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Back on the howl
Almost fully recovered from knee surgery, the University of Tennessee’s iconic mascot, Smokey, is ready for Vol football
| Story and photos by Chris Villines |
8/31/2012 |
Neyland Stadium, usually packed with more than 100,000 fanatical, full-throated University of Tennessee fans during football season, is eerily quiet on a drizzly August morning. The only activity is what a few workers are doing to clean up from the prior night’s high school football jamboree as a prelude to getting storied Shields-Watkins Field ready for the first home game of the 2012 season against Georgia State on Sept. 8.
Soon, however, a buzz starts as a familiar orange-and-white clad Vol makes his way into the stadium’s tunnel. Some of the workers savor this rare opportunity to get one-on-one time with the legendary figure, who gladly honors their requests for a side-by-side snapshot.
When he finally gets to step on the manicured turf and test out his knee that was surgically repaired in January, the iconic hero jukes left, then right, trots straight ahead, and finally howls with sheer satisfaction. It’s a purely logical response from this particular “athlete in action:” He’s UT’s wildly popular bluetick coonhound mascot, Smokey, and those witnessing his four-legged frolic on the field agree that he’s ready for “football time in Tennessee!”
“He’s moving around really well,” says Jonathan Harrison, a senior food and agricultural business major from Watertown who will be one of Smokey’s game-day “handlers” this season, an honor given to select members of the university’s Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR) social-professional fraternity. “I think Smokey and the team are in for a great season.”
A day before his light work on the Neyland Stadium turf, Smokey IX — who became the ninth incarnation of the beloved mascot at the 2004 Peach Bowl — was across the sprawling UT campus doing some running of a different sort. He was working hard to rehabilitate the back right knee on which arthroscopic surgery was performed in January to repair a partially torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The rehab occurs weekly at the same place Smokey had the surgery — the John and Ann Tickle Small Animal Hospital at the university’s Veterinary Medical Center, where he walks on an underwater treadmill and performs balancing exercises to help maintain muscle and cardio fitness.
Smokey’s surgeon, Dr. Darryl Millis, first discovered the mascot’s signs of lameness last season during the second half of the Vols’ home game against Cincinnati. The diagnosis was a partial tear of the ACL, and though treatment on the knee began immediately, Smokey was able to finish out the 2011 season before undergoing surgery.
With his rehab going well, Millis says there’s no doubt Smokey will be ready to take the field Aug. 31 for the Vols’ first football game — against North Carolina State in Atlanta — of the 2012 season, with Co-op once again a sponsor of Vol Network radio broadcasts (see accompanying story, page 25).
“Throughout the whole process, Smokey has been a model patient and a hard worker,” says Millis. “He’s been so willing to do whatever we want him to do. He’s looking pretty good now.”
Smokey’s knee issue is the most recent chapter in the colorful history of the Vols’ treasured bluetick mascot that dates back to 1953 and is chronicled in a new book, “Smokey: The True Stories behind the University of Tennessee’s Beloved Mascot,” to be released next month. The book is co-authored by Knoxville writer and noted Vol historian Thomas J. Mattingly and Earl Hudson, who has owned the past three Smokeys after picking up the torch from his sister and brother-in-law, the Rev. Bill and Mildred Brooks, owners of Smokeys I through VI.
“After UT won the national championship in 1951, people got to thinking, ‘Here we are as national champions, and we don’t even have a mascot,’” says Hudson, who took ownership of the Smokey line in 1994. “Some people suggested a Tennessee walking horse, but how would he have made personal appearances, that type of thing? So next on the list was a blue-tick coonhound.”
After it was decided early in 1953 that this native breed of dog should represent the school, a contest to fill the position was conducted by the UT Pep Club. An announcement in local newspapers read, “This can’t be an ordinary hound. He must be a ‘Houn’ Dawg’ in the best sense of the word.”
Leading up to the contest, Knoxville News-Sentinel outdoors writer Chambliss Pierce made a bold prediction in the newspaper’s Sept. 24, 1953, edition by hinting strongly that Rev. Brooks’ dog would be the one to beat:
“Blue Smokey, a huge, droopy-eared, sad-eyed bluetick coonhound, is picturesque as well as perfect, if you can say that about a dog. He’s a showman by choice and as gentle as a four-point pledge. But he boasts a seven-generation pedigree and has twice won the Southeastern championship in addition to bench victories throughout Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana. And this is to say nothing about the countless coons who have suffered the hot breath of Smokey’s chase. I know that is a lot of words to give a dog, and I know a lot of friends have gotten less. But if Blue Smokey takes out on the field Saturday, I want everyone to know they’re looking at something special. And I’m sure a lot of coons and hunters would breath a sigh of relief.”
At halftime of the Vols’ first home game in 1953 against Mississippi State, the coonhound candidates were escorted onto the field by their owners.
“According to my sister, there were 19 dogs judged that day,” Hudson says. “Bill’s dog was the last in the line to be judged, and when they got to him, they patted him on the head. Well, ol’ Blue Smokey started howling, and that got people to cheering. And the more they cheered, the more he howled. He was clearly the winner, and it went from there.”
Shortly thereafter, the dog’s name was shortened to Smokey. Sadly, Smokey I’s life was cut short in 1955 when he was hit by a car. But in stepped his son, Smokey II. Mattingly says this is where the first bit of mascot hijinks from a rival Southeastern Conference school began.
“Some boys who said they were with the Pep Club went over to the Brookses’ house and told them that they were supposed to take Smokey for some pictures,” says Mattingly. “They had Tennessee plates on their car and seemed to know the family. As it turns out, they were from the University of Kentucky. When the dog wasn’t returned by noontime the next day, the Brookses knew something was wrong. The dognappers later sent a postcard to the Brookses to let them know Smokey II was safe. The card read: ‘Rest assured Smokey will be all right. Just a friendly rivalry. Will return.’”
The dog was returned at gametime without incident.
Another notable bit of mischief, this time self-inflicted by Smokey XIII, occurred the day before the Vols played in the 1998 national championship game against Florida State at the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona.
“Smokey was at the hotel and decided to eat one of the wash cloths,” Mattingly explains. “Doctors weren’t sure if he could even go to the game until they had the wash cloth removed. They x-rayed him and said the wash cloth removal could wait until they got back to Knoxville. Smokey was as active as ever at the game; you’d never know anything was wrong at all.”
The Brookses cared for each Smokey until Bill’s death in 1986, and Mildred, with the aid of friends, then took over. When she began to experience her own health struggles, her brother, retired pharmacist Earl Hudson, offered to take ownership of the hallowed mascot.
“I told Mildred, ‘Why don’t you let me take over?’” says Earl, a 1950 UT graduate whose own failing health has forced him to leave Smokey IX in the care of his son, Charles. “She agreed. She brought [Smokey VII] over here, and I began watching over him and later Smokey VIII and Smokey IX.”
While the Brookses and Hudsons have had year-round responsibility for the mascots, AGR members have had the distinct honor of handling Smokey on game days since 1977. The handlers transport Smokey from his home to each game and help lead him through the “T” formed on the field by the school’s “Pride of the Southland Band.” This year, four AGR members will share in the privilege: Trey McAdams, Bert White, Evan Betterton, and Jonathan Harrison.
“It’s exciting,” says McAdams, a senior marketing major from Brownsville. “It’s something you don’t expect when you come to college. It’s a pretty big deal around here to be Smokey’s handler.”
AGR president Will Batey of Columbia says people gravitate naturally toward the popular mascot.
“Smokey’s an established historical figure for the university,” he says. “He’s something that you associate with Tennessee football.”
And as long as there are fall football afternoons in Big Orange Country, Hudson feels confident that the loveable bluetick coonhound will roam the sidelines, serving as a rallying point for Vol fans everywhere.
“Smokey is the spirit of the UT football team,” Hudson says. “He’s an icon.”
The book, “Smokey: The True Stories behind the University of Tennessee’s Beloved Mascot,” can be ordered from the University of Tennessee Press for $29.95. For more information or to order, visit www.utpress.org/smokey.
Co-op increases Vol Network presence
To many Tennesseans, fall means two things: bringing in the harvest and cheering on the University of Tennessee football team. And while there’s always a healthy representation of Vol Nation inside Neyland Stadium, hundreds of thousands of other fans are tuning in to the “statewide stadium,” the Vol Network, which is heard on 70 affiliates across Tennessee and online at www.utsports.com.
Co-op has been a longtime Vol Network sponsor, and this season that support will be even more evident throughout each football broadcast. For starters, Co-op will serve as the official sponsor of game-time weather conditions to be given by Bob Kesling, the “Voice of the Vols.”
“I think that the University
of Tennessee and Co-op are two of the strongest brands in the state,” says Kesling, in his 13th season as the Vols play-by-play announcer. “For many years now, the Co-op has had a strong tradition of helping farmers and homeowners, and we look forward to a continued partnership with Co-op on the Vol Network.”
Given the importance of weather to farmers, Keith Harrison, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative marketing, advertising, and promotions coordinator, says the forecast sponsorship is “a natural.”
“The weather is a key component of the strategies and outcome of a football game, just as it plays a key role in the success of a farmer’s crops or a homeowner’s lawn and garden,” says Harrison. “Therefore, we felt it made sense for Co-op to sponsor the game-time weather conditions on the Vol Network.”
During the in-game radio broadcast, two 30-second Co-op commercials will also air at various intervals. In addition, Co-op is continuing its sponsorship of Kesling’s weekday “Vol Notebook” radio report, a partnership that began last year, and will advertise in the official UT football and basketball yearbooks.
Glenn Thackston, Vol Network associate general manager, says the Vol Network and Co-op are “a perfect fit” for each other.
“Our footprint and Co-op’s footprint match up with each other,” he says. “If you look at Co-op’s membership and the University of Tennessee’s fan base, there are so many commonalities. The university has a rich agricultural background, which ties in to the history of the Co-op. These are two powerful brands that play off of each other and strengthen each other. It’s a match made in heaven.”
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