Mattingly: Third Saturday in October shouldn't be silent

Check the calendar. Pull out the game tickets and check them, too.

You might even check the schedules in the newspaper or on the World Wide Web. You might think your eyes are deceiving you.

They're not.

Next week brings us the once famous Third Saturday in October without Tennessee and Alabama being found anywhere in the same Zip code, either in Knoxville or in Tuscaloosa.

That's a shame. Starting in 1928 and continuing through 1994, it was Tennessee versus Alabama each "Third Saturday in October," Tennessee outfitted in orange and white on one side of the field, with Alabama in crimson and white on the other.

It was football the way the gods decreed it.

The series survived one apparent body blow in 1971, when the spoilsports at the SEC (and later the NCAA) came up with the white jersey rule (one team having to wear white, the home team getting the choice of jersey), but the series is no less intense because one team has to wear its white jerseys.

(There's a chance Tennessee might wear its orange jerseys at Tuscaloosa Oct. 24 this season, thanks to a new SEC jersey rule, but that's still off in the future, with no official announcement yet being made.)

Here's what we have next Saturday. You could call it another body blow, although the storms around the series have been gathering for a number of years.

Alabama is playing South Carolina at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and Tennessee is taking the week off. That's the state of college football these days, with the tradition and heritage of the rivalries being casually tossed asunder.

Things began changing in 1995, with Tennessee and Alabama actually playing on the second Saturday in October, Oct. 14. Tennessee had a bye week the next Saturday, but Alabama was otherwise occupied, playing at Ole Miss and winning 23-9.

Sportswriter Al Browning had a terse comment about the situation. "An honored tradition died because the Southeastern Conference sold it for television money," he wrote.

Not surprisingly, the rivalry did survive. There was a capacity crowd at Legion Field that night in October 1995, a venue that once shamelessly advertised itself as the "Football Capital of the South" along the facade of the east upper deck. (That is, until 2005, when the city of Birmingham demolished that upper deck.)

It was still Tennessee and Alabama; Alabama on the east side, Tennessee on the west side. Tennessee got the ball first and, after the opening kickoff went into the end zone, the Vols had the pigskin at the 20.

It was time to make a statement.

Tennessee hadn't beaten Alabama since 1985, a 16-14 decision on this same field that came down to a missed field goal at the buzzer.

There were a couple of memorable plays on the Tennessee side.

Peyton Manning threw an 80-yard TD pass to Alabamian Joey Kent on the game's first play.

Jay Graham had a 75-yard TD run in the third quarter to put the game away, mere seconds after the Tide had closed the margin to 28-14, and Legion Field was as loud as ever before in the series.

The Vols had the answer as Graham hit right end and had nothing but green turf between him and the south goal line.

It was a joyful night for Vol partisans, in and out of Legion Field. The final was 41-14, Tennessee.

For the record, Tennessee has not played on the "Third Saturday in October" seven times since 1994. The Vols have played Alabama four times on that date and added games against Ole Miss (2004) and Mississippi State (2008).

No one will ever talk reverently about the "Fourth Saturday in October," although Tennessee played Alabama on the fourth Saturday in 1998, the Vols' magic-laden national championship season, winning 35-18 in Knoxville; in 2002, also in Knoxville, losing 34-14; in 2003, winning 51-43 in six overtimes in Tuscaloosa; in 2004, winning 17-13 in Knoxville; and in 2008, losing 29-9, as Tide partisans lurked in every section of Gen. Bob's stadium.

The purists amongst us can scream to the heavens about the tradition and heritage of the "Third Saturday in October," but the 2009 schedule says Oct. 24. Alas, the 2010 game is slated for Oct. 23, another fourth Saturday. There is a saving grace, however.

"It is a war of fierce intensity, and many intangibles make it more colorful than the leaves that wave in cool breezes when games are played in Knoxville and more hospitable than the annual pre-game gathering of fans from both programs near Denny Chimes when the games are played in Tuscaloosa," Browning wrote.

Whenever and wherever the teams play, the echoes of the series still resound in the hearts and minds of fans who follow both schools.

Tom Mattingly, who has attended every Tennessee-Alabama game since 1965, 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). His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian." Send comments to tjmshm@comcast.net.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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