Top 10 Tennessee Vols legends not born in the state

Now we go to the major legends. The Tennessee Vols as a national brand in sports period is due to what the football program did in the first half of the first century. From the Roaring 20s, through the Great Depression through World War II through the postwar boom, one coach ascended the Vols to power faster than America itself ascended to power during that time.

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We’re talking, of course, about Robert Neyland. And wouldn’t you know it? Neyland himself had a big part in America’s rise as well, as a general in the U.S. Army who served the country in separate stints, interrupting his job twice as head coach of the Vols.

Neyland did have a Tennessee connection when the Vols hired him as head coach in 1926. After all, he spent 1925 as an assistant with the program. But that was only one year.

Before that, he had spent years as an assistant at Army, and he came from Texas. So the Tennessee connection was extremely modest.

But by the time he was done in Knoxville, he became a household name. Neyland turned the Tennessee football program into a national brand, dominating the Southern Conference with his first stint from 1926 to 1934 and then dominating the nation with his second stint from 1936 to 1940. In his third stint, he built the Tennessee Vols back into a national power.

Altogether, Neyland captured four national titles, and you can make a strong argument that it should have been five with the 1939 team. His dominance remains unmatched, and he’s on the Mt. Rushmore of SEC coaches while among the two greatest Tennessee Vols coaches ever. So while he has Texas roots, his dominance for a program in East Tennessee is why he’s a household name.