"Lord, we thank you for the gift of football..."

Two years and 1 month into our time in Knoxville, TN and I experienced a culture shock like no other. After all, how could we ever say we lived in Knoxville, and had never been to a Vols game? It was pretty amazing!

A little bit of background: The Vols are the University of Tennessee Volunteers. [volunteers, because we are in the volunteer state; volunteer state, because TN volunteered more people than any other for a war... led by Davey Crockett] In this case, the NCAA Division I football team. And in case you can't tell from the photos, the official colors are orange and white. Famous Vol in the NFL - Peyton Manning with the Indianapolis Colts. VOL on the Stampeders: Jermaine Copeland. They are ranked 11th this year so far.

VOLS 31 Air Force 30 (19:00 EST)

The game began with a prayer, "Lord, we thank you for the gift of football" - no joke. Even without the specific prayer for the health of the teams, it was the first prayer at a sporting event that I had ever experienced. With the number of injuries on the field, I'm thinking it might be a wise move, however. (a couple of ankle sprains, bicep tear and unconscious player later, I had this epiphany...)

Our day in the the Orange Nation, however, began much earlier than the 19:00 kickoff. Those of you who are reading from Canada understand my lack of experience with tailgaiting...or college sport spirit...sorry Dinos...I never made it to a football game. So, Daren, Kristin (our resident VOLS expert) and I left about 3:30pm to begin our day. From the start it was overwhelming...

March of the Players

We walked up the hill, Peyton Manning Drive, along the route where we would soon see the March of the Players...yep, every game, the players walk from the male freshman athletic dorm to the stadium....all dressed up in suits, surrounded by loyal fans. If you get close enough you can touch them...ooooohhhh. The new potential recruits lead the way...but I'm not up on my high school football, so I can't let you in on those secrets. We toured this fair that was filled with orange, collected some Vols stuff (pins and stickers), and found a space for the March of the Band. It was like a mini Calgary Stampede Parade...without the floats...and horses...and mounties. Ok, it was nothing like the Stampede parade, but I don't have a better point of comparison. It WAS a parade of the marching band, Vol Dancers and Cheerleaders. They did routines and all!

Rocky Top Tennessee

Rocky Top is the "unofficial" UT fight song. Yes, colleges here in the US have fight songs. It is not just the soccer hooligans that have this much spirit. UT actually has another official one, but Rocky Top is the popular one. Our count had it played 34 times before kickoff...if only I could publish it as background to this text!

Marching Band

Ok, so here I really can compare it to the Stampede Marching band...just like that, but in black WOOL outfits, and hats with a plume. I heard that one guy lost 10lbs in one game because it was so hot. Did I mention we live in Tennessee, where there is no real winter? They were pretty talented and incredible. I couldn't play properly sitting down in a chair, so props to the 100 or so people who made designs and music on the field. It was like the opening ceremonies at the Olympics...with Rocky Top as the theme song. Among other songs they played the national anthem (no one said 'play ball' at the end!), "Ain't no mountain high enough" etc.

The Fans

At first I thought we wouldn't ever sit down...apparently the students don't...but that might be to avoid the throw-up...To give UT credit, it is a dry campus (no alcohol allowed, even if the NCAA rules allowed it), but you know college kids. We had great seats, right on the border of the Air Force Section...so we got a little of both!

105,000 people can drown your thoughts with their roar, but you can also hear a pin drop when the tension builds. When Air Force had the ball, the noise was at it's peak...and it built throughout the game. But when the Vols were up, the silence was also deafening. Each of those players had all their fans behind them. In fact, I'm pretty sure they would have been on the field asking why they couldn't see the Air Force's "flexbone" offense when we all could!

We stayed to the last second, not wanting to miss a minute. In the end, an incredible opportunity to experience a culture of sport that I had no idea existed....

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