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Tennessee football: Johnny Majors’ top five games as a player

By Caleb Calhoun

PITTSBURGH - SEPTEMBER 5: Johnny Majors, former head football coach of the Iowa State University Cyclones, the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and the University of Tennessee Volunteers, looks on from the sideline before a college football game between the Pitt Panthers and Youngstown State Penguins at Heinz Field on September 5, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pitt Panthers defeated Youngstown 38-3. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH - SEPTEMBER 5: Johnny Majors, former head football coach of the Iowa State University Cyclones, the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and the University of Tennessee Volunteers, looks on from the sideline before a college football game between the Pitt Panthers and Youngstown State Penguins at Heinz Field on September 5, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pitt Panthers defeated Youngstown 38-3. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Joe Murphy/Getty Images
Photo by Joe Murphy/Getty Images /

These were Johnny Majors’ five greatest games as a Tennessee football Volunteers player.

Note: This is part of a series of posts remembering Johnny Majors and all that he accomplished for Tennessee football as a player and a coach. 

When Johnny Majors was head coach of the program, Tennessee football enjoyed some of its most legendary wins in school history. These included upsetting the top-ranked Auburn Tigers, the Sugar Bowl win over the Miami Hurricanes and the Miracle at South Bend.

However before he was a head coach, he was arguably the greatest player the program had ever seen at the time. And when he played for the Vols from 1954 to 1956, he was part of quite a few memorable wins during that time as well.

In fact, Majors had a huge hand in many of Tennessee football’s big wins at the time as a player. That’s obvious, given the fact that he was an All-American triple-threat, being the team’s top rusher, passer and punter during that time.

Anyway, looking back on his time as a player, we’re going to rank the five best games Majors’ had on Rocky Top. These can include any memorable moments the Vols had during the UT legend’s three years a a player.

The criteria for these games include how well Majors himself played and how big the win was. Statistical performances were harder to track back then, but Majors still had quite a few that stood out and can be judged based on what he did individually.

There are also some games on here that don’t are timeless memories on Rocky Top, among the greatest games in program history. This list alone will make it just worth remembering those games. Majors helped UT create more history post-Robert Neyland, who recruited him, with Harvey Robinson and Bowden Wyatt.

But which games are we talking about? How did Majors perform in these games? Let’s go ahead and take a look at that time period. These are Johnny Majors’ five best games when he was a player for Tennessee football.

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