13. John F. Kennedy Jr., 1961-1963
No question, Tennessee athletics saw hardly any success during JFK’s tenure as president of the country. Unfortunately, had he lived and gone on to be re-elected in 1964, that would have changed and he would be a heck of a lot higher on this list. But it didn’t happen.
In fact, under Kennedy, Tennessee athletics reached historic lows in sports. Football was in a terrible state under Bowden Wyatt, struggling to return to the glory days of Robert Neyland. Wyatt took the Vols 6-4 in 1961 and then 4-6 in 1962. Jim McDonald came in for a year in 1963, and the Vols were 3-5 before Kennedy was assassinated. That’s an overall record of under .500 in football under Kennedy.
In basketball, things were also terrible. The Vols went 10-15 and 1960-1961, and they dropped to a pathetic 4-19 in 1961-1962. However, that year, the future would change as the program hired Ray Mears, and they did improve to 13-11 in 1962-1963. But Kennedy was unfortunately assassinated in 1963 and did not get to see the success Mears would lead.
Meanwhile, baseball at least had two winning seasons at 15-10 and 14-12 under George Cafego, but they went 11-15 under Bill Wright. So really, there was absolutely nothing to celebrate about Tennessee athletics under Kennedy. But as we have said with his presidency about many things, it could have been totally different had he lived.
We just have to call it like it is and say the athletics program was in terrible shape for a while and did not improve until after him.
Next: #12: Gerald Ford