Power T doesn't stand for tradition

Things are rocky on Rocky Top.

Don't get me wrong. Butch Jones is building his bricks. These things take time. Georgia game was great.

But let's look at what has transpired since Athletic Director Dave Hart arrived from Alabama.

Former associate athletic director for media relations Harris D. "Bud" Ford -- the very definition of a Vol For Life (VFL) long before it became a marketing tool -- was denied the opportunity to complete a comprehensive stat book that could help scribes and some others, especially marketing majors who think Tennessee football began with Phillip and Peyton.

In UT B.H. (Before Hart), calling the sports information department at 974-1212 would often mean you'd get Ford himself. Now, in UT B.S. (no translation needed), you get a recording. Sometimes you get a call returned. Maybe.

I declined to renew my season tickets to two sports after the Ford fiasco. The three football games I have attended in UT B.S. happened because somebody either bought or reimbursed me for the tickets.

The athletic department violated its own policy on uniform colors by allowing the team to wear the so-called "Smokey gray" jerseys for the Georgia game. They make the 1963 Halloween jerseys look quaint by comparison.

Wait, wait, you say. Lane Kiffin had his black jerseys. John Majors' teams put on orange pants and shined up orange shoes for awhile. Bill Battle splashed orange shoulders on away uniforms in the '70s.

Don't care. Let's do the cheer for those who just got here.

ORANGE! WHITE!
ORANGE! WHITE!

At both the South Alabama and Georgia games, I noticed that the band didn't perform at halftime as long as in years past.

Then I stumbled onto the story, summarized here quite well (both sides) on KnoxViews.

News also hit this week that Tennessee and Virginia Tech will play in 2016 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Sheer stunt. Money-grabbing marketing maneuver. Moronic.

Good luck seeing a handoff without binoculars or a big screen.

 The only way you'd get me there is if NASCAR holds a race during the game.

The idea that the Pride of the Southland Band has been given the Big Orange Screw is the last straw. I admit that a big part of this is my bias against rap music and my fondness for real, live musicians. (I also like to fast-forward through commercials.)

In a sense, maybe this is part of a longstanding tradition, some of which started in UT B.H.

 This is the same program that misspelled Doug Atkins' name when his jersey was retired, gave George Cafego a used van as a thank you gift, had its own Ides of March on Friday, Nov. 13, 1992, denied Ray Mears access to the Ray Mears Room, and stopped playing Alabama on the third Saturday in October.

What's next? Hiring Oliver Stone as official athletic historian? Asking Kanye West to perform the alma mater to impress recruits? Playing a home game on the moon? Renaming the big house Pilot Oil Stadium?

Seems to me Tennessee would be better served by hiring a VFL to run the athletic department, or at least someone who leads more like Omar Nelson Bradley and less like George Tecumseh Sherman.

But what do I know? I'm just a UT graduate with small pockets and a sharp memory.

Here's one thing I think:

The Power T sure doesn't stand for tradition. Not anymore.

Burnin' rubber at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn., March 16 -- Well, it wasn’t Vegas, but it was enough.

My pal Matt Shelton had promised months ago that we’d take some kind of trip for our 30th birthdays. His is in February, mine was last week. Shelton’s wife, Susan, loves Vega$, so we thought we might go there.

But house payments, vocations and the realities of life got in the way, as they always seem to do. It’s OK. Birthdays, I suspect, should be more about spending time with friends and family and less about getting and going.

Never fear, though. Things have a way of working out. Shelton called Saturday night to say that he had an extra ticket to the NASCAR race in Bristol. His uncle couldn’t go. Was I interested?

"What the heck?" I thought. I haven’t paid regular attention to it since Richard Petty retired, but I’d never been up close and personal with the NASCAR drivers before. Sounded like fun. Definitely a cultural experience.

Shelton picked me up just before 9. The traffic wasn’t too bad, considering that 150,000 people were all converging on a small town in upper East Tennessee. We were sitting in the shadow of the speedway by 11:30.

I made sure we found the Petty truck. And, as usual at these kind of things, I found a hat to add to my collection.

Shelton was all decked out. He has the gear. His headphones even hook up to his scanner, so he can listen to the drivers chatter. My scanner tore up several months ago. Course, I bought it in 1988, so I guess that’s a pretty good shelf life.

My favorite part was the pit crew. Talk about a bunch that works for a living. I’m doing well to get out of my car in 15 seconds, much less change tires and fill up any gas. If there are any unsung heroes in NASCAR, it’s got to be the boys in the pits.

Meanwhile, back on Rocky Top, I learn that the UT baseball team swept LSU following a double header. First time in school history. The given-up-for-dead Vols sit atop the SEC East and are playing great baseball as March heads toward the home stretch.

Geez. Maybe I should go to Bristol more often. Doesn’t look like they need me at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.