Strange: TitleTown doesn't quite fit

Maybe you missed it Monday night, but in there between a big baseball trade and Madonna's denial that she's throwing batting practice for A-Rod, Knoxville got some love on ESPN's SportsCenter.

Our fair city is one of 20 finalists in ESPN's "TitleTown USA" promotion. It's a contest to help fill airtime in July when there essentially is nothing else to report on other than major league baseball.

When I Googled TitleTown, the first screen of entries all came back Green Bay, Wis. But what's the shelf life of a nickname? The beloved Packers may claim 12 NFL championships, but only one since 1968.

Knoxville's candidacy, if you watched the show, is based entirely on the University of Tennessee's athletic teams and the fanatical support they engender. Don't think we got any points for the Ice Bears.

Knoxville is a great college sports town. That's a given. It's a compliment to be included among 20 finalists, along with the other college towns, Ann Arbor, Columbus, Chapel Hill, Lawrence (Kan.), Louisville, Gainesville and Palo Alto (Calif.).

But TitleTown? That's a stretch for Knoxville, once you get past Lady Vols basketball.

Pat Summitt and Bruce Pearl came on live at the end of the hour. (Phillip Fulmer is vacationing.) Pearl summed it up:

"She just won her eighth national championship. We've got eight between us.''

When you think of TitleTown, even on any SEC level other than women's hoops, Knoxville isn't the first place on the tip of many tongues.

Florida has two national titles in men's basketball and one in football in the past three years.

The Gators routinely capture the SEC all-sports trophy and boast three Heisman Trophy winners.

In football, the sport that matters most in Knoxville, I guess a case could be made for SEC Eastern Division TitleTown. But I doubt anybody's jumping on that bandwagon.

Besides the Lady Vols' hoops dynasty, ESPN gave UT credit as an attendance leader in the three major sports and for five national championships in track.

Peyton Manning, Reggie White and Candace Parker got a nod. So did Fulmer, Johnny Majors, Willie Gault and Justin Gatlin.

"Right behind" women's basketball, ESPN said, UT has six national championships in football, "three consensus and three shared."

At this point, we pause to bemoan the lack of a playoff system in college football. Tennessee does claim six national titles in football but I don't think many folks, including true Vol fans, buy that.

The 1998 championship is undisputed. The 1951 title also is recognized far and wide by virtue of the Associated Press poll.

UT also lists 1938, 1940, 1950 and 1967 as national championships, according to various ratings or panels.

To be fair, the AP poll didn't begin until 1936 and for the first few years (TCU won in '38, Minnesota in '40) it probably didn't carry much more weight, if any, than the Dunkel, Litkenhous or any of the other systems already in business.

But back to TitleTown. In the big picture - and ESPN is big picture - a World Series or a Super Bowl trumps all those tennis trophies Stanford brings home to Palo Alto, or, for that matter, women's basketball trophies on display in Knoxville.

I don't know who will be declared the winner on July 27, but I'm betting it's a pro sports city. And it should keep in mind that TitleTown is a temporary moniker.

Green Bay had its day. Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Detroit have seen impressive eras.

Counting Foxborough as an extended suburb, Boston gets my vote as TitleTown for the current millennium.

As for Knoxville, it deserved being on the list.

It's a great sports town. But it's not TitleTown USA.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strangem@knoxnews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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