Mattingly: Lovely looking knot in famed Tiger tail

Photo by News Sentinel archives

Tennessee prepares to stop LSU at the goal line on Oct. 24, 1964 in Baton Rouge, La.

This is, frankly, a “make-up call” for a column that appeared Aug. 24, in which I listed the top 10 defensive plays in Tennessee’s football history. This one was left out and shouldn’t have been. It’s a keeper, a treasure.

On Oct. 24, 1964, Tennessee and LSU squared off in a rare day game in Baton Rouge, and, given the history of the series, an equally rare game between the Vols and Tigers, the teams having played sparingly, only 12 games, beginning in 1925.

Tennessee was rebuilding under Doug Dickey, but the defenders, led by future Hall of Famers Steve DeLong and Frank Emanuel, were tough as nails. So was LSU.

The Vols defense had given up but 55 points in the first five games of the season, compiling a 3-2 record. LSU’s defense was equally crusty, giving up but 16 points in wins over Texas A&M, Rice, North Carolina, and Kentucky.

NBC beamed the game nationally, with UT alum Lindsey Nelson and Terry Brennan on the call. It was the only game telecast that day. Kickoff was 3 p.m. EST. Attendance was 59,000, well below the normal nighttime crowd of 68,000 that season.

The Vols were a 14-point underdog. It was homecoming, and the Vols were the morsel set in front of the Tiger faithful, who waited expectantly for the good times to begin. It didn’t matter that the Tigers had defeated the Vols only once since the series began, and that the Vols were on a 10-game win streak against LSU. This was the day.

In the first half, the teams exchanged field goals, Tennessee’s Fred Martin kicking one from 21 yards out, after a touchdown pass from Hal Wantland to Stan Mitchell was called back due to Wantland having a foot just over the line of scrimmage.

Doug Moreau kicked one for LSU just before the half — a 27-yarder coming after a short punt by sophomore punter Ron Widby gave the Tigers great field position.

LSU looked close to landing a knockout punch after recovering a fumble at the Tennessee 15. It came down to fourth down just inside the Vols’ 1 early in the fourth quarter.

This was a modern-day Alamo, a line drawn in the sand, a crossroads for the Vols and their youthful skipper.

DeLong, the 1964 Outland Trophy winner, led the charge against an LSU front line that included three All-SEC selections. The Vols swamped Rusty Schwab mere inches short of the goal.

Pictures show DeLong getting under the LSU center, with a host of Vols right there to help out. It’s a legendary play in Vol history, overshadowed, perhaps, that it happened in a tie game.

Widby had five punts, 50, 54, 50, 47, and 59 yards in the second half for a 52-yard average that, along with three missed field goals by Moreau down the stretch after the DeLong-led stop, helped keep the Tigers at bay.

It ended 3-3, with the News-Sentinel’s headline the next day reading, “Tennessee Ties LSU, Just For Kicks.” Marvin West’s lead was vintage: “No longer content with moral victories and great effort, Tennessee’s slightly fabulous Vols tied a lovely looking 3-3 knot in the famed Tiger tail before 59,000 disbelieving customers and a few million stunned TV fans.”

Dickey called the deadlock a “giant step” for his Tennessee program in just the sixth game of the new regime.

“When you come to LSU a big underdog and go home with a tie,” he said, “you’ve played mighty well. Our defense did another good job.”

Tennessee defeated Georgia Tech 22-14 the next week in Atlanta, before losing the final trifecta to Mississippi, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt.

The 1964 season gave Vol fans hope that future years would be much better … and they were. A year later, the Vols were 8-1-2 and won a Bluebonnet Bowl contest over Tulsa.

The Dickey express was off and running.

DeLong was the “Most Outstanding Lineman” in the SEC, as named by the Birmingham Monday Morning Quarterback Club. He was team captain, but helped make other contributions to Vol fortunes.

Brother Ken DeLong arrived in 1965, becoming an All-SEC selection at tight end in 1968 and 1969.

In 1985, Steve’s son, Keith Allen DeLong, arrived in Knoxville as a freshman linebacker. He had a nose for the ball reminiscent of the way his father did. In 1988, Vol publicists put out a poster of Steve and Keith called “Defense by DeLong.”

Keith was 1988 team captain and also earned All-America honors. They are the only father-son All-America combination in Tennessee football history.

Over the years, Vol fans have consistently said, “Those DeLongs can really play, can’t they?”

Steve DeLong started the conversation, with his performance on an October afternoon in Baton Rouge being an unquestioned highlight.

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.”