Within just a few years, Tennessee fielded two very good football squads.  The Volunteers of 1896 and 97 lost only one game in nine tries.  The 1897 Captain and best player, Strang Nicklin, later became the baseball coach at West Point.  One of the players he coached was a young cadet by the name of Robert Reese Neyland.  More about him later.  Through the early 1900’s, Tennessee teams toiled in relative mediocrity, though they did put together back-to-back seven-win seasons in 1907 and 08.  Those teams were led by an imposing lineman named Nathan W. Dougherty, called "Big-Un" by his teammates.  In later years, Dougherty became the Dean of the UT College of Engineering and the Chairman of the Faculty Athletics Board.  He was inducted in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1967.

     From 1896-1920, Tennessee competed in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA).  Alabama and Vanderbilt were two of the league’s powerhouses, and in those days Vandy dominated the Vols in football.  In fact, the Vols did not beat their powerful football rivals from Nashville in their first twelve tries, managing only a 0-0 tie in 1900.  As the 1914 season approached, however, Vol fans felt that their team had finally amassed enough talent to compete for the SIAA Title.  Under Coach Zora G. Clevenger, Tennessee rolled to easy victories over their first four opponents that year and hosted Alabama in Knoxville on October 24.  After besting the Tide 17-7, hope began to grow that at last Tennessee would get over the hump against Vanderbilt.

    On November 7, the Vols traveled to Nashville to take on the Commodores.  Without a doubt, it was the biggest game in Tennessee football history to that point.  Fans in Knoxville who were unable to make the trek to Nashville anxiously awaited word of the game’s outcome by telegraph.  When word came that Tennessee had won a hard-fought victory over Vandy by a score of 16-14, it touched off a wild celebration in Knoxville that shut the city down for three days.  A holiday from classes was even declared at the University.  The 1914 Vols finished 9-0, capturing the SIAA Championship, UT’s very first title in football.

    The Vols posted another undefeated season under John Bender in 1916, but a season-ending tie against Kentucky State kept them from the SIAA Title.  Big changes were just around the corner, as the Vols joined the Southern Conference in 1921, and M.B. Banks was hired as coach.  Tennessee had played its home games at Wait Field, on the corner of 15th and Cumberland on campus.  Knoxville banker and UT Trustee Colonel William S. Shields, and his wife, Alice Watkins Shields, donated a piece of land behind Estabrook Hall on what is now Stadium Drive for the construction of a football field.  UT students labored to complete Shields-Watkins Field, complete with 3,200 seats, in time for the 1921 season opener against Emory and Henry.

    The following year, 1922, another important UT tradition was born.  Most football teams wore dark, nondescript jerseys in those days, but it was becoming increasingly popular to wear jerseys in the school colors on Game Day.  The Vols wore orange jerseys that year for the first time; the color was chosen because it was that of the American daisy which grew in profusion on the Hill north of the stadium.

    Coach Banks was moderately successful in his five-year tenure, never having a losing season and going 8-2 in 1922.  However, Banks never beat Vanderbilt, and had health problems that led him to resign from Tennessee and take a coaching job at Knoxville High School.  A young Army captain had arrived at UT in 1925 as an ROTC instructor and had been serving as Banks’ backfield coach.  The assistant, R.R. Neyland, had filled in for an ailing Banks as head coach in the 1925 Georgia game, leading the Vols to an impressive victory (Banks never beat the Bulldogs).  Nathan W. Dougherty hired Neyland after the ’25 season, giving the Captain a famous mandate:  "Even the score with Vanderbilt."

    Robert Neyland was the keenest football mind of his generation.  He installed an efficient single-wing offense and drilled his players on flawless execution.  His stifling 6-2-2-1 defense was a formidable challenge for the predominantly running teams of the era.  He stressed field position and the kicking game, and had seven "Maxims" that can still be recited by his players 40 and 50 years after their playing days are complete.  He had a system he could win with, but he needed some players.  Most importantly, his single-wing needed a tailback who could run, pass, or kick when the ball was snapped, similar to a T-formation quarterback operating out of the "shotgun."

    Neyland’s first recruiting class was filled with great players who would come to be known as "The Flaming Sophomores" of 1928.  The real difference-maker was Tailback Gene McEver, from Virginia High School in Bristol.  McEver was a 190-pound bruiser with halfback speed, and years after McEver had graduated, Neyland still called him "the best player I ever coached."  In 1929, McEver scored 21 touchdowns and 130 points—both are Tennessee records that still stand.

    The Vols went 8-1 in 1926, Neyland’s first season, but they were soundly beaten by Vanderbilt, 20-3.  The 1927 team went 8-0-1 and won the Southern Conference Championship, battling Vanderbilt to a 7-7 tie in Knoxville.  As Coach Neyland prepared his team for the 1928 season, he knew he had the makings of a powerhouse football team on the national level.  He added Alabama, the marquee football team of the South, to the 1928 schedule.  The Vols would travel to Tuscaloosa to take on the Tide, coached by the legendary Wallace Wade.
 
    McEver and the Volunteers beat Maryville and Centre by a combined score of 82-7 to open the ’28 campaign, then won a nail-biter over Ole Miss in Knoxville, 13-12.  Tennessee stood at 3-0, and next up was the mighty Crimson Tide.  The week prior to the game, Neyland engaged in some psychological warfare with Wallace Wade.  He told Wade that he was convinced that the Alabama team was far superior to the Vols, and asked that the final two quarters be shortened if the game got out of hand.  Coach Wade was shocked, but agreed to Neyland’s proposal.

    The stage was set for one of the most dramatic plays in Tennessee football history.  The Vols elected to receive the opening kickoff, and McEver awaited the kick as the deep man.  The "Bristol Blizzard" gathered in the ball under a full head of steam at the UT 2-yard-line and ran straight up the middle of the field.  On film, it just appears that McEver possesses an extra gear that makes him noticeably faster than any other player.  He ran virtually untouched into the end zone.

    Tennessee never trailed in the game, taking a tough 15-13 victory from the Crimson Tide.  It was the greatest victory in UT football history to that point.  The Volunteers, and their young coach, would be recognized as one of the nation’s elite college football teams from that day forward.