Mattingly: Turnaround of 1967 a cause to celebrate

When Tennessee defeated Florida 34-32 on Dec. 1, 2001, in Gainesville, there was a tumultuous celebration, albeit hastily arranged, at Tom Black Track just after the team charter touched down at McGhee-Tyson Airport.

Vol fans packed the track seating area and beyond to welcome their heroes home. It was a magic moment, to be sure, maybe a bit premature, but magic nonetheless.

There was precedent for such a welcome home, however.

Those of us who had been around a while were convinced we had seen it all before, 34 years earlier, the night of Nov. 18, 1967. It was quite a celebration that night, too.

In that 1967 season, the Tennessee football program was reaching for the stars. There had been an 8-1-2 record and that classic win over UCLA in 1965. There was an 8-3 mark in 1966 that was exciting and oh-so-close to being something really special. Things were really special at Neyland Stadium and wherever else the Vols would play in those years and beyond.

On taking the head coaching job Dec. 2. 1963, Doug Dickey had said it would take four years to get Tennessee back to the top. A major step would be winning the SEC title and garnering a big bowl bid. The Vols played in the Orange Bowl after the 1967 season, and that's as big as it got in those days.

Tennessee played Ole Miss at Memphis Memorial Stadium, having lost to the Rebels every year since the Vols last won in 1958, 18-16 in Knoxville. It was another of the "key games" in that SEC and national championship season, Dickey's fourth year at the Vol helm.

Tennessee was riding a six-game winning streak after a season-opening loss to UCLA. The always-formidable Rebels took their best shot at derailing the Vol express before a packed house in Memphis that would prove equally divided in its loyalties.

Tennessee, dressed in orange and white, won 20-7 over Johnny Vaught's crew, dressed in blue and gray, a squad that was bigger than Tennessee, but couldn't effectively handle the Vols' speed and quickness.

The Vols won with an attack led by tailback Walter Chadwick, who threw his second touchdown pass of the season, left-handed, by the way (the first going to Ken DeLong against Alabama in October), this time to tight end Terry Dalton. Chadwick, who always had a nose for the end zone, scored on a 9-yard run. Karl Kremser added two field goals to establish the final margin.

Vol fans not in attendance in Memphis huddled around their radios listening to George Mooney and Bob Foxx's call of the game.

By game's end, jubilation reigned in Knoxville and elsewhere across Big Orange Country. The powers-that-be decided to have a welcome home ceremony on today's site of the Physical Education building on campus near Tom Black Track.

Fans were encouraged not to go to the airport, but to come to campus. Fans did, with flags flying. There might even have been a bonfire. They did that type thing in those long-ago days. There had been a large crowd at the airport after the Alabama game that October, but nothing like this one.

The pep rally was the lead story of the next day's Knoxville News-Sentinel, as it was known in those days, the crowd being estimated at more than 1,000, crammed into a really small area. No one sang "Rocky Top," but that didn't matter. No one really knew of the song's existence anyway.

Dickey made a brief speech expressing appreciation for the welcome home. It had been a tough, hard-fought game, Dickey saying he had "never been prouder" of his team and reminding fans there were two games left to play. Orange Bowl representatives showed up two days later, pen in hand.

Vol fans reveled in the moment. Two weeks later, the SEC crown came home officially after a 41-14 win over Vanderbilt, the first title in 11 years. Even a narrow loss to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl couldn't take the luster off the Vol season.

All the 1967 Vols did in the regular season was win nine in a row after a season-opening loss to UCLA, defeating a Shug Jordan-coached Auburn team, a Bear Bryant-coached Alabama team, a Charley McClendon-coached LSU team, and a Vaught-coached Ole Miss team along the way.

All were coming off national championships in the late 1950s or early 1960s. They were tough, physical games, all games for the memory banks. They were the lead dogs in the SEC, the standards by which success was measured.

The Vols overcame an exorbitant number of injuries, with any number of young players contributing to the Vol effort. Dickey called it a "team" that refused to back down in the face of adversity.

When the Vols won that year, Tennessee fans knew how to party.

And party they did.

Tom Mattingly is the author of "The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006" (2006), now available in second edition at fine bookstores everywhere, and "Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years" (1998). Send comments to tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Want to use this article? Click here for options!