Tennessee football: It’s the 100th anniversary of Shields-Watkins Field’s first game

The stadium wasn’t known as Neyland Stadium at the time. Tennessee football was 17 years away from its first national championship, 12 years away from becoming a charter member of the SEC and five years away from hiring Robert Neyland as head coach.

On Sept. 24, 1921, the Vols played their first game at Shields-Watkins Field. They had been playing their home games at Waite Field since 1908, and before that they were playing at Baldwin Park and Chilhowee Park, according to the UT website.

Part of what the new stadium signified was entering a new era, as they were a year away from leaving the SIAA to joining the Southern Conference, which was a precursor to the SEC. The program was gaining momentum into the Roaring Twenties.

M.B. Banks was in his first season. he was taking over for John Bender, the second coach to oversee some real success on Rocky Top. Bender led Tennessee football to the 1916 SIAA Title. That was two years removed from when they went 9-0 under Zora G. Clevenger and scored their first ever conference title and win over the Vanderbilt Commodores.

Just as UT was emerging as a program, though, the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, and the Vols wouldn’t field a varsity team that year or in 1918. In 1919, they went 3-3-3, but they went 7-2 in 1920, entering the decade as a program on the rise.

That’s the momentum that the Vols were dealing with as Banks took over and they opened 1921 in their new stadium. UT trustee Colonel W.S. Shields, president of Knoxville’s City National Bank, came up with the idea and provided the initial funding, which is why the field was named for him and his wife, Alice Watkins-Shields.

At the time, the stadium only had what is now part of the west stands, and it seated 32,000 people. So who did Tennessee football play on this date? They faced the Emory and Henry Wasps, winning 27-0 for a perfect opener and a perfect start to Banks’ career.

Things only got better for the Vols that year. They won their first three games, all at home and all of which were shutouts. Banks’ first season ended with a 6-2-1 record, but the Vols won all five contests at home.

There’s a little more history to the field from that year that makes this weekend fitting as well. The Vols beat the Florida Gators 9-0 in what was only the second meeting between the two schools at that stadium. Could that be an omen for what may come Saturday?

Well, it’s unlikely, but nobody could have predicted what would come of the program the day they began play in that stadium. A century later, Tennessee football is one of the top 10 winningest programs in school history, largely thanks to the man the stadium was eventually renamed after, Neyland himself. But the tradition of the field precedes Neyland.