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Is there ever such a thing as a "good loss?" Fans talk about it, and coaches have been known to admit it in retrospect. On game day, even on Sunday afternoon coaches shows, however, the idea of a "good loss" is hard to swallow.

Over the years, the 1967 Tennessee-UCLA game seems to have become known as a "good loss."

The Vols were coming off records of 8-1-2 and 8-3, after a 4-5-1 record in 1964. Doug Dickey had said the fourth year of his tenure at Tennessee, 1967, would be something special.

"I would hope that within the four-year contract we could have a program UT could be proud of," Dickey said prophetically.

It was special, maybe even legendary. The Vols won the 1967 SEC title and a share of the national championship, overcoming the 20-16 loss to UCLA and a boatload of injuries to finish No. 2 in the nation in the polls. It was an exciting time for the Tennessee program.

The national championship came from Litkenhous, one of many rating systems recognized by the NCAA. Two members of this team - Bob Johnson and Steve Kiner, plus Dickey - have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. "Hacksaw" Reynolds became a popular pro player, recognized as a John Madden favorite from the time he wore his game uniform on the team bus to Super Bowl XVI (San Francisco 26, Cincinnati 21). He played in three Super Bowls, winning two.

But that's getting ahead of the story.

Tennessee flew to Los Angeles for the season opener Sept. 16 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, with a number of questions about a youthful defensive unit. Fans and players alike were optimistic about the season's prospects.

Tennessee came in with one of its best offensive lines ever. Johnson was a senior, who was coming off an All-America season in 1966. Johnson and tackles John Boynton and Elliott Gammage were each two-year starters and seniors, and Charles Rosenfelder had started as a sophomore. Redshirt senior Joe Graham, hampered during his career by a bad knee, filled the guard spot opposite Rosenfelder.

UCLA won on a serpentine 26-yard run by Gary Beban, that year's Heisman Trophy winner, late in the fourth quarter. The Vols stayed in the game off five UCLA turnovers. UCLA had 26 first downs and 412 total yards, while the Vols could amass 14 and 211. Dewey Warren missed connections late in the game with tight end Ken DeLong on a play that could have won the game. Johnson remembers it well.

"We were floating around," he said. "Of course, we had read the whole off-season about how good we were going to be. Gary Beban had a couple of great individual plays, but we should have beaten them. My only regret, looking back at the games we played at Tennessee, was that UCLA game."

The Vols had an open date the next week, and players of that day remember how demanding practices were.

"We are going to learn to tackle," Dickey said. "We're not going to miss tackles any more like we did at UCLA."

The Vols rebounded the next time out, defeating Auburn 27-13. Warren banged up a knee, and Charley Fulton took over and performed admirably. Fulton hurt his knee the next week, and Bubba Wyche, little-used to this point in his career, took over under center and led the Vols to wins over Georgia Tech and Alabama. Imagine beating Alabama at Legion Field with a third-string quarterback.

The Vols did just that, 24-13 (chronicled in Sports Illustrated, with Wyche on the cover and game story by John Underwood), with fans figuring out this team was something special.

The Vols won out, including the first win over Mississippi since 1958, with a 9-1 record bringing home the first SEC title since 1956 and an Orange Bowl date against Oklahoma.

Dickey had a special feeling about this team. "We were not a collection of outstanding football players," he said. "We had some good ones, of course. You have to have good ones to win, but our strength lay in being a TEAM. The players had unity and purpose. They thought of themselves as a team."

The Vols lost a close one to the Sooners when a last-second field goal faded to the right, but Vol fans always remember this aggregation fondly.

That's the way it is when a team gets back to the top after a time things weren't going that well.

Dickey gave his team due credit after the season, even if it seemed a little understated. "When you go 9-1 and beat Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss, and Auburn, you have had a pretty good year."

All Dickey had to do was to get their attention.

A "good loss" at UCLA helped make it happen.

Tom Mattingly is the author of "The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006" (2006), to be published in second edition in 2009, and "Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years" (1998). He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.