For Now, Vols Rule Tennessee Relocation Of Nfl Team In Memphis Has Ways To Go To Rival Ut Support

The Tennessee Oilers are doing and saying all the right things trying to lure new fans. Unfortunately, they’re going up against the Volunteer State’s showcase team - the University of Tennessee.

For anyone keeping track, Tennessee’s college team easily held its grip on the state’s football fans during the opening weekend of the new season.

The Volunteers, ranked No. 3 in the nation, drew 106,285 of the orange faithful Saturday night to Knoxville, where they beat Texas Tech 52-17.

The 30,171 who watched the Oilers win the first NFL game ever played in Tennessee 400 miles away in Memphis would have filled one end zone of the Vols’ Neyland Stadium.

The Volunteers have something the Oilers can only hope to equal. The school’s fan base stretches over two time zones and more than 452 miles with orange and white stretching from Rocky Top in the east to the Mississippi River in the west.

Mary Lou Teague of Knoxville, which has been home to the university since 1796 and the football Vols for more than a century, went to her first Tennessee game in 1957. She’s been hooked ever since and wouldn’t trade a Vols’ game for the NFL.

“I’ve been to pro games. They’re not as exciting as UT football,” she said. “We would be here win, lose or draw. Just walking over here, I saw people I hadn’t seen in years. It’s a social thing.”

Vols fans started arriving more than 5 hours before kickoff, turning interstates into nonstop lines of traffic on a hot, steamy day.

They set up their grills in parking lots and under trees, ate wherever they could sit, stand or prop and whiled away the hours talking football. When time came for the Volunteers to walk into the stadium, at least 20,000 screaming fans lined the street to cheer them on.

That atmosphere is one reason Vols quarterback Peyton Manning decided to wait a year before collecting big money in the NFL.

Compare that to the trickle of cars heading west to Memphis for the Oilers on Sunday. Only a couple thousand people tailgated, with most showing up just in time to find their seats.

Darius Reynolds of Morristown figures he has the best of both worlds. He grew up a University of Tennessee fan and added the Oilers to his list after living in Houston for 5-1/2 years. He plans to watch the Oilers when they start playing in Nashville, but he took his son, Jordan, 11, to the Vols’ opener to continue the family tradition.