Col. Tom Elam was a familiar figure around UT athletics... almost always with a long cigar.

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He's been gone for more than 10 years now, but the University of Tennessee still feels the influence of Thomas French Elam, the Union City lawyer whose service to the university was guided by the 1960s slogan, "The state is our campus."

"The University of Tennessee is the most important institution in the state," he said. "I don't think a state is a good one without a good state university. As the state's land grant college, it has representatives in every county. It reaches in and touches almost every phase of life as we know it today, whether it be planting the corn crop, delivering babies, looking for a cure to cancer, or trying to find an answer to the nuclear problem. It must continue to be a leader in all activities in the state."

Col. Elam, the title reflecting Army service in the 1940s, saw his first Tennessee game Nov. 13, 1926. It was a 20-3 loss at Vanderbilt, but the game turned his collegiate aspirations toward Knoxville. He didn't miss many games over the next 70 years or so, seeing Gene McEver and Peyton Manning. Elam was in school as Bob Neyland was beginning his remarkable dynasty, when the "Flaming Sophomores of 1928" were the toast of the town. He was a student manager under hoops coach Bill Britton, but Neyland dominated his memories.

"At that time, Neyland had two chart men," he said. "One kept up with the running plays. My job was to keep up with Bobby Dodd's punts and passes. Neyland knew how long it would take a kick leaving Dodd's foot to get down the field a reasonable distance, and the other fellow catch it. He also knew how long it would take his two ends - in this case, Fritz Brandt and Paul Hug - to get down into the area where it was going to be caught. That's just one example of the thoroughness he used in preparing his team."

Elam was associate editor of the 1930 Volunteer yearbook and remembered how the editor wanted to dedicate the volume to Neyland.

"I said that would be putting too much emphasis on athletics, and I didn't think we ought to do that. I sold them on that idea," Elam said.

A year later, however, things were different. Elam was editor and said he was "determined my annual would be dedicated to Neyland."

The frontispiece, no doubt from Elam's pen, read as follows: "This volume of the 1931 Volunteer is dedicated to Major Robert R. Neyland, One who has placed Tennessee in the national athletic spotlight, one who has commanded the admiration and respect of the entire student body, one who has maintained the same admirable degree of poise and determination through adversity and triumph and one whose name has been and always will be a tradition when Tennessee athletics are mentioned."

A member of the athletics board since 1951 and board of trustees since 1956 until his death March 9, 1998, Elam was straightforward about his feelings toward his alma mater.

"I take no back seat or backtalk about from anybody on my interest in, love, and support for the University of Tennessee. I have said that my church and family are number one and number two or vice versa, and that the university is number three. I've held that position for more than 60 years."

He was a man who couldn't whisper, whose words were there for everyone to hear.

As one of the best known community leaders in Upper West Tennessee, Elam was "mentioned" more than once as a candidate for Governor.

With wife Kathleen by his side, he fought the good fight for his community, his university, and his state, yet there was a side to him many people never saw.

"It's remarkable," said Rev. Stan Wright, his pastor in the late 1980s at the First Christian Church downtown, where Elam taught Sunday School and served in numerous leadership positions. "In spite of all the things he's been involved in and the recognition he's earned, he's humble. Underneath, there is this very kind and tender man."

More than 20 years ago, David Bartholomew, then editor of the city's newspaper, said of him: "Tom Elam is bigger than life itself. He embodies the idea that his success, as great as it is in its own right, is measured far more in the success of other people."

On the other hand, Elam said, "I'm probably the luckiest country lawyer who ever entered the practice of law in Tennessee.

"I have made more mistakes and have more to answer for than anybody I know, but the Lord has been particularly gracious to me and far better than I deserve."

Whenever he said that, one sentence always followed: "There's no halo over my head."

Tom Mattingly is the author of "The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006" (2006), to be published in second edition in 2008, and "Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years" (1998). He sent one memorable Friday with Tom Elam in Union City in June 1988. He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.