All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee football: Neyland Stadium renovations should restore VOLS letters, end title curse

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Tennessee football’s renovations at Neyland Stadium should include restoring the VOLS letters. That could end the Volunteers’ title drought.

By now, you’ve probably heard about the renovations the Tennessee football program has coming to Neyland Stadium. John Currie referenced the $340 million renovation project in a letter posted on UTSports on Friday.

Renovations at Neyland Stadium are nothing new. They’ve been a part of the Tennessee football tradition for decades. However, as we speak of renovations, it’s time to use them to undo one curse plaguing the program.

That curse is the removal of the V-O-L-S letters from the stadium. In 1998, the Vols changed their midfield logo from the old UT logo to the Power T. It was also the last year they’d keep the letters.

The one year those two things intersected, Tennessee football won the national title. Right after that, the letters on Neyland Stadium were replaced with a Jumbotron.

For historical context, here’s what the letters looked like.

The Jumbotron added in 1999 has since been replaced by a new one. But they share one thing in common.

Tennessee football has not won an SEC or national title ever since the letters were replaced. You thought the Georgia Dome was the curse?

It was the removal of the VOLS letters.

If you think tradition and designs at Neyland Stadium don’t play a supernatural role in the success of the Vols, you don’t know the history of the program. Just take a look at the checkerboard end zones.

Due to the checkerboard design on top of Ayers Hall, Robert Neyland would coin the phrase ‘charge the checkerboard’ when the Vols were moving the ball toward the side of the field that Ayers was closest to.

Doug Dickey then restored the program by bringing in the Checkerboard end zones. But they were then taken out in 1968.

And the checkerboards wouldn’t come back until 1989. Yes, that year is significant. The previous year, Tennessee football had gone 5-6.

But 1989 began the most prosperous period in Tennessee football history. For a 10-year span, from 1989 to 1998, the Vols finished in the Top 25 every year andwon four SEC Championships, enjoyed six Top 10 finishes, and had three Top 5 finishes. Simply put, it was a dominant period, and the climax was the national championship in 1998.

As we mentioned, it all came together that year with checkerboard end zones, the Power T at midfield, and the VOLS letters.

But while 1999 to 2001 can still be considered part of the epic run Tennessee football began in 1989, it was also the start of a future downward trend.

Despite a Top 10 finish in 1999, the Vols blew a chance at the SEC Championship when they were far and away the most talented team in the conference.

In 2001, they suffered their worst loss in school history to the LSU Tigers. And the downward trends have only gotten worse since.

That was the last season the Vols finished in the Top 10. They haven’t had fewer then four losses since 2004. And they haven’t won the East or 10 games since 2007.

The slow decline can all be traced back to the removal of those VOLS letters from Neyland Stadium. And now, it’s time for Tennessee football to return them. We have definitive proof that the supernatural exists when it comes to Neyland Stadium. John Currie and the administration shouldn’t ignore it.

Home/Vols Football