The CheckerBoard

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TNjrod said...

First, sorry if you've answered this or brought it up before. I saw in a post recently, where you said you weren't a fan of UT in '98 or of college football in general. So, it just made me wonder how you became a fan. You're obviously one of the more critical and passionate fans on here. Where are you from? How did you come to be a fan? Of course you don't have to anwer, just sort of piqued my curiosity.

To make it even, i grew up in east tenn, family were fans. I'm 30. So i grew up watching and always had UT as my college fball team. Did some intern work many years back with training staff, and that made me an even bigger fan.

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hdrizzle21 said...

24 Yrs Old
From Philly, Have lived here my entire life (besides a year in Birmingham)

I became a casual Vol fan when I was 15 or 16 mainly because of Peyton Manning and Neyland Stadium, thought Neyland was the coolest stadium ever, and basically just picked an SEC team because I loved the passion of the conference. In Philadelphia there is no college football team minus Penn State, but I hated the Big10, and PSU fans are like a cult. (Why I wsn't surprised about the Sandusky thing) I would follow the Vols, cheer for them, but never got really pissed like now. When I was 18 I moved to Birmingham for work purposes. Living there just opens your eyes to college football, that's all there was down there and it sucked me in to. (I'll admit I listened to Finebaum everyday when I was down there) So I began to follow the Vols more and more.

So I haven't seen the really good Tennessee. I don't know what that's like. I've seen the tail end of Fulmer to now... But I love college football, and defend the SEC up here tooth and skin. But I am very loyal to my team, would never change no matter how bad it is, just expect more.

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"Old School"! A strong defense wins championships!

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volviking said...

Love the stories you guys are sharing. For me, I was born and raised in East Tennessee and me and my family have been all about the Big Orange as long as I can remember. When I was 6, my parents got me a Dewey "Swamp Rat" Warren uniform for Christmas - see pic. I still have that helmet as a cherished possession. Have loved being a part of the Big Orange family through the good and bad times. Watched a lot of great things with UT football from the Penn State game with my grandfather for the first game under the lights in Neyland to being in the Super Dome for the Miami Massacre.

I stormed the field as a student when Majors beat the Bear in 82 and was there for Majors' last game. Funny story about that - I told my friends that I was going to shake Coach Majors' hand and tell him thanks for everything as he ran off the field for the last time. Although they tried to talk me out of it, I jump the fence and made it to the Coach for a brief handshake and thank you. As the Trooper started to converge on me, I darted away through a gate and ran up a ramp. Fulmer was walking down from the Press Box and I got to shake his hand and wish him luck. Fortunately, the Troopers never pursued me any further and I got away with a great memory.