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9/14/1968
Sept 13, 2018 21:03:05 GMT -5
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Post by Thunder Good-Oil on Sept 13, 2018 21:03:05 GMT -5
Friday is the 50th anniversary of TN's 17-17 tie with Georgia.
John Ward's and Bill Anderson's first broadcast.
Lester McClain's first game.
First game on the Tartan Turf (Doug's Rug).
First game with the east side upper deck.
First game versus Georgia in 31 years.
My first game.
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9/14/1968
Sept 13, 2018 21:05:21 GMT -5
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Post by Thunder Good-Oil on Sept 13, 2018 21:05:21 GMT -5
UT Vols' 1968 opener featured John Ward's debut, artificial turf
Tom Mattingly | For The News Sentinel
1967 Tennessee Vols
The Tennessee Vols finished 9-2 in 1967 and won the SEC title and the Litkenhous national championship.
WOCHIT/PHIL KAPLAN
John Ward's debut. The first game on artificial turf at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee's first matchup with Georgia in 31 years.
Indeed, a number of memorable story lines emanated from the 1968 football season opener on Sept. 14, which also was the Vols' earliest season-opening game ever.
As the 1968 season approached, fans were worried about replacing the seniors whose leadership had brought Tennessee back to national prominence.
Looking back: Denny McLain's 30th win overshadowed UT Vols-Georgia tie, Lester McClain debut
The Vols finished 8-2-1 in what many fans thought might be a rebuilding year, given the loss of Bob Johnson, Charles Fulton, Walter Chadwick, Dewey Warren, Jimmy Glover, John Boynton, Albert Dorsey, Derrick Weatherford and others from Doug Dickey’s first recruiting class and leaders in the run to the SEC title a year earlier.
Dickey called the 1968 team “the biggest surprise I had in coaching. I didn’t know that team could play that well.”
There was significant senior leadership that season, products of Dickey’s second recruiting class with All-Americans Jimmy Weatherford and Charles Rosenfelder, Richard Pickens (the SEC’s leading rusher), Bubba Wyche, Bill Baker, Dick Williams, Jim McDonald, Neal McMeans, Nick Showalter, Jerry Holloway, Karl Kremser, Clifton Stewart and Richmond Flowers, an All-American wide receiver a year earlier. Flowers joined the team for the Memphis State game two weeks later after not making the U.S. Olympic Team.
Having junior linebackers Steve Kiner and Jack Reynolds coming back didn’t hurt, either. Other juniors of note were Vic Dingus, Frank Yanossy, Herman Weaver, Ken DeLong, Gary Kreis, Benny Dalton, Steve Carroll, Mike Jones and Bill Young. The sophomore class included Chip Kell, Don Denbo, Steve Robinson, Don McLeary, Tim Priest, Lester McClain, Manley Mixon, Ronnie Drummonds, James Woody and Mike Bevans.
Debut of 'Doug's Rug,' John Ward and Bill Anderson
An equally important story line was artificial turf – “Doug’s Rug,” as it was popularly known – being installed on Shields-Watkins Field and staying in some version for 25 years. The venerable stadium grass had been ripped up during the summer and replaced initially by Tartan Turf, a product of 3M.
There were a number of different artificial surfaces on the field until grass made a triumphant return under grass guru Bobby Campbell’s leadership in 1994.
ABC was there to beam the festivities nationwide, featuring lead announcers Chris Schenkel and Bud Wilkinson, with a 4 p.m. kickoff. There was considerable worry about how much sunlight might be left at game’s end, but the News Sentinel’s Tom Siler reported that the game ended at 7:14 p.m and “actually there was plenty of light left.”
Then there was the debut of Ward and former UT wing back and 1957 co-captain Bill Anderson on the Vol Network. Sometime in the second half, Ward thought to himself he and Anderson might make it as a broadcast team, with history proving his assessment correct. The duo stayed through the 1998 season and the national championship game against Florida State.
“We did a good job covering it,” Ward said in a 1998 interview. “I wasn’t sure about how it would work and affect my pacing, but about the third quarter I had confidence it was going to work. I started to tailor the broadcast to play up the point that Anderson was not a professional announcer. Anderson’s weakness of not being a professional announcer became his strength. People recognize that he is a tremendous communicator, which he is. It worked.”
A record crowd and one of the greatest drives in UT history
A record crowd showed up, buoyed by the new east side upper deck that added 6,307 seats, making total stadium capacity 64,429.
As for the game itself, it all came down to one of the great drives in Tennessee history, as Wyche led the Vols, trailing 17-9, to the north end against the clock and a resolute Georgia defense, led by Bill Stanfill, Billy Payne and Jake Scott.
With Wyche throwing a touchdown pass to Kreis and a two-point conversion toss to DeLong, the Vols scored eight points after time had expired to steal a 17-17 deadlock.
Dan Jenkins, writing for Sports Illustrated’s Sept. 23 edition, called the game a “Rouser on a Rug.” The Red Smith Award winning journalist was 38 years old and in his fifth year with for the magazine.
“In fact, the lack of damage to the nonturf, plus the unsoiled jerseys, gave the game an unreal quality; the unspeckled field and the clean suits made the last play look like the first,” he wrote in his game story. “As it turned out, the game would have been a classic if it had been played on a large barge moving down the Tennessee River, which almost washes against the end zone of the Vols’ stadium.”
“A tie game is harder to write,” Jenkins said last week in an email to the News Sentinel, “but in this case, I had the turf to deal with.”
The game coverage garnered five color photos by SI’s Walter Iooss Jr., between pages 14-17, including the Kreis TD catch and Delong’s two-point grab, both coming after time had run out. Kreis appeared to be juggling the ball as he made the catch, but held on, and DeLong evaded Scott on his way to the end zone.
Iooss, in his ninth year for SI, was involved in a memorable moment before the game.
“The thing I remember best is down on the field before the game when my photographer and I were examining the turf,” Jenkins said. “A uniformed cop told him if he put his foot past a certain white line, he was going to jail. The photog was Walter Iooss and yes, he had long hippie hair.”
Vols celebrate, but it was 'a terrible tie for Georgia'
The Vols celebrated the tie, while Georgia had to endure a long walk to its dressing room at the south end. The Bulldogs did, however, win the SEC title. A loss to Auburn on Nov. 9 did the Vols in, as Georgia ended up in the Sugar Bowl against Arkansas, while the Vols ended up in the Cotton Bowl against Texas. Both SEC teams lost.
The next day, the News Sentinel headlined its game story, “Vols’ Fantastic Finish Ties Georgia, 17-17: Wyche Passes Save U.T. in Tartanland.”
Dickey, who watched a number of youthful Vols make major contributions that day, said, “A lot of young players grew up out there today.”
Georgia coach Vince Dooley lamented the deadlock.
“There are the great ties, kissing-your-sister ties and terrible ties. This was a terrible tie for Georgia because of the lead we lost, and it was a great tie for Tennessee because of the way they came back at the end.”
Tom Mattingly is a freelance contributor.
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Post by relic on Sept 22, 2018 13:22:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the memories bro
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