Vols’ Hometown Giddy Over Title

Tennessee’s hometown embraced the Vols’ national championship football team with a mad rush for souvenirs and a day-after desire to capture the moment forever.

Knoxville sports bars were packed during the Vols 23-16 victory Monday night with boisterous, cigar-smoking, high-fiving fans. The city’s embrace was more low-key Tuesday morning as commemorative ball caps appeared on the heads of sober downtown workers.

“I think this was the year of destiny, fate, call it whatever you want to,” said Vols fan Will Kirkpatrick. “I think UT was destined to make it where they did this year.”

A small electronic sign behind the counter of the downtown Post Office flashed the message in orange pulses: “A Perfect Season … How ‘Bout Them … Vols.”

The Volunteers win over Florida State capped a 13-0 season and gave the university its first national football title since 1951.

The university’s official party returned from Tempe, Ariz., Tuesday afternoon. But the players went their separate ways with their families and coach Phillip Fulmer was scheduled to stop in Knoxville only long enough to hop on another plane for a recruiting trip.

An official celebration will have to wait until next week, when UT students return from winter break. Plans for a Jan. 16 celebration might be scrapped because it’s the same day as Gov. Don Sundquist’s inauguration.

“There are all these conflicts,” Deputy Mayor Gene Patterson said, noting it also is falls on the weekend before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. “But this only happens about once every half-century, so we can’t wait until the next one.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Victor Ashe is proposing to rename Stadium Drive on the UT campus in front of Neyland Stadium to Phillip Fulmer Way.

Tostitos, sponsor of the Fiesta Bowl, flooded grocery stores with commemorative bags of chips. And retailers with UT goods expected to sell millions of dollars in merchandise.

Hundreds of fans rushed the Sport Seasons store in an otherwise-closed West Town Mall minutes after the game ended shortly before midnight.

“I got here when it was 23-9 and as soon as I got in the door, within two minutes, there were two guys standing outside,” store manager Joey Smith said. “And from then on it (the merchandise) started to go.”

His initial inventory was gone in a half-hour.

“To be honest with you, we didn’t realize there would be this kind of response,” he said. “But we are glad.”

Alan McCarter of Seymour bought an armful of Tennessee shirts and caps.

“It was more or less whatever you could get your hands on, and then see if you wanted it or not,” McCarter said.

Souvenir makers Bacon & Co. of Knoxville and New Hampshire-based Pro Player cranked up their printing operations as soon as the game was in hand.

“We came in at about midnight and I would say we will be here until midnight tonight,” Bacon & Co. spokesman Jed Dance said. “Or maybe around the clock again, if we can stand up.”

At Tennessee Fever, another Vols souvenir store, spokesman John Weaver said fans were waiting when he opened at 7:30 a.m. and half of the 600 championship items he stocked were sold by midday.

What’s selling? “Hats, shirts, anything that says ‘Tennessee national champions,” he said. And more is on the way. “License plates, trash cans, flags, ties, anything you can put an orange ‘T’ on.”

Associated Press