Tennessee basketball: How old were you the last time the Vols had a 15 game winning streak?
The Tennessee basketball team is riding a 15 game winning streak that dates back to November 28, 2018. The last time that happened was in 1915-17.
How old were you the last time a Tennessee basketball team had a 15 game winning streak?
Odds are you weren’t alive. In some cases, your grandparents weren’t even alive.
The average life expectancy for people born in North America is hanging around 80 years old. Now clearly, people live past 80 all the time. However, is there anyone alive that saw the 15 game winning streak from the 1915-17 seasons?
That was over 100 years ago.
I’m sure there is, surprisingly the internet doesn’t give a precise answer on the oldest living person to date. The best I found was a person from Japan, Kane Tanaka, who is 116 years old.
Surely Tanaka doesn’t care about the Vols, right? I mean, I suppose she could, Volnation is everywhere. Maybe Tanaka is the biggest Tennessee fan in the entire world. If so, someone, please help me locate her, I’m sure she’s on Twitter.
But, seriously there probably isn’t a person living that watched the 1915-17 teams go on there 15 game winning streak. If you’re wondering why the streak stretches over three years, it’s because they didn’t play as many games in a season as they do now.
1914-15: 11 games
1915-16: 12 games (12-0)
1916-17: 15 games (10-5)
1917-18: 12 games
Can you image all the basketball a Tennessee fan has seen if they were alive in 1915? The program dates back just a few years before the impressive winning streak began. The first year recorded was 1908-09 when the Vols went 2-5.
What was even happening in 1915?
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, called someone in San Francisco all the way from New York. People didn’t make a lot of money, according to the Census Bureau, the average yearly income was around $700. That’s less than $20,000 in today’s time.
Snow in the forecast? You could leave the grocery store with a loaf of bread and a quart of milk for 20 cents. And, a sports reference, the great Babe Ruth made his pitching debut and hit his first career home run.
Fast forward 100 years and the 2018-19 Tennessee basketball team has the opportunity to break a pretty impressive record. A record, I’m sure no one thought it would be beaten, one that would stand the test of time.
After losing to Kansas on November 23, 2018, all Tennessee has done is win. If you wanted to be “that guy” you could say the opponents during that stretch aren’t impressive, even if that includes a win against the then No.1 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs.
dark. Next. Remembering four previous times Vols rehired a coach
Tennessee’s upcoming schedule doesn’t appear to be too tough on paper. Saturday the Vols travel to take on Texas A&M and then head back home for a three-game homestead against Missouri, Florida, and South Carolina. Don’t be surprised if Tennessee takes a 19 game winning streak into Rupp Arena on February 16 in what should be a top-five matchup against Kentucky.