Tennessee football uniform patches honor Johnny Majors, unity

The Tennessee football Volunteers have a couple of jersey accessories this year.

Multiple events that have taken place this year will be reflected on the new 2020 Tennessee football uniforms. One is on a national scale and affects everybody, and the other had a huge effect within Big Orange Country and the college football world.

Rocky Top’s two new jersey patches are a unity mark and a tribute to Johnny Majors. The tribute to Majors, who passed away back in June at age 85, has the No. 45, and the initials “JTM” below it. Meanwhile, the Unity Patch shows hands of different colors uniting around the UT torch.

Behind the Unity Patch  is the idea of two races coming together around the torch, which serves as a symbol of overcoming ignorance. Tennessee football revealed what these two patches will look like on its Twitter account.

When it comes to these patches, the Majors one would have made sense any year. It’s typical for schools to wear patches or helmet stickers honoring legends affiliated with their programs who have passed away that year.

Majors’ accomplishments with Rocky Top may extend further than anybody else’s. He earned All-American honors and was a Heisman Trophy runner-up as a player who led the Vols to an SEC Championship. Then, right after leading the Pittsburgh Panthers to the national title, he returned to coach the Vols for 16 years, winning three more SEC Championships.

As for the Unity Patch, this is in light of the racial tension that has gripped the news throughout the summer. Jeremy Pruitt has vocally supported his players expressing their feelings about the situation, and the torch is an iconic statue with the university.

This isn’t the only uniform change for Tennessee football this year either. The Vols are bringing back the double-striped pants, which they haven’t had since before Butch Jones took over. Whether or not the stripes are orange or white depends on the color of the pants.