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Mattingly: Recalling finest hours of Stokely
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The story on govolsxtra.com Friday afternoon came suddenly … and was sad. It was almost heartbreaking. An old friend was soon to be consigned to history.
“UT athletic department leaving Stokely” read the headline.
Stokely began life as the Armory-Fieldhouse Dec. 2, 1958, its first game highlighted by Kenny Coulter’s 11th-hour jump shot that defeated Wyoming. It became Stokely Athletics Center Dec. 1, 1966, with a win over Michigan, and ended its run of Tennessee men’s hoops Feb. 28, 1987, with a win over Georgia. The final game overall saw the Lady Vols, who played 1977-87 in Stokely, win over Auburn on March 21, in the Mideast Regional finals, en route to the first of seven national crowns.
There was some amazing basketball played not only on the hardwood floor with the old-fashioned interlocking “T” at center court, but also on the Tartan floor that came with the expanded arena. Just to show that things can come full circle, hardwood came back in preparation for the move to Thompson-Boling Arena.
Gene Tormohlen’s senior year as a Vol came in the new arena on Yale Avenue, later Volunteer Boulevard. “Big Gene” averaged double-figures points and rebounds during his career.
Ray Mears came along in 1962-63, with enough pageantry to make Barnum blush. In the next four years, tickets were in high demand, enough so the arena was expanded before the 1966-67 season. That season, Ron Widby not only led the charge to the SEC title, but was also named league “Player of the Year.” Ron scored a school-record 50 points in an 87-60 win over LSU March 4.
Businessmen came to the games wearing orange ties, and, before long, the arena was awash with orange, and a legendary home floor advantage was created.
There were bitter battles between 1968 and 1970, as Mears went after LSU’s legendary Pete Maravich with a vengeance, holding “Pistol Pete” well below his 40-points-plus scoring average. In 1970, Maravich and Jimmy England put on a show, Pete getting 31 and Jimmy 30. Rudy Kinard knocked home a jumper at the buzzer to give the Vols the victory.
Mears hit the jackpot in 1973-74 with the signing of Ernie Grunfeld and in 1974-75 with signing of Bernard King, both schooled in the ways of New York City basketball. There was no better moment than Feb. 15, 1975, when Tennessee knocked off Kentucky 103-98. Stokely was never louder, with Vol fans on their feet nearly the whole game.
The Vols jumped to a 56-44 lead at the half and beat back repeated Kentucky rallies. No one could forget Joe B. Hall patrolling , the Kentucky bench area wearing his trademark blue blazer, holding a rolled-up program in his hand.
Don DeVoe hit the tri-fecta in the 1978-79 season with wins over Kentucky in Lexington, Knoxville, and in the SEC tournament, and led the way in pushing for a new arena that eventually opened in 1987.
There was the “Miracle at the Vol Classic,” when Tennessee trailed American University by a point with seconds to go, with American having the ball. Gary Carter somehow intercepted the inbounds pass and threw in a “Hail Mary” that gave the Vols the win.
Stokely was nearing the end of its run in 1986-87, but there were still memories to be savored. Tennessee defeated Auburn 103-84 Valentine’s Day that season, with Vol guard Tony White putting 51 points on the board, nearly 20 years after Widby had scored 50.
The win over Georgia gave the Vols a 321-69 mark in the two arenas. The Lady Vols were 137-18.
If you walk carefully through the corridors of Stokely, the memories are still fresh. There was the smell of popcorn in the north concourse, and the sight of Andy Holt, resplendent in an orange blazer, seated in the lower section at the north end. There were the life-size pictures of Vol players in the ticket office lobby.
There were the strains of “Sweet Georgia Brown” in warm-ups, with Roger Peltz and Bill Seale juggling basketballs while riding a unicycle. There was Haywood Harris on the public address system, his understated commentary never overshadowing the game.
If you listened carefully, you could also hear John Ward, calling the action from high above the floor in a style never duplicated.
“You walked, sir,” was one. “England at the line with Tennessee leading by two. He’ll have two shots. Did he make it? He made it.” “King … of the Volunteers!” “Ernie G of Tennessee!” Finally: “Bottom!”
As happened with Alumni Memorial Gym, memories of the Fieldhouse and Stokely will exist only in the mind’s eye, and in whatever audio and videotapes might still be around.
But what memories they’ll be.
Requiescat in pace, Armory-Fieldhouse and Stokely Center (Dec. 2, 1958–March 21, 1987).
Tom Mattingly, who has seen Tennessee games in four arenas and spent 18 years working in Stokely Center, is the author of “The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006” (2006), to be published in second edition in 2008, 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.
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Posted by tngeoff on February 2, 2008 at 4:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Good stuff.
Posted by arkanvol on February 2, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I saw many games at Stokely 1984-87. I believe the Stokley Jinx included a string of 12 or 13 wins against Kentucky. I saw Tony White score 51 against Auburn. Willie Burton at the buzzer to beat LSU. Michael Brooks and Fred Jenkins. Electric atmosphere against Kentucky. The fans would chant - sit Joe sit, sit Joe sit - every time Joe B hall would stand up. Charles Barkley and Karl Malone both played there against us. I still walk around Stokley when I'm on campus. I've missed it since we left for TBA. Great memories.
Posted by vol52 on February 2, 2008 at 4:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We beat a very good bama team in triple overtime with Grunfield and King both on the bench because they fouled out. All the ky games were good ones also.
Posted by mdvol on February 2, 2008 at 4:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Seems like I remember my first visit to Stokely being a Lady Vol victory over Old Dominion. They had Anne Donnovan at 6'7" and we had Lea Henry and 5'4 and 3/4". Must have been early eighties before any banners were hung. Who knew I was witnessing a coach who will end her career with over 1000 wins.
Posted by Hunter on February 2, 2008 at 5:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I was too young to see a game in Stokely, but I am in love with it because of the stories my Dad has told me about the amazing atmosphere. Wish I could have seen it in its glory....
Posted by mike.reinhardt on February 2, 2008 at 6:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Fun place I sat at the press table and saw us defeat K.McHale and Minn. Dickie V was roaming press row.
Posted by gate12 on February 2, 2008 at 6:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I remember my first visit to Stokely, also. It was the state high school basketball championship, and was quite a sight for a young teenage kid. I remember how the place seemed so large and so intimate at the same time. The upper decks behind the baskets - how low they hung above the ground level - and the way they obscured the view of the scoreboard for those underneath. And those long, long support wires coming off the top corners of the backboards and connecting way up in the ceiling, somewhere. Bill Justus, Bill Hahn, Tom Boerwinkle, Tom Hendrix, Jimmy England, Len Kosmolski (the crowd always ragged him about not being agressive enough), Ernie & Bernie, Mike Jackson, the list goes on and on. The place could really rock and roll given the right moment. And I remember a not-so-pleasant moment, too. It was the last game of the season back in the early 1970's. TN vs. KY. The winner would win the SEC championship (before divisions and tournaments). TN trailed by 1 point with seconds to go. TN was fouled, and Mike Edwards (the Greenfield Gunner) stepped to the line. Adolph Rupp called a timeout to ice Edwards. You could have heard a pin drop. Edwards choked badly and clanked both free throws off the front of the rim. In the last 3 seconds there was a mad scramble for the ball, and John Snow launched a long shot from the left corner of the baseline that almost (but not quite) went in. Ky won. TN cried.
Posted by stroker on February 3, 2008 at 6:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I remember Al McGuire and Marquette trailing by several points early in the second half. McGuire called time out and rather than talk to his team, he went to mid-coourt sideline behind the ref and ran his jaw the entire time out. Marquette came from behind and won the game. I knew the ref and could not wait to ask him why he let McGuire talk to him that way. He said McGuire was telling him how hard it was raining when they got on the plane to leave Milwaukee.
Posted by jopad on February 3, 2008 at 8:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I too remember well the old field house and Stokley as it was renamed. I saw Jerry West (and the WV Mountaineers) score 44 and beat the Vols. One of my HS classmates was a starter on that team. My wife and I had season tickets for 15 years in Stokley and was priviledged to see so many great games played there. We missed only one game in that time. By the way, I remember the shot Gary Carter made but thoght it was against the Ragin Cajuns of SW Lousiana State. Maybe my memory fails. Stokley was a great place to watch BB. You got to know all the people around you and looked forward to seeing them along with the Frosh and Varsity games.
Posted by ncvol17 on February 3, 2008 at 11:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I never followed basketball until my freshman year at UT in 75. Ernie, Bernie and company were what turned me to the game. Wasn't it Mike Jackson who had such a great long shot?
I remember waiting out in the cold all night for tickets & burning stacks of the Daily Beacon to keep warm. You could get 10 tickets per person if you had collected 10 activity cards.
Great memories that continue into the Pearl era.
Posted by maples on February 3, 2008 at 1:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Stokely was a magical place for me growing up. I was at the game that featured England and the Pistol but will never forget Rudy's shot. I think that is one of the greatest games ever played at Stokely. Gus Manning and Heywood Harris saw to it that us kids could see the game by selling us standing room only tickets for one dollar. I got to sit real close to the LSU bench and got a close up of the Pistol and his Dad, Press. Great moment in my life.
Posted by gate12 on February 3, 2008 at 3:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
maples, I wasn't at Stokely for the game Rudy won on the last shot. But I was listening to John Ward on the radio. Ward's call - "GOOD OLD KINARD!!"
stroker, I was at that Marquette game and remember the time out with McGuire. (That's a funny story about the rain). I also recall a critical TN turnover at the end of the game where somebody stepped on the baseline just before making a shot. The "boo's" were deafening. I wonder if the call had anything to do with the "rain"?
Posted by dallasdog1 on February 3, 2008 at 3:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
my favorite game was an 1982 or 1983 game against UK. The cats had bowie and turpin and big mel could not his his free throws at the end....VOLS pulled it out. I have never yelled harder or for a longer period of time in my life. At the end of the game we got to the entrance under the goal that UK would exit from........my buddy and I were there when the boyz in blue lumbered out...screaming Joe B hall sux 3 feet from joe but It was so loud he could not hear us....awesome time.
Posted by icecream on February 4, 2008 at 11:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Rodney Woods turn around jumper beats KY at Stokley. Great memory!
Posted by missrvrvol on February 5, 2008 at 12:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I listened to many a game played at Stokely and looked forward to the Sat night replay with John Ward's play by play dubbed on the video. Never saw a game there, but it was a regular stop when my dad took me to football games. Spent hours walking the corridors looking at those giant photos. Great memories...
Posted by ge446 on February 6, 2008 at 5:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Tom, You forgot to mention the first game I ever saw UT play. The win over KY, who was ranked #1 in the nation, with 6'5" Howard Bain playing the point in a 1-3-1 defense that was able to hold KY well enough to allow UT to win. Really great memories of Rupp in the brown suiot and of the many great UT players. Larry Robinson, John Snow, Tom Bowerwinkle, Lynn Kolsmolski and it gopes on and on... Oh, the KY win was in the spring of 66 on my first week-end home from Vietnam. The best welcome I got...
Posted by ge446 on February 6, 2008 at 5:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Tom, You forgot to mention the first game I ever saw UT play. The win over KY, who was ranked #1 in the nation, with 6'5" Howard Bain playing the point in a 1-3-1 defense that was able to hold KY well enough to allow UT to win. Really great memories of Rupp in the brown suiot and of the many great UT players. Larry Robinson, John Snow, Tom Bowerwinkle, Lynn Kolsmolski and it goed on and on... Oh, the KY win was in the spring of 66 on my first week-end home from Vietnam. The best welcome I got...
Posted by tjmshm on February 7, 2008 at 9:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Didn't forget. Not enough room. I saw that game and remember how much Howard Bayne's presence meant to the Vols. He had missed the Kentucky game at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington the week before and Kentucky won 78-64. (That was the game Ray Mears wore the brown suit and ruffled Adolph Rupp's feathers.)
Then came the finale for the Armory and the final score was 69-62. Ron Widby and Red Robbins led the way, scoring-wise. Kentucky didn't lose again until the historic game with Texas Western. If the 103-98 game was No. 1 in the history of Stokely, the 1966 Kentucky game had to be 1a.
Posted by rabidvol1998 on February 8, 2008 at 10:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Students today think they invented standing and holding a newspaper up when the other team is introduced. I can recall both at Stokley. I can remember sitting in the end zone on the floor a couple of times where I swear I could hear Ernie and Bernie sweat!
Stokely was also easier to sneak in to. Although one Alabama game I got caught 3 times and never made it in.
Great place and great memories.
Posted by slambob2 on February 23, 2008 at 8:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'll never forget the Superman theme being played by the band and the crowd screaming "Federmann!"
Dan Federmann (sp?) had a Superman-like night in burying the Cats - must have been around 1981. I loved every minute of UT basketball when I was in college. Devoe and DeVols were rock solid.
slambob
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