Tennessee football: Vols have four wins vs. Alabama with losing record
2. Oct. 15, 1955; Vols record: 1-2 (0-1)
Legion Field; Birmingham, Ala.
Tennessee Volunteers beat Alabama Crimson Tide 20-0
Three years before Bear Bryant arrived, Tennessee football was a program back on the rise, not a program on the decline. After two bad years under Harvey Robinson, Robert Neyland hired Bowden Wyatt to restore the glory days for the Vols. Coming off a losing season, though, expectations were low for this team, and they got off to an 1-2 start.
However, they had just beaten the Chattanooga Mocs after beginning 0-2. And at the time, there was no better team to get on the right track against than the Alabama Crimson Tide. After going 4-5-2 the year before, Bama was 0-2 under first-year head coach Jennings B. Whitworth. So Wyatt’s team, with junior back Johnny Majors, traveled into Legion Field looking to get on a roll.
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The Vols did just that, dominating Alabama 20-0. They were never really threatened, and the rest of the year would show why. Alabama stumbled to an 0-10 season, easily the worst season in school history, and they sunk as a program only two years removed from winning the SEC Championship and finishing in the top 15 nationally.
UT, meanwhile, got things going and finished that season 6-3-1 and 3-2-1 in the SEC after the 0-2 start. It set the stage for what was to come, as the 1956 Vols would be the first legendary team after the retirement of Neyland, going 10-0 and winning the SEC title while Majors was blatantly robbed of the Heisman Trophy.