Tennessee Traditions

I have been a UT fan as long as I can remember, though my first football game was not until my junior year in high school. Of course, Mom and Dad drove me around the campus showing me all of their favorite places and pastimes. When it came to applying to colleges, I only wanted to go to UT so I submitted my application as soon as I could. I did not apply to one Georgia school. I got my acceptance letter in December 2002 and could not wait to start classes there in the fall (August 2003).

One of the best parts of being a UT student are the football games. There is nothing like attending a UT game in Neyland Stadium and all the pregame events. It usually consisted of going to a fraternity house before the game and then going to the game. Once Russ and I started dating, I started becoming interested in all the band activities...Salute to the Hill, Vol Walk, Pregame show, Half-time show, and the Tennessee Waltz at the end. I would actually get to the game before it started and stayed for the very end. I never knew that the band had so many traditions for UT games. The all time favorite...The Power T!
I never missed a home game besides the Kentucky game when I was in school at Tennessee. Once we graduated we bought season tickets from Bill and Kat and we go to at least three games a season. We usually tailgate with college friends and spend the time catching up. Well the last home game it was just the four of us in town so we changed things up a bit.
The weekend of the Auburn game we got in that morning, had lunch and headed to campus. Bill, Haley, Russ, and I walked the entire campus! We started off in World's Fair Park and visited the Sun Sphere and actually went to the observation deck.We then walked to the river to see the Vol Navy and decided to have drinks at Calhoun's. That was the first time I have been to the Vol Navy. It was neat to see all the boats docked and tied together. Some of the boats had catered meals, others had private bartenders, and the rest just partying with friends and family. When we got to Calhoun's you could not find a UT fan anywhere, all the Auburn fans had taken over the outside patio. Once we finished drinks we headed back to campus.We walked to Circle Park then to Fraternity Row to visit with some friends (Brittany, Dipal, and Jayden). We stopped to see where they moved the rock to and tried to make it for the Vol Walk. We were a little late for that. We went to the UC, walked by the new College of Business Building (I'm jealous), moneywall, and tailgated with some of Bill's brother's friends. After walking all of campus but the Hill we finally made our way to the stadium.The game was not so great but like always we had great seats! After the game we completed our walk of campus and walked up to the Hill to get back to our car. It such a great weekend (besides the loss) and finally experienced some of the other traditions of UT that we have not done before.