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Tennessee Vols: Top 10 years men’s basketball was way better than football

By Caleb Calhoun

PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 09: Jordan Bowden #23 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the game at Talking Stick Resort Arena on December 9, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Volunteers defeated the Bulldogs 76-73. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 09: Jordan Bowden #23 of the Tennessee Volunteers celebrates after defeating the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the game at Talking Stick Resort Arena on December 9, 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Volunteers defeated the Bulldogs 76-73. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images
Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images /

6. 1915-1916

Basketball: 12-0

*Independents

Football: 4-4 (0-4)

*Competed in SIAA

Yes, we’re going way back to the beginning of Tennessee Vols athletics for this one. In 1915-1916, Zora G. Clevenger was coaching both the football and men’s basketball programs. And he traded off one undefeated season for another.

After all, in 1914, he led Tennessee football to its second undefeated season ever and first conference championship and win over the Vanderbilt Commodores, going 9-0 and winning the SIAA. This year, it was men’s basketball’s turn.

Football took a step back. It did extend to a 12-game winning streak by starting 2-0, but the Vols then lost to the Clemson Tigers. After getting to 4-1, they lost their final three games of the year to finish .500 and 4-4.

Meanwhile, as an Independent, men’s basketball could not win any championships. But Clevenger managed to take the program to a 12-0 record, which remains its only undefeated season in school history.

There were other seasons early on in which men’s basketball outperformed football. Heck, Clevenger had the program going 15-2 two years before while football only went 6-3 and 9-5 when it had went .500 in football in 1912. Then there was the 1919-1920 season, coming back from World War I, when basketball went 11-3 and football went 3-3-3.

Even the late 1950s under Emmett Lowery cashed in on some years as Tennessee football had the post-Robert Neyland dark ages. They went 15-7 in 1954-1955 and 14-8 in 1958-1959, two seasons in which football went 4-6.

But in the pre-Ray Mears era, and especially in the Independent era, something significant has to stand out to officially make this list. Winning a championship, as was done in 1935-1936, and going undefeated both stand out.

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