With football time coming to Tennessee in barely a week, the UT Alumni Association kicked off the season a little early in their own way with the annual Welcome Back BBQ.
The event took place Wednesday evening at Thompson-Boling Arena, where more than 500 alumni and their families gathered to meet and greet with the UT football team and see the “Voice of the Vols” and play-by-play commentator, Bob Kesling, interview Head Coach Derek Dooley.
President-Elect of the National Alumni Association, Worrick Robinson, was ecstatic about how the event turned out.
“This event has really become the kick-off for the fall,” Worrick said. “It has become an annual event that the alumni come back to again and again.”
The football team mingled and dined with the alumni on catering provided by Buddy’s Bar-B-Q. Wearing their uniforms and smiles, the team spent the early evening chatting and shaking hands with all of the alumni and signing autographs on all kinds of UT memorabilia ranging from posters to helmets to footballs.
Tom Simcox, who taught the ROTC at UT from 1969-71, and his young granddaughter were two of the many attendees getting autographs.
“She’s got on her Tyler Bray jersey and has a poster that half the team has signed,” Simcox said. “She’s going to keep that in her room all season.”
This was the third time Simcox had attended the BBQ and he plans to come to others in the future.
Simcox remembered his days at UT fondly, although he admits things have definitely changed.
“It’s a lot bigger than I remember,” said Simcox. “And you couldn’t walk across the campus in uniform back then without somebody cussing you out or throwing up a ‘sieg heil.’ Things are a lot less radical now.”
At 7 p.m., Mary Ellen Smartt, president of the Alumni Association’s Knoxville Chapter and the event’s coordinator, began the ceremonies by thanking the many people and organizations that helped sponsor and set up the BBQ. She then turned the microphone over to the event’s emcee, Kesling.
Kesling split the evening by interviewing players Herman Lathers and Justin Hunter as well as Derek Dooley. Kesling’s interviews focused mainly on Lathers and Hunter recovering from injuries that sidelined them last season. Both players said that they’ve recovered and are ready to play North Carolina State next weekend.
Dooley discussed how the Vols had just returned from training camp at Milligan College. At camp, Dooley forbid the team from watching television or bringing laptops. He said that their cell phones had to remain in their rooms during the day, and he made the defensive players room with offensive players.
Dooley boasted of the team maturing from last season and said that the team’s unity is stronger. He was confident about the upcoming season, but he acknowledged that there will still be challenges ahead.
“There’s a level of caution that I have that the fans don’t have,” Dooley said. “A lot of our guys have not had a lot of experience. … So even though we have a lot of talent out there, there’s a real concern for lack of experience in the receiving end.”
Chancellor Jimmy Cheek was also in attendance and spoke briefly to the alumni. He mentioned once again that the newest year of freshmen students have the highest average GPA and ACT/SAT scores than any batch of incoming freshmen in university history.
He also reiterated UT’s goal of becoming a Top 25 university, noting that improving the campus’s facilities and improving the graduation rate, which the chancellor acknowledged was lacking.
The alumni followed as Dooley and the players exited the arena. Everyone was excited for the new football season and the success of the alumni BBQ.
For Louise Stevenson, alumni of 1977-82, it was her first time at the BBQ.
“It was fun,” said Stevenson. “It’s nice to be back in UT territory.”
She, like many other alumni, will be coming back to future Welcome Back BBQs.
