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Running the old scoreboard at the north end of Shields-Watkins Field was a "family affair" for Richard Coleman.

Stories about Tennessee football come in all shapes and sizes and from a number of sources. This one came from a son wanting to honor his father's influence on Tennessee football history.

The old scoreboard above the north end of Shields-Watkins Field has been a source of fascination for many Vol fans over the years.

Allen Spain has a pictorial history of Tennessee scoreboards on his Web site (http://www.thevib.com/scoreboards.html), but a recent E-mail introduced me to the people who actually operated the scoreboard 1940-65, the two inside the structure and the two on the east sideline. They communicated by phone, the cord hooked into a box near the 50-yard line, east side.

"My dad, Carl Coleman, worked for many years for Post Sign Company and was involved in erecting the black scoreboard on the hill behind the bleachers at the north end," said Richard Coleman, now retired in Greenback after a 33-year career teaching natural sciences at Volunteer State Community College.

"He was one of those 'self-educated' engineers. He didn't graduate from Central High School at Central, maybe lacking half a credit, but he's one of the smartest men I ever knew. Dad became involved in its operation almost from the start and took over after a couple of years. From that time until its demolition, it was more-or-less a family operation."

It certainly was.

"In 1944, Dad took me with him to the games," he said. "'In those easy-going days on the sideline, he let me sit on the tarpaulin, where I remained until halftime and then until the game ended.

"When I was old enough to see over the console, I worked game-long in the scoreboard. At about age 14, I was with Dad on the field during the first half, helping set up the phone and managing the wire for him. He and I would operate the board in the second half, while my brother, Bob, and brother-in-law, Tom Burkhart, took care of the field operation. This continued until the old scoreboard was demolished, and operation was done from the press box."

Carl also designed, built, and installed scoreboards for Tulane Stadium in New Orleans (the old Sugar Bowl), Ladd Stadium in Mobile, Ala., and the University of North Carolina. He didn't have a business card that said "We do scoreboards," but he really didn't need one.

The new scoreboard was put up in 1940, the season before Bob Neyland and many Vol players headed off to World War II. Neyland, who thought "outside the box" before that term was popularized, gave the Colemans very specific instructions about the board.

"Dad's directions from Gen. Neyland were to get the information on the board in the shortest time possible," Robert said. "He even said that speed was more important that absolute accuracy. I defy anyone, even in this day of computers and press box operation, to get data from the field to the scoreboard as fast as we did, with the same degree of accuracy."

Then came an insight into Gen. Neyland's thought processes. "He told Dad he used the scoreboard. He wanted to know down and distance. He said 'as soon as you know when the ball's down, put it up there. It is more important to be fast than accurate. If you make a mistake, you can always change it.' "

Richard said his dad was "uncanny" in being able to "figure out what was going happen. He could spot the ball and call out the down, distance, and yard line before the official marked the ball for play.

"He would go downfield just prior to a punt and usually the play would end right in front of him."

It was an all-day proposition for the Colemans. "We'd have an early breakfast and then head for the stadium before noon," he said. "Dad hated traffic. We'd park downtown and walk to the stadium. Sometimes he'd work a half day, and I'd ride the bus to meet him."

Richard said that he still does some scoreboard watching when he's at Neyland Stadium. "I get frustrated when I go over there, and think, 'What yard line is it? I can't see from here.' The guy sitting in the press box should be able to do that quickly. Some people are a bit hesitant, maybe afraid of making a mistake."

Carl Coleman died in 2000 at age 90, 10 days after Bob passed away. Richard, 68, is the repository of the family memories.

The family had a remarkable dedication to the football games played on the greensward east of 15th Street. Whenever there was a Tennessee game, a freshman game, the Thanksgiving battle between Knoxville High School and Central High, or an Orange and White game, the Colemans were present.

It was a matter of family honor.

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 may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.