Knoxville historian and UT alumnus Jack Neely intertwined UT, Knoxville and history together in a lecture on Thursday evening.
According to Neely, UT began as Blount College, founded by Presbyterian minister Samuel Carrick, and wasn’t considered a part of Knoxville until 1879. Blount College later became East Tennessee College, with President Thomas Jefferson saying that East Tennessee needed to become an “academic village;” the college eventually became the University of Tennessee.
Neely discussed common misconceptions of Tennessee, some of which sprouted when the fight song “Rocky Top” first appeared, and talked about landmarks and notable figures. For example, before he became the sheriff of Maybury, Andy Griffith appeared at UT in the Alumni Memorial Building as a comedian. Another example Neely provided was Frank Sinatra, who performed at Clarence Brown Theater, named after Irish MGM director Clarence Brown.
Neely also brought up many notable alumni of UT, such as Lowell Cunningham, who came up with the idea for “Men in Black” after seeing the same black limo repeatedly.
Neely emphasized the importance of knowing the history of Knoxville and UT.
“Without history, a campus is just a collection of buildings of various sizes–and teachers and administrators who are probably from somewhere else and maybe, truth be told, expect to go somewhere else before they retire,” Neely said. “History is a big part of what makes people care for a place, to come back to it, keep it going, send their kids there.”
Freshman in journalism Brandon Shown said that he enjoyed the lecture and found a connection to Neely’s stories, with one man that Neely mentioned being Shown’s relative, and explained how he found the connection between him and Knoxville.
“Me being a new age kind of person, I was born in 2000 so I’m a freshman here, so it’s like I knew nothing about this place (being UT) beforehand (prior to eighteen years ago),” Shown said.
Neely concluded the talk by relating history to current students.
“You never know where a UT degree will take you,” Neely said. After hearing about the history of this campus, many will agree with that statement
Neely will be giving walking history tours of UT as part of Homecoming 2018 on Nov. 1 at 4:00 p.m. and on Nov. 2 at 2 p.m.
