Jan 31, 2015; Knoxville, TN, USA; Former Tennessee Volunteers head football coach Phillip Fulmer during the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Auburn Tigers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
1. 1992: Tennessee Loses to South Carolina, Eventually Causing Johnny Majors’s Firing
Straight out of a horror film, Halloween in 1992 split a family down the middle thanks to one rise at the expense of a death.
Okay, that was figuratively, of course. The birth of a career came at the death of another, and it was all among people in the same family. And it all happened on Oct. 31, 1992.
Leading up to that day, the Tennessee Vols were 5-2 and remained in control of their own destiny to win the SEC East to play for the SEC Championship. But longtime head coach and Tennessee Vols legend Johnny Majors was on the hot seat.
Despite his three SEC Championships from 1985 to 1990 and all signs pointing to him finally restoring the Vols to national prominence, and recruiting showing that a national championship was evident in the future, and the fact that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Vols, the university’s favorite son was on the hot seat.
Majors had missed the first three games due to open-heart surgery, and interim head coach Phillip Fulmer had led the Vols to a 3-0 start with two wins against Top 25 teams, Georgia and Florida, and Florida being a Top 5 team at the time.
When Majors returned to lead the Vols to two wins to 5-0, all seemed right. But then they were upset at home 25-24 to a terrible Arkansas team, and then they lost to Alabama. Still, behind first-year starter Heath Shuler, the SEC Championship was in the works, and the schedule almost assured the Vols would play for it in December.
But in this game, the final straw broke the camel’s back.
Like the Razorbacks, the South Carolina Gamecocks were newcomers to the SEC that year, and like the Razorbacks, they were having a terrible season. But like the Razorbacks, they had one highlight win against Tennessee, and like the Razorbacks, they won the game by one.
Tennessee struggled all day with the Gamecocks. Toward the end, with the Vols down 24-17, Mose Phillips had one of the greatest runs in Tennessee history to score a touchdown and make the game 24-23.
Betsided
But with overtime not an option in 1992 and the Vols needing to win out to get to the SEC Championship game, Majors went for two. The Vols didn’t make it.
Tennessee lost 24-23 and was on a three-game losing streak, with two of those losses by one point to the conference newcomers that were awful. Comparing that with the early season success of Fulmer was the death nail for Majors at Tennessee.
With the SEC Championship now squandered away and a 5-0 record falling to 5-3, that was it. Majors was fired. All of his work in restoring the program that began 15 years before was forgotten.
And he was out the door before the end of the next month.
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Fulmer’s success following may have justified Majors’s firing. But this day, Oct. 31, 1992, was a very dark day in Tennessee Vols history and a day that will live in infamy. They lost an SEC Championship opportunity and ended a legend’s career there, all because they couldn’t beat a team that would finish the year 5-6.