I saw this on another forum, and had to share with like-minded TN fans.
For longtime VFL's it's about ... time
I spent the final six-plus minutes of Tennessee's 65-50 win over Texas A&M at my neighborhood Kroger.
As I maneuvered down the frozen food aisle, my longtime friend Charles Davis phoned.
"We are going to do it!" he said, in a way that only Charles Davis could say it. He may be on CBS every Sunday in the fall, but he is still Big Orange to his core. He had called me after Friday's Vol win over Mississippi State, having attended the game in Tampa. It was then that I actually told Charles something that he did not know---Tennessee had not won the SEC Tournament in 43 years.
He was shocked.
And that's why Charles Davis fully understood my decision to go Krogering at such a key moment. My heart could not take the final moments. Charles admitted that, during the first half, he busied himself with a few tasks for the same reason.
Lifelong Vols wanted this one. Badly.
If you are a child of the 1970's or 1980's, you get it. If you are younger, this will explain why some cigars have been smoked and some adult beverages of fine quality have been consumed in the aftermath of the win. Winning the SEC Tournament Championship is a call for real celebration.
Former Kentucky Adolf Rupp once said---and this is a paraphrase---that Tennessee was a football school who took its basketball seriously. The Baron was right. He knew first-hand because Tennessee has beaten Kentucky more than any other program.
Winning in basketball at Tennessee matters. Hoops in Knoxville has never been to simply consume three winter months until spring football practice.
So when the 1979 SEC Tournament rolled around, I was among thousands of Vol Faithful who were excited. I was 11 at this moment but, having started my fandom in the "Ernie and Bernie Days" at Stokely Athletic Center, every Tennessee basketball game was on my radio. As I listened to the Vol Network, I kept score and would replay the key moments on the Nerf Hoop in my room at 200 Valley Ridge Road. Most of those moments were good, but the defeats stung and those losses would linger until John Ward welcomed us all back for the Tennessee Tipoff Show that proceeded the next game.
What I remember about that 1978-79 team is that it was Don DeVoe's first season in Knoxville, Reggie Johnson was the team's star, but Terry Crosby, Howard Wood and freshman Gary Carter were also standouts and Tennessee won its last six SEC games to finish second behind LSU.
I also remember that the SEC Tournament was resuming after a 27-year absence, that it was held in Birmingham and that, for the '79 Tournament only, the top-two seeds got double byes into the semifinals.
Tennessee got to wait until Friday for its first game and the opponent was a bad Auburn team who had upset Vanderbilt and then beaten Georgia in four overtimes. The perfect opponent.
We settled into my parents' bedroom to watch the game. At that time, we did not have cable television and actually had just two TVs in the house. So, like almost all Americans, we got only five channels on our TV---ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and a local independent channel that you generally needed "rabbit ears" to get. The 1979 SEC Tournament was distributed by the Chesley Network and their Nashville affiliate was the independent station, which our den TV couldn't pick up. So we sat on my parents' bed to watch a grainy picture which needed adjustment throughout the night.
Those were the inconveniences of 1979.
Tennessee beat Auburn to advance to the final where the Vols would meet a Kentucky team that had finished sixth in the SEC. As a matter of fact, Tennessee had handled them easily twice during the regular season. Kyle Macy was the only Wildcat of note who returned from Kentucky's 1978 National Championship team, and while he couldn't carry them through the regular season, he was amazing for four nights in Birmingham.
I don't remember much about the game except Macy's leadership helped Kentucky take Tennessee to overtime. But in OT, the Vols pulled away and beat UK for third time, capturing the 1979 SEC Tournament Championship.
I do, however, remember that we were allowed to jump on the bed when the issue was finally decided and Tennessee was victorious. I remember watching the trophy presentation. I remember the Vols cutting down the nets and guard Johnny Darden standing atop the goal itself. I remember the pride and excitement that we all felt, knowing that Tennessee was automatically in the NCAA Tournament.
It was great to be a Tennessee Volunteer.
My friend Gene Vestal is a little older and he texted me his 1979 memory when the 2022 SEC Tournament's final horn sounded.
"Just after the buzzer sounded," Gene recounted, "Mr. (John) Ward announced the team plane would be arriving at McGhee Tyson Airport's Cherokee Terminal around 1am. Maybe too late, maybe not. Three others and myself were there in a DOWNPOUR and were joined by around 300 when the plane touched down. I did not want those clothes to dry!"
The memory got better a week later when my Dad got tickets to see the Vols play in the NCAA Tournament at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro. Mom and Dad took customers to the win over Eastern Kentucky on Friday (Tennessee's first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament), but my brother and I got to go on Sunday when the Vols fell to a very talented Notre Dame team.
That hurt, but what a ride!
Another consolation: the game before Tennessee-Notre Dame featured Michigan State against Lamar. In those pre-cable days, we had not seen Earvin "Magic" Johnson very much, so to watch him in-person was thrilling. It made the rest of the 1979 NCAA Tournament must-watch TV for me, especially the legendary Magic Johnson-Larry Bird final. That was one of the great sports months of my life.
So Brent Hubbs asked me to pen something because he was only four the last time that Tennessee won an SEC Tournament and, understandably, he doesn't have clear memories of 1979. I do, because as a sixth-grader, Tennessee Basketball was one of the most important parts of my life.
Sunday reminded me that it still is. I knew that which is why I could not watch the final minutes. But what put Vol Hoops so deeply into my heart were the heroes of Stokely in the 1970's and 1980's and great moments like winning the 1979 SEC Tournament Championship.
Conference tournaments may not mean anything in the big scheme of basketball life but try convincing any Vol fan of my generation of that today. This is big.
I can't wait to hug my Dad at dinner and share the memory. Maybe I'll sneak in their room and jump on their bed.
-Mike Keith
For longtime VFL's it's about ... time
I spent the final six-plus minutes of Tennessee's 65-50 win over Texas A&M at my neighborhood Kroger.
As I maneuvered down the frozen food aisle, my longtime friend Charles Davis phoned.
"We are going to do it!" he said, in a way that only Charles Davis could say it. He may be on CBS every Sunday in the fall, but he is still Big Orange to his core. He had called me after Friday's Vol win over Mississippi State, having attended the game in Tampa. It was then that I actually told Charles something that he did not know---Tennessee had not won the SEC Tournament in 43 years.
He was shocked.
And that's why Charles Davis fully understood my decision to go Krogering at such a key moment. My heart could not take the final moments. Charles admitted that, during the first half, he busied himself with a few tasks for the same reason.
Lifelong Vols wanted this one. Badly.
If you are a child of the 1970's or 1980's, you get it. If you are younger, this will explain why some cigars have been smoked and some adult beverages of fine quality have been consumed in the aftermath of the win. Winning the SEC Tournament Championship is a call for real celebration.
Former Kentucky Adolf Rupp once said---and this is a paraphrase---that Tennessee was a football school who took its basketball seriously. The Baron was right. He knew first-hand because Tennessee has beaten Kentucky more than any other program.
Winning in basketball at Tennessee matters. Hoops in Knoxville has never been to simply consume three winter months until spring football practice.
So when the 1979 SEC Tournament rolled around, I was among thousands of Vol Faithful who were excited. I was 11 at this moment but, having started my fandom in the "Ernie and Bernie Days" at Stokely Athletic Center, every Tennessee basketball game was on my radio. As I listened to the Vol Network, I kept score and would replay the key moments on the Nerf Hoop in my room at 200 Valley Ridge Road. Most of those moments were good, but the defeats stung and those losses would linger until John Ward welcomed us all back for the Tennessee Tipoff Show that proceeded the next game.
What I remember about that 1978-79 team is that it was Don DeVoe's first season in Knoxville, Reggie Johnson was the team's star, but Terry Crosby, Howard Wood and freshman Gary Carter were also standouts and Tennessee won its last six SEC games to finish second behind LSU.
I also remember that the SEC Tournament was resuming after a 27-year absence, that it was held in Birmingham and that, for the '79 Tournament only, the top-two seeds got double byes into the semifinals.
Tennessee got to wait until Friday for its first game and the opponent was a bad Auburn team who had upset Vanderbilt and then beaten Georgia in four overtimes. The perfect opponent.
We settled into my parents' bedroom to watch the game. At that time, we did not have cable television and actually had just two TVs in the house. So, like almost all Americans, we got only five channels on our TV---ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and a local independent channel that you generally needed "rabbit ears" to get. The 1979 SEC Tournament was distributed by the Chesley Network and their Nashville affiliate was the independent station, which our den TV couldn't pick up. So we sat on my parents' bed to watch a grainy picture which needed adjustment throughout the night.
Those were the inconveniences of 1979.
Tennessee beat Auburn to advance to the final where the Vols would meet a Kentucky team that had finished sixth in the SEC. As a matter of fact, Tennessee had handled them easily twice during the regular season. Kyle Macy was the only Wildcat of note who returned from Kentucky's 1978 National Championship team, and while he couldn't carry them through the regular season, he was amazing for four nights in Birmingham.
I don't remember much about the game except Macy's leadership helped Kentucky take Tennessee to overtime. But in OT, the Vols pulled away and beat UK for third time, capturing the 1979 SEC Tournament Championship.
I do, however, remember that we were allowed to jump on the bed when the issue was finally decided and Tennessee was victorious. I remember watching the trophy presentation. I remember the Vols cutting down the nets and guard Johnny Darden standing atop the goal itself. I remember the pride and excitement that we all felt, knowing that Tennessee was automatically in the NCAA Tournament.
It was great to be a Tennessee Volunteer.
My friend Gene Vestal is a little older and he texted me his 1979 memory when the 2022 SEC Tournament's final horn sounded.
"Just after the buzzer sounded," Gene recounted, "Mr. (John) Ward announced the team plane would be arriving at McGhee Tyson Airport's Cherokee Terminal around 1am. Maybe too late, maybe not. Three others and myself were there in a DOWNPOUR and were joined by around 300 when the plane touched down. I did not want those clothes to dry!"
The memory got better a week later when my Dad got tickets to see the Vols play in the NCAA Tournament at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro. Mom and Dad took customers to the win over Eastern Kentucky on Friday (Tennessee's first-ever win in the NCAA Tournament), but my brother and I got to go on Sunday when the Vols fell to a very talented Notre Dame team.
That hurt, but what a ride!
Another consolation: the game before Tennessee-Notre Dame featured Michigan State against Lamar. In those pre-cable days, we had not seen Earvin "Magic" Johnson very much, so to watch him in-person was thrilling. It made the rest of the 1979 NCAA Tournament must-watch TV for me, especially the legendary Magic Johnson-Larry Bird final. That was one of the great sports months of my life.
So Brent Hubbs asked me to pen something because he was only four the last time that Tennessee won an SEC Tournament and, understandably, he doesn't have clear memories of 1979. I do, because as a sixth-grader, Tennessee Basketball was one of the most important parts of my life.
Sunday reminded me that it still is. I knew that which is why I could not watch the final minutes. But what put Vol Hoops so deeply into my heart were the heroes of Stokely in the 1970's and 1980's and great moments like winning the 1979 SEC Tournament Championship.
Conference tournaments may not mean anything in the big scheme of basketball life but try convincing any Vol fan of my generation of that today. This is big.
I can't wait to hug my Dad at dinner and share the memory. Maybe I'll sneak in their room and jump on their bed.
-Mike Keith
