Hi, and welcome to my web site.  My name is Mike, and this is my Tennessee Vols web page.

    I grew up on football like most boys, but love the college game more than pro football.  When I was 10, my parents and I moved to Nashville, TN.  My dad taught electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University from 1981-1986.  We went to all of Vandy's home games, and even to the Hall of Fame Bowl Game in 1982 where they lost to Air Force.  That year is also they last time Vandy had a winning season (8-4), and the last time they defeated the Vols (28-21).  Most of the people at our church and my school were either Vandy or Vols fans.  So, I heard a lot of how great the Vols were, especially when they upset Miami 35-7 in the 1985 Sugar Bowl.  Even though the Commodores lost most of their football games, it was still great watching the games and to see the legendary "Bear" Bryant, and some of the greats that came out of the SEC like Reggie White, Hershel Walker, Bo Jackson, Willie Gault and many more.  Even today, I still root for Vandy and the other SEC teams, except when they play the Vols--sorry dad.

    My parents and I moved to Centreville, VA in 1986 and I graduated from Chantilly High School in 1990.  After graduation, I went to beach week, and a week later I was playing GI Joe at the beaches of Ft. Dix for the Army Reserves.  I spent 6 years in the reserves, mostly in a supply capacity.  The last 3 years, I was the Unit Armorer for the 310th TAACOM at Ft. Belvoir, VA.  This is where I met my wife, Karol, who goes my Jay.  She has been in the Army for about 18 years now, the last 9 of it being in the Reserves at the 310th as an NBC specialist.  The first half, of her military career was spent on active duty, working in Military Intelligence and stationed in England and Germany.

In 1991, I went to the Unviersity of Tennessee and roomed with Larry Anderson, my best friend since we were freshmen in high school.  We always had great times together and at UT, a group of us would all go across the street to Neyland Stadium and watch the Vols football games.  When they played away games, we would watch the games on TV and listen to John Ward on the radio in the "study room."  The "study room" was a place  where we spent a lot of time watching college football and playing spades and poker all hours of the night.  The summer of 1992, back home in Virginia, I met and fell in love with Jay(see above).  We spent every possible moment together until it was time for me to go back to Tennessee.  I remained there only one more semester, leaving to come back to her; it was also cheaper on the phone bills.  We got married in March of 1994 and a month later, I was a daddy!!  His name is Chad and he is so precious (I'm not biased either).  The following month, I got my associates degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management and Hotel Management at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA).

I'm so glad I have a son to roughouse with and to watch the Vols game with on TV.  Jay isn't a big football fan or a big Vols fan either (still trying to convert her on that one).  Chad and I do love to annoy her constantly by having Rocky Top playing or John Ward's commentary playing off the computer all the time.  I think I've influenced him so much with Tennessee that I expect he's probably going to go there for school.  At 2 years old, he was already saying, "Touchdown" and signaling it with his hands.  Now at almost 5 years old, he says, "Touchdown Tennessee," and "Rocky Top."  He plays with my mini Tenessee football helmet that says go, "Go Vols," and plays a 5sec clip of Rocky Top.  I think that he plays with it so much because he knows it annoys mom.  She is nice to me and lets me watch football games whenever Tennessee is playing.  She even has watched a few of them with me and even some of the Lady Vols basketball games.  She watched the entire Lady Vols title game in 1997 and was impressed on how much they dominated the game.  I fianlly got her to go to a Vols football game at Neyland Stadium.  She was impressed by the entire stadium.  She actually enjoyed herself at the game and got into the game by helping the Vols crush the GameCocks.

           To be continued as our lives are being updated.

Throughout my site, many of the pictures have links to them, so be sure to check out all of them.  Thanks for visiting my site.  Please email me for comments or suggestions and come back often.

Mike

Vols Home Page

Vols Football Page

Vols Football Page 2

Lady Vols Page

John Ward Page

Pride of Southland Page

Email Me