plays, and analysis, McKeethan also pours out his emotional reactions to the key games.
The author also shares his life experiences, which enables the reader to watch him grow from a child in Knoxville to a family man in Chattanooga, a melting pot of SEC fans. As such, the work also highlights reactions of McKeethan's friends, relatives, coworkers, and fellow church members, many of whom support teams other than Tennessee.
The author also opens up his faith journey to his audience, which reveals the intertwined nature of religion and football in the South. McKeethan shows that the peaks and valleys of life are analogous to the highs and lows on the gridiron. Even his Sunday school teachers and pastors have not been immune to football fever!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9781463417437

Kelly McKeethan

Kelly McKeethan is an avid University of Tennessee football fan. His first book, Orange-Blooded: The Veins of My Life, chronicles his lifelong love of the Vols. Mr. McKeethan has branched out with his second book to cover the entire SEC. His life experiences, including living in Georgia, marrying into an Alabama family, and working in the border town of Chattanooga, give him a unique perspective on America’s greatest conference. Further, growing up in the Bible Belt and worshipping with fans of other SEC teams have given him insights into the interaction between faith and football. Mr. McKeethan grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and graduated from the University of Tennessee. He has attended every SEC championship game in which the Vols have played. He was in person in Tampa to watch the Lady Vols win their eighth national title in 2008. Today Mr. McKeethan lives in Chattanooga with his wife Beckie and two kids, Sarah and Josh.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

The South. The Bible Belt. When you meet someone here, one of the first questions you are asked is Where do you go to church? Certainly religion is a vital part of everyday life in the region I call home.

However, if there is one question that usually comes before the one on Sunday morning attendance, it is Who’s your favorite team? Notice that the question doesn’t specify the sport—it doesn’t have to! Also, the question doesn’t refer to college or pro—it’s assumed that you know the topic is college football.

Answers to the life-encompassing question typically don’t refer to the school’s name. Rather than hearing responses such as Tennessee, Alabama, or Georgia, you are likely to hear the following said, rather enthusiastically:

Go Big Orange!

Roll Tide!

War Eagle!

Hunker Down You Hairy ‘Dawgs!

"Geaux Tigers (I still don’t know how to discern the French spelling when spoken, but you get the point)

Go Big Blue!

Or you might get a response with no words spoken, if you happen to be meeting a Gator fan, who will greet you with the Chomp! Or perhaps a Mississippi State fan will simply ring a cowbell in your ear!

I want to share a lifetime of SEC experiences with you. It is my pleasure to let you see how my life and the lives of my relatives and friends have been impacted by the passion of SEC football. Like many Southerners, we have lived and died many times on Saturdays in the fall, sometimes on multiple occasions on the same day.

As the title of the book implies, football is a religion in the SEC region. As such, the highs and lows of Saturday afternoon inevitably spill over to Sunday morning. Brace yourself for some episodes of behavior from the sanctuary, Sunday School classroom, and even the pulpit that would likely shock folks from other regions.

Before I get into the details of games from the past and how my loved ones and I reacted, I’ll present the following caveats:

1. I am a graduate of the University of Tennessee and an unashamed and unabashed Vols fan. I cannot imagine life without being a Tennessee fan. If that causes some of you to put this book down, that’s okay, as long as you have paid for it! In fact, this is not my first book about football. In 2008 I published Orange-Blooded: The Veins of My Life, which chronicles my love of the Vols from my infancy. I will go ahead and warn you that the Vols are somewhat over-represented in the coming pages. I have tried my best to put my Big Orange memories in their proper perspective within the context of SEC history.

2. You will read quite a bit about my life in the chapters ahead, which will help you understand (although probably not excuse!) my reactions to some of the great (and some relatively obscure) events in SEC history. I will go back to my childhood days from the mid-1970s (which was a tough time to be a Tennessee fan, similar to the last few years) and walk through the last 30+ years in chronological order. You will see from my family background how important SEC football is to the extended McKeethan family—

• My paternal grandmother, Mary McKeethan, graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1929. My granddaddy, Roy, was a huge Big Blue Fan. They moved from Kentucky to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during World War II when Granddaddy worked on the Manhattan Project, which was responsible for enriching the uranium used in the atomic bombs that ended the war.

I can still hear Granddaddy hollering Go Big Blue! usually during basketball season. Not only did he utter this phrase, but he often mockingly referred to the Big Orange. While he supported the Wildcats in basketball, his favorite team on the gridiron was whoever was playing the Vols! On more than one occasion I wondered aloud why he ever moved to Tennessee. Needless to say, I am thankful that he did.

• My dad, Sam McKeethan, was actually born in Kentucky but grew up in Oak Ridge, which is about twenty-five miles west of Knoxville, and still resides there. His younger sister, Aunt Vicki, was born in Tennessee and proudly proclaims this fact to this day in Florida, where she has lived for over thirty years. Both are UT graduates and are the biggest fans I know!

• Aunt Vicki is married to Uncle Ivan, who is a Florida graduate. I have discovered that being related to a Gator has its advantages, especially when I need to sell my SEC Championship Game tickets!

• Now let’s get to my mom’s side. Even though Mary Alma McKeethan grew up in Indiana, I inherit SEC blood from her as well. Her older brother, Uncle Larry, played for Vanderbilt in the late 1950s. In fact, he was a captain on the Commodore team that won 14-0 in Knoxville in 1959. He has reminded me that Vandy held the Big Orange single-wing attack to three first downs that day as the Dores doubled the Vols in total offense, although I have often reminded him that Vandy has only won twice in Neyland Stadium since then! Grandma and Grandpa took Mom to the game (and nearly froze), which means the McKeethans have been represented in Neyland Stadium for over half a century (and thanks to my son Josh will be represented for the better part of the next century).

• As difficult as it may be to fathom a UT graduate marrying the sister of a Commodore player, or a Vol marrying a Gator, consider the following—my wife is from Birmingham. Yes, that’s right; a Tennessee boy married an Alabama girl. Just to be clear, Beckie made it clear on our first date that she was not a football fan. Considering that at that time Tennessee had not beaten the Crimson Tide in ten years, that might have been a deal-breaker! However, her mother, Linda, is a Tide fan, as are most of her relatives in Alabama, including our nephews Jeremy and Andrew.

• Actually Linda’s family lived in Florida for a while. Her younger brother, Uncle Everett, stayed in Florida. He sent both of his daughters to school at Gainesville, meaning I have Gators chomping at me from both sides of the family!

So by either blood or marriage my family contains five of the twelve schools in the SEC. Throw in the fact that I have lived my entire adult life in Chattanooga and Atlanta, I feel like I am related to many Georgia fans, which would mark exactly half of the league that I can claim. Sure makes for some interesting conversations.

3. Considering the book’s title, this may surprise you, but I don’t always pull for the SEC teams when they play out of conference. Typically I put SEC fans into one of two categories:

a. I call this group SEC-homers. They pull for the SEC no matter what. People in this category tend to be broad-thinking, mature adults. My former boss and mentor Paul Roland falls into this category. I never will forget when Florida was playing Iowa on New Year’s Day in 2004 in the Outback Bowl. We had to work in the morning to get started on our year-end financial analysis. Around noon we went home to go watch the numerous games on the tube. I commented to Paul that I wouldn’t lose any sleep if the Gators lost, to which he responded, Not me. After the Hawkeyes blasted Ron Zook’s squad by a 37-17 count, I imagined Paul lying in bed that night trying to fall asleep by counting Gators!

Also, my mother-in-law is a member of this group. She is the only Alabama fan I know who pulls for Tennessee and even Auburn when they are not playing the Crimson Tide.

b. I call the other group SEC-haters. I would not describe them with such glowing terms as I did the former group. I know Tennessee fans who hope the SEC wins only one bowl game each year (provided the Big Orange makes it to a bowl), and I’m sure all SEC teams have fans of the same ilk.

Using this terminology, I’m more of a homer than a hater. I haven’t done any exact calculations (which is surprising for a math major), but I have probably pulled for the SEC between 80 and 90 percent of the time. I use the following criteria to determine whom to support—

• The coach of the other SEC school. I always liked Bear Bryant and Vince Dooley and pulled hard for them when they were going for national titles. I won’t mention by name other SEC coaches I haven’t supported, but you can probably draw your own conclusions.

• The nature of the other SEC school’s rivalry with UT. As an example, when Florida and Tennessee were the two best teams in the league in the mid-1990s and developed a bitter rivalry, I simply couldn’t pull for the Gators. In fact, I loved watching Nebraska run all over Florida 62-24 in the national championship game. The Huskers did the same to the Vols two years later, but the margin was only 25 points!

• Whom the SEC school is playing. As noted above, I pulled for Tom Osborne and the Cornhuskers. I can sometimes pull for the Big XII (which now has ten schools) but rarely pull for the Big Ten (which now has twelve schools)—as an aside, do these conferences need a math major to help them count??

Also, I can pull for the Atlantic Coast Conference due to its southern roots but not usually the Big East or Pac-10 (which now has a dozen teams—is this New Math?????)

4.   Just to be clear, I did not intend to commit blasphemy with the title of the book. I am a devout Christian and take my religion very seriously. Of course, I take my football very seriously as well. As you will see in the coming pages, the two provide an interesting mix.

5.   I’m not going to focus on why the SEC is the premier football conference in the nation. If you’re not convinced that it is, you’re reading the wrong book. After all, as Linda said on our most recent family trip to Disney World (she always sits in the passenger seat and usually talks about SEC football and the Atlanta Braves with me while Beckie sits in the back and tries to separate Josh from his sister Sarah), four (whoops—now make that five!) straight national titles should convince any reasonable person which conference is best.

One theory that I’ve heard throughout the years is that Southerners are still fighting the Civil War (or the War for Southern Independence as I learned it in high school history in Tennessee) and take their frustration out on the football field. I don’t give the theory much credence, for the recent dominance is further removed in time from the war than earlier periods when the SEC wasn’t as strong.

Rather than concentrate on the why, I’ve decided to dwell on the what, when, where, and especially the who—the players, coaches, announcers, and primarily the fans. Actually, the more I think about the passion of the fans, perhaps I’ve hit upon the answer to the why question. The fans in the SEC are so serious that they demand winning teams. Just ask Phillip Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville about your job security if you have one bad year after amassing a great record.

6.   Finally, the particular fans mentioned in my book are among my relatives and closest friends. Those mentioned by name have granted me permission to do so. In other cases, to protect the innocent (or not-so-innocent) I have maintained their anonymity.

I know many of you share my passion for SEC football. We all have our favorite memories through the years, whether you call Baton Rouge, Oxford, Knoxville, or Athens home. I want to stir those memories of the Bear, Herschel, Vince Dooley, Bo, the Ole’ Ball Coach, Peyton, Saban, Urban, Tebow, and the Mad Hatter as you read the coming pages. I hope you remember plays, games, events, and moments you have not thought of many years and say, Oh, yeah. I remember that.

So hang on tight for a ride of over 30 years of SEC memories!

At the close of each chapter I will honor the players who have worn the number of the chapter, along with my favorite memories of their accomplishments. The book only has sixteen chapters (the more perceptive of you will realize why I chose the number sixteen!), so the linemen will be left out, but what else is new for the guys upfront who are only recognized when they get called for holding. The players will be presented in alphabetical order by school (which results in Alabama being first and Vandy being last—once again, what else is new!). I realize this also eliminates specific mention of most of the great running backs and receivers. Oh, well, you’ll just have to read about them within the meat of the chapters.

Numero Uno

Alabama

Marcel West (1993-96)—my most vivid memory of him is the touchdown catch he made versus the Vols in Neyland Stadium in 1994 to break a 3-3 tie. On the play two UT defensive backs ran into each other. The play was eerily similar to a play on which Forrest Gump (who played for Bear Bryant) scored versus Tennessee in the blockbuster hit that was released the same year! I never will forget sitting in the theater screaming at the Vols to drill him!!

Florida

Percy Harvin (2006-08)—a breakaway threat from all over the field on two national championship teams in Gainesville. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL in 2009 playing with Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings.

South Carolina

Alshon Jeffery (2009-present)—his name will always live in SEC folklore as the subject of Lane Kiffin’s comment that he would pump gas the rest of his life if he became a Gamecock. Based on Mr. Jeffery’s play his first two years for the Ole’ Ball coach, the rest of his life he will be pumping gas into whatever vehicle is driven by a Pro Bowl receiver. The catch he made on his shoulder pad in the 2010 game that ended the Tide’s unbeaten streak is one of the best I have ever seen.

Tennessee (a word of caution to the non-UT fans—the Vols will naturally get more love in this section than the other institutions)

Jason Witten (2000-02)—the best Vol receiving tight end I can remember. He made some huge catches in his career, including the game-winner in the six-overtime epic versus Arkansas in 2002. He ran away from the Michigan secondary in the 2002 Citrus Bowl. Earlier in the 2001 campaign he held on to a touchdown pass despite being belted by Alabama in the end zone. He has become one of the best tight ends in the NFL, grabbing receptions for my beloved Dallas Cowboys.

Leonard Little (1995-97)—one of the best defensive players in UT history. He drilled Brian Burgdorf and forced a fumble in the 1995 Vols-Tide game (trust me, you will hear much more about this night and its impact on my life in a later chapter). He also saved the Bama game in 1996 with a rush on Freddy Kitchens (can you tell I savor wins over Alabama???) He developed into one of the fastest pass rushers in pro football for the St. Louis Rams.

CHAPTER 2

THE CRIMSON DECADE (1970-79)

It absolutely cuts me to the core to write a chapter with this title. To put it in perspective, imagine Lee Iacocca writing a chapter about the heyday of Henry Ford and the Model T. Or would Newt Gingrich title a chapter The Democratic Dominance from 1932-1968? Given the title of the book, perhaps the best example would be the Apostle Paul writing an autobiography and including a chapter on his activities before his conversion on the road to Damascus!

I’m relieved that I was born in 1970 and don’t remember much from the first half of the Crimson decade. Appropriately, I was born on a Saturday afternoon, five weeks before UT’s first game of the 1970s.

Actually, the ‘70s did not start well for the Tide. At the age of two months and two days, on October 17, 1970, I listened to the Vols whip Bama 24-0 to claim a fourth straight victory in the heated rivalry. It would be another thirty years before another Alabama coach would match Bear Bryant’s four-game losing streak against Tennessee. Sorry, Tide fans, I couldn’t resist the comparison between the Bear and Mike Dubose! Sadly for me, it would be another twelve years before UT beat the Tide again. Even sadder from a historical perspective is that in 1970 the Tennessee-Alabama series was even at 23 wins apiece, along with seven ties. The series has not been tied since, and now stands at 48-38-7 in Alabama’s favor. Why did I have to be born??

Dad has told me there was no shortage of folks whose opinion was that the game had passed the Bear by. Just five years removed from winning back-to-back national championships, the Bear had gone four consecutive years without an SEC crown. Back-to-back six-win seasons in 1969-70 must have had Tide fans seeing a shade of red other than crimson. Losing to his former player Bill Battle, who at the age of 28 became the youngest head coach in the nation upon coming to Knoxville, had to be a tough pill to swallow in Tuscaloosa.

Dad remembers well the speculation that Bryant was going to coach the Miami Dolphins. Obviously, things couldn’t have worked out any better for both parties. While the Bear was winning five consecutive league titles in the early 1970s, Don Shula won back-to-back Super Bowls in South Florida, including the only team to win a Super Bowl with a perfect record! Meanwhile, Don was raising his young son, Mike, who would grow up to play quarterback at Alabama and eventually become the head coach at his alma mater. Ironically, at the end of the 2006 season he was replaced by Nick Saban, whom Alabama hired from the Dolphins, who had hired him away from LSU just two years earlier!

Well, enough about the tangled web woven between Tuscaloosa and Miami. This chapter isn’t about the city of Miami attempting to secede from the Sunshine State and enter the Heart of Dixie; it’s about the decade of dominance enjoyed by the Crimson Tide during my childhood.

To set the stage, at the beginning of the decade, the Vols were on top, having won two of the last three SEC championships of the 1960s. However, the architect of the program’s return to glory, Doug Dickey, left near the end of the 1969 season to coach his alma mater, the University of Florida. While it’s certainly not unusual for a person to go home (just look two paragraphs above for another example), it was ironic that the Vols played the Gators in the 1969 Gator Bowl. However, in those days it was fairly common for conference foes to meet in bowl games.

Teams besides the Vols were strong as well. Georgia, which had hired Vince Dooley in 1963, had shared the SEC title with the Tide in 1966 and had won the league outright in 1968. Ole Miss wound up #8 in the nation in 1969 and finished the Johnny Vaught era with another top twenty finish the next year (the Associated Press ranked twenty teams until 1989, when the number grew to twenty-five). Auburn was in the middle of a five-year run under Shug Jordan in which it would be ranked every year. LSU was in the midst of a similar six-year run under Charlie McClendon and wore the SEC crown in 1970. However, it would be fourteen years until the Bayou Bengals returned to the top of the heap.

In all fairness to LSU, not many teams besides Alabama sniffed glory during the coming decade. What makes the Bear’s rise from the ashes all the more impressive is the competitive landscape of the SEC at that time. The five schools mentioned in the previous paragraph all seemed to have stronger programs than Alabama as the decade commenced.

Hats (houndstooth, that is) off to Alabama for keeping the Bear. Over thirty years later a similar scenario played itself out in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. Once again, the school has been rewarded with loyalty, as Joe Pa has returned the Nittany Lions to the hunt. See more immediately below for an earlier link between the two great coaching legends. Nearly a decade after Penn State decided to stick with Paterno, Florida State and Tennessee decided to go the other way with their long-term giants in the profession. Obviously, I am hoping that UT made the right call. Time will tell.

The Bear would dominate the SEC in the 1970s in a way not seen before or since. From 1971-79, the Crimson Tide won eight league championships and three national titles. As stated above, fortunately I am not old enough to remember the first five titles. I don’t think I could stand having to live through such an era (although Nick Saban may put me to the test in time), especially living in Chattanooga, which is close to the Tennessee-Alabama border.

While today I call Chattanooga home, in the early 1970s I was living in Oak Ridge, which is about 25 miles west of Knoxville. My earliest memories are from the fall of 1973, after I turned three in the summer. One of my earliest memories of anything is from the 1973 Gator Bowl. I remember the game being on television at Grandma and Grandpa’s home in Indiana. However, I would be lying if I told you I recall that the Vols lost to Texas Tech 28-19 that night. I was still in Indiana two nights later when my grandparents enjoyed watching Notre Dame defeat Alabama 24-23 for the Associated Press (AP) national title, although Alabama was still awarded the United Press International (UPI) title, one of the non-AP titles that seem to drive opponents of the Crimson Tide crazy. In all fairness to Alabama, if other schools had thirteen national titles of any kind, they would probably claim them too.

With each passing year, I am able to recall more memories of SEC football (and oh yeah, life in general I suppose). The next year Alabama once again went undefeated in the regular season and played Notre Dame in a bowl. This time the setting was the Orange Bowl in Miami. While I wasn’t in Indiana this time, I remember talking to Grandma on the phone before the game and telling her Alabama was going to win. Well, I was no better at prognosticating football games then than I am now, as the Irish once again squeaked by the Tide 13-11, in Ara Parseghian’s last game.

1975 was a very important year in my life for three reasons. In ascending order of importance—

1.) I started kindergarten at Cedar Hill Elementary School

2.) I attended my first regular season game in Neyland Stadium—a 24-10 win over LSU! I remember going with Mom, Dad, and Granddaddy, who was trying to keep up with his beloved Cincinnati Reds that afternoon as they took on the Red Sox in Game 1 of the Fall Classic (by the way, Luis Tiant fired a shutout for the Bosox that day, but the Big Red Machine won the series in seven games).

3.) Even more important than attending my first game is that ‘75 is the year of my first memory of a specific play in a UT game. Two weeks prior to beating the LSU Tigers in Knoxville, another group of Tigers visited Neyland Stadium. Only I wasn’t in Tennessee; I was in Indiana, at my cousin’s wedding. Dad and I left the reception early and went back to Grandma’s house to listen to the game on the radio. Trailing 17-14 late in the fourth quarter, All-American receiver Larry Seivers from Clinton, a big rival of Oak Ridge, caught a touchdown pass to win the game for the Vols 21-17!

Unfortunately, the wins over the pair of Tigers did not guarantee a successful year for the Vols. The LSU game was followed by two straight losses—the expected 30-7 thrashing at Alabama, and an unexpected 21-14 loss in Knoxville to North Texas State. Dad attended the game and was in shock when he got home. The home schedule ended with a 17-14 loss to Vandy, the first loss to the Dores of my lifetime and the first in Knoxville since Uncle Larry played sixteen years earlier. Overall, the Vols wound up 7-5 in ‘75 for their first five-loss campaign in over a decade. At Christmas I remember sitting on Santa’s lap in Grandma’s living room when he asked me what happened to the Vols. I replied, 7-5. Not too bad. Everybody laughed, especially Uncle Larry. That is the first memory I have of folks noticing my love of the Big Orange.

Elsewhere in the SEC, 1975 was another great year for the Tide, as Alabama claimed its fifth consecutive league crown, a mark unparalleled in history. After two straight excruciating losses to Notre Dame, the Bear was able to win a bowl game. I remember watching Alabama beat Penn State 13-6 in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Not only was I happy, but so were the bars and restaurants in Birmingham! Linda has mentioned through the years that businesses in Birmingham were upset when Alabama would lose on New Year’s Eve, as nobody would feel like celebrating after the game. Some folks even went home before midnight, although I think after a loss I would have stayed up to exorcise the demons from the past year and look forward to the next year and football season. She has also mentioned that Beckie and her sister usually had baby-sitting jobs on New Year’s Eve and charged a flat fee rather than an hourly rate just to hedge against party-poopers!

1976 marked a respite from the Alabama avalanche. In particular it was a great year for the Peach State. While in ‘76 my Braves started a four-year run in last place in the National League West Division, prompting Granddaddy to comment that they were the strongest team in the league because they were at the bottom holding everyone else up, other entities from Georgia fared better. In November, favorite son Jimmy Carter was elected our nation’s 39th president.

Probably more important to most Georgians was the campaign on the gridiron experienced by Vince Dooley. After going 9-3 in 1975, Dooley’s Junkyard Dawgs went 10-1 in 1976 to share the SEC title with Kentucky, which had not won a league championship since Bear Bryant coached there in 1950.

In particular four games stand out to me from the 1976 season—

1.) I remember that Georgia beat Alabama. While I don’t remember anything about the game itself, I never will forget that Mom picked the Dawgs in the Pick-the-Winner contest of our local newspaper, the Oak Ridger, while Dad went with the Tide (he pretty much goes with tradition).

2.) The Vols battled Alabama hard in Knoxville but fell 20-13, marking our sixth straight loss to the Bear. The game was televised, which was a rare treat in those days. Afterwards I was so distraught that I said I hoped we didn’t play Alabama next year. Dad commented that they were our annual rival. I quickly grabbed his pre-season guide and noticed that we had played Alabama every year since 1928, with the exception of 1943. When Dad said that was due to World War II and that we would choose losing to Alabama over another war, I didn’t necessarily agree (but grudgingly would now!)

3.) For the first time in my lifetime, Kentucky beat the Vols. The 7-0 victory in Knoxville clinched a share of the Wildcats’ second league title. Granddaddy was celebrating that night (we lived on the other side of the duplex that he and Grandmother owned) but I got him back a few months later when Bernard King led the Vols to a season-sweep of the Cats, including a victory in Rupp Arena’s opening season!

4.) Alabama’s 36-6 win over UCLA in the Liberty Bowl. I never will forget watching this game at Grandma’s. I had developed a love for bears of all kinds that year. My favorite NFL team that year was the Chicago Bears, who had a pretty good young running back named Walter Payton. Thanks to him, I always thought Peyton Place was misspelled, at least until a certain fellow played quarterback at Tennessee. I had a black and white bear I called Teddy. Also, I had a yellow and white bear that played music, so I called him Musical. Musical had a little blue trim, so I figured he was a UCLA Bruin. When Alabama stomped the West Coast bears, I was heartburst, to use my daughter’s phrase. I cried non-stop after the game. Finally, Dad consoled me by saying that the Bear still won the game! I suppose those were early signs of me being an SEC hater.

The other event I remember from our trip to Grandma’s that Christmas was talking to Uncle Larry about the upcoming Georgia-Pittsburgh battle in the Sugar Bowl. Of particular interest to UT fans was that Pitt was coached by UT great Johnny Majors, who was leaving Pitt after the game to replace Battle as the Vols’ head coach. When asked who I was rooting for, like any good Southerner I said Georgia. Uncle Larry replied, Come on, man, you got to pull for Johnny. I would spend the next sixteen years doing just that.

As the Majors era began in 1977, we had visions of him winning a national title in Knoxville to match the one he won in Pittsburgh (by the way, the Panthers and Tony Dorsett crushed the Dawgs 27-3 in the Sugar Bowl). While I was excited about Majors, I felt bad for Battle. Dad really liked him and was crushed. Battle was a great guy and had kids about my age, so we could definitely identify with him and his family. This was an early lesson in my life about the importance of winning, especially in the SEC.

The mountain Majors had to climb was quite steep. Alabama resumed its dominance in 1977 and would not lose a conference game for the remainder of the ‘70s. The Tide beat the Vols 24-10 in Birmingham on its way to another league title. Actually, for the second straight year Kentucky won a share of the title. I’m sure I enraged Granddaddy when I told him Alabama was better than his Cats because the Vols lost in Lexington by the narrow margin of 21-17. He would get his revenge that winter when his Big Blue steamrolled the Big Orange twice on its way to the national title in roundball. Obviously in the second grade I had not learned that the transitive property of mathematics does not always apply in football.

The Tide wound up #3 in the final regular season poll behind Texas and Oklahoma, meaning that Alabama had to win over Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl while the Longhorns and Sooners both needed to lose.

All three games happened just like the doctor, or the Bear, ordered. Alabama crushed Woody Hayes and the #9 Buckeyes 35-6 (obviously Ohio State’s struggles against the SEC are not just a recent phenomenon). Meanwhile, #5 Notre Dame stomped Earl Campbell and his Longhorns 38-10 in the Cotton Bowl. I remember watching both games at Granddaddy’s on January 2 because the 1st was a Sunday, which was the day of the week that belonged to the NFL (as well as the church). He and Grandmother owned a duplex, and we lived on the other side. We ate cube steak but not black-eyed peas, which I still can’t stomach to this day. So much for my being a real Southerner I guess.

When I woke up the next morning, Dad told me that Oklahoma had been upset by Lou Holtz’s Arkansas Razorbacks 31-6 in the Orange Bowl. Even though it would be another fifteen years until the Hogs called the SEC home and another seven years after that until Coach Lou went to South Carolina, I have felt that the Razorbacks earned their spot in our league that night. Surely this guaranteed a national title for the Tide!

Much to my dismay, when the votes were tabulated, the Fighting Irish came out on top, just ahead of the Crimson Tide. I couldn’t believe it. Most of the South cried foul, especially considering that Notre Dame’s only loss was to Ole Miss, a team the Tide had crushed 34-13 in the season opener. Alabama folks harkened back to 1966, when Notre Dame won the national title after playing for a 10-10 tie against Michigan State in November in a #1 vs. #2 match-up. Alabama meanwhile had gone undefeated and destroyed Nebraska 34-7 in the Sugar Bowl. The Bear once referred to his 1966 team as his best ever.

Looking back on it a bit more objectively now, obviously Notre Dame had an extremely impressive victory over what was considered a great Texas team, in Dallas no less. Also, perhaps the voters were swayed by Notre Dame’s two victories over Alabama in bowl games a few years earlier and a regular season win over the Tide in South Bend the previous year.

So it was an angry and motivated Alabama team that began the 1978 season. While the Tide ran through the SEC schedule undefeated, they did lose to USC 24-14 to seemingly end its national title hopes. The Vols were still not competitive with Alabama, losing 30-17 in Knoxville. The game was not nearly as