16 TENNESSEE

VARSITY TEAMS: 16 INTRAMURAL SPORTS: 24
FAMOUS ALUMNI: PHIL GARNER, REGGIE WHITE
EXTRA CREDIT FOR: VOICE OF THE VOLS JOHN WARD

First, there's Rocky Top. Since the Tennessee band began playing
it in 1972, Rocky Top has taken its place among the nation's
most inspiring and infectious fight songs. "If you play it 50
times in a game, people want to hear it again," says retired
band director W.J. Julian. A foot-stomping country song lauding
the Tennessee hills, moonshine, disappearing revenuers and a
girl wild as a mink but sweet as soda pop, Rocky Top fits the
Smoky Mountain environs and East Tennessee attitude to a UT.

Rocky Top is surely music to the ears of celebrated Vols
quarterback Peyton Manning, because by choosing to stay for his
senior season he has ensured that he'll hear it a thousand more
times. One of the reasons he decided to stay was the ambience at
102,544-seat Neyland Stadium, the nation's largest college
football arena, which Volunteers fans fill to overflowing. Some
even arrive in orange-and-white boats via the Tennessee River.
Those few students who don't make it to a game can tune in the
revered radio Voice of the Vols, John Ward, whose trademark
line, "It's football time in Tennessee!" resounds across the
state.

There may be no better bargain in jock-school America than the
student tickets (included in the $140 activities fee) that will
enable Tennessee students to watch Manning add to the Vols'
storied football heritage during his final season. That heritage
encompasses 37 bowl appearances, third most among all colleges,
a succession of blazing receivers (among them Willie Gault and
Carl Pickens) and one national title, in 1950. Last season
Tennessee had the third-highest number of alumni in the NFL: 36.
The university has one of the nation's biggest athletic budgets
($32.2 million in 1996) and facilities that stand out even among
the lavish palaces and ornate basilicas of the SEC. Bill Gibbs
Hall, one of the great monuments of athletic housing, looms like
a jock-dorm Versailles on the right side of Johnny Majors Drive.
On Johnny's left stretches a veritable Chartres--the
120,000-square-foot Neyland-Thompson Sports Center. Just eight
years old, this cathedral of athleticism includes a
12,000-square-foot strength facility, a 70-yard indoor practice
field with a 65-foot-high ceiling, locker rooms, conference
rooms, a team auditorium and a Volunteers football hall of fame
exhibit.

Tennessee has long been a leader in women's athletics, thanks in
no small part to basketball coach Pat Summitt, who in 23 years
has won five national titles, including this year's. Twenty-five
Lady Vols from various sports, including 10 of Summitt's
basketball players, have competed in the Olympics. It may be no
coincidence that Tennessee is one of the last six schools in the
nation to operate a separate women's athletic department.

The sports excellence in Knoxville extends even to mascots:
Former Smokey Michael Kennedy is now Sourdough Sam of the San
Francisco 49ers, and his erstwhile protege, Tim Patinode, is
starting his move toward the big time as the costumed elephant
of the minor league Modesto (Calif.) A's. Patinode is surely the
only pachyderm able to croon Rocky Top.

--BROOKS CLARK