Calm and collected on the field, loose and fun-loving off of it, former Tennessee quarterback Dewey Warren was known to teammates and fans as one cool cat.

Or should we say, "rat?''

Warren, who quarterbacked the Vols from 1965 through 1967, has been affectionately known as "The Swamp Rat'' since his playing days at Jenkins High School in Savannah, Ga.

"It was my sophomore year, and I showed up a few minutes late for practice,'' Warren, a Valdosta, Ga., native, recalled with a chuckle. "My coach, Lamar Leachman, who had played at Tennessee, said: 'You're like an old swamp rat, and you better never be late again.'

"Well, I wasn't late, but the rest of the players heard him, so they started calling me that. When I was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals, Paul Brown introduced me to the team as the Swamp Rat. He liked that name.''

Warren will be inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame with nine others this year. The inductees will be honored at a dinner banquet on July 27 at the Knoxville Convention Center.

Peyton Manning will be the keynote speaker, but Warren accomplished something not even Manning could manage while at UT, becoming the first and only Vols' football player to win MVP honors in two different bowl games.

Warren took over starting duties as a sophomore in 1965 after incumbent Charlie Fulton injured his ankle the first play of a game with Ole Miss.

Warren, 6-foot-1, 195 pounds at the time, stepped in and won his four starts that season, turning in his first MVP performance in a 27-6 Bluebonnet Bowl victory over Tulsa.''

The prior game, Warren made a name for himself with a 37-34 victory over UCLA in a game played in Memphis. Warren scored the winning touchdown on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line.

"The folks at UCLA still say he didn't get in,'' said Bud Ford, UT's associate athletic director for media relations. "He says he made it by a yard, but it was closer than that.''

Richmond Flowers, a world-class hurdler who also played receiver for the Vols, said the win over the Bruins embodied what Warren was all about as a player.

"Dewey was still raw then, but he made that win happen,'' Flowers said. "He had 'it.' Nobody could measure it: it doesn't come in a 40-yard-dash time, or in arm strength. It was an intangible, and Dewey had it, and you saw that throughout his career.''

The win over the Bruins gave the Vols needed momentum heading into the Bluebonnet Bowl -- it was UT's first bowl appearance in eight years.

Warren led the Vols to a win in the Gator Bowl the following year, completing 17 of 29 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns in an 18-12 win over a Syracuse team featuring former collegiate greats Larry Csonka and Floyd Little.

In 1967, Warren was again quarterback when UT ran up a 9-2 record en route to the national championship as awarded by E.E. Litkenhous.

Johnny Mills, who led the Vols in receiving in 1965 and 1966, said it was easy for the players to rally around the Swamp Rat.

"You simply could not intimidate Dewey Warren,'' Mills said. "I don't care how many times you knocked him down, he'd just get right back and stick it in your ear. He was unflappable in the games.

"Then afterward, he'd be one of the guys to say, 'Let's go have a cold beer.' He was just one of the guys away from the field, a real jokester.''

Flowers remembers what might have been Warren's greatest stunt: a 50-yard race staged between the UT trickster and a horse that was held at some rodeo grounds near a Tellico Plains camp the players were working at in the summer of 1967.

"I'd told Dewey one day I knew I could beat a horse, because I'd heard that Jesse Owens had beat a thoroughbred in a 100-yard race in Montgomery, Alabama,'' Flowers said. "But Dewey didn't know the difference between a thoroughbred and a quarter horse. Thoroughbreds are built to run distance, quarter horses start faster, and I was racing a quarter horse.''

Flowers said he didn't know exactly what he'd gotten himself into, as Warren set out making posters, spreading the word and promoting the race.

"We had thousands of people there; helicopters, TV stations from Knoxville to Chattanooga,'' Warren said. "It was an incredible sight; it looked like a cock fight.''

Warren jokes that it was probably about as illegal as one, too, as there was ample betting going around.

"I told Richmond I guess it's safe for us to talk about it now,'' Warren said.

Flowers said he remembers the races like they were yesterday.

"It was the scariest moment of my life,'' said Flowers, who led the Vols in receiving in 1967 and won the 60-yard NCAA high hurdles in 1968, becoming the first UT trackster to win a national title.

"I knew I could start a lot faster than the horse, but you hear that horse coming from behind, and it crosses your mind horses aren't that smart,'' Flowers said. "They don't understand staying in their lane, and you realize you could get run over. That horse sounded like a freight train coming.''

Flowers won two of the three races, and collected the $250 promised to him by Warren.

He later found out the payment for the races was $500, with Warren the promoter pocketing $250 himself after watching his receiver do the work.

"You know what made those teams I played for so special was how close we were and how much fun we had,'' Warren said. "Even today, if anybody needs help, they'll just call on one of their old teammates.''

Warren spent a year playing for the Cincinnati Bengals and another year with the Las Vegas Cowboys in what was then the equivalent of the World Football League.

After that, it was on to coaching, where he helped BYU coaching legend LaVell Edwards install the Cougars' high-profile passing attack.

"I took what I'd done at high school, college and the pros, and I just got innovative,'' said Warren, who coached BYU's quarterbacks and receivers and called the plays in 1972 and 1973. "I tried to create problems for the defense and dictate how they'd line up.

"It was a system designed to nickel and dime the defense, and take what they'd give. We'd throw to the backs, tight ends and receivers; whoever was open.''

Warren went on to coach at Kansas State, Copper Basin High School and the University of the South (now Sewanee), where he was offensive coordinator 1983-86.

Phil Savage, the senior vice president and general manager of the Cleveland Browns, was one of Warren's quarterbacks.

"I never had more fun being around a coach than the Rat,'' Savage said. "We had a blast; he was just really fun to play for.

"The offense he installed at Sewanee was of the BYU origin, and when I was a graduate assistant at Alabama, the offense Homer Smith brought was similar,'' Savage said. "I was able to pick up on that offense right away, and that was a huge step for me as a young coach.

"Dewey has been a great friend and a real supporter throughout my career.''

Warren finished his coaching career at Grundy County High School, where he served as linebackers coach in 1986-87.

"I still haven't closed the door on coaching,'' said Warren, who works at Herb Newton Nissan in Oak Ridge. "And if I get the chance, I'll get back on radio, too.''

Warren entertained UT fans on the airwaves 1997-2005, until 850 AM discontinued its local sportstalk programming.

It was there he became known for his stories of yesteryear and "Deweyisms,'' clichA(C)s he often butchered for the fun of it, such as "Water over the bridge.''

Warren said he enjoyed entertaining and interacting with his audience, much like he did his teammates and players throughout his career.

"I tried to be honest, and be friendly,'' Warren said. "The callers knew how far they could push me. I just wanted to have fun with it.''

His football heroics aside, The Swamp Rat could always be counted on to have fun while entertaining.

And that, as Warren often said on radio, is a good point.