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In the 1930s, the "Orange & White" game was really the "Orange & Black Game"

Sometimes in forays through aging microfilm, you might be looking for one thing and find another. I was looking for a birth announcement about Jerry "Ace" Miller from the days after he was born March 31, 1939.

I didn't find any mention of Ace's debut in the papers, but I ran onto several stories written between March 31 through April 2 about the Tennessee spring game.

On March 31, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported that the Vols would be having an "Orange & Black Game" two days later on Shields-Watkins Field. Kickoff was slated at 2:30.

In the compiled history of Tennessee football, from the works of Tom Siler, Marvin West, Ben Byrd, Ed Harris, Russ Bebb, on through the "Tennessee Football Vault," I never found any reference to an "Orange & Black Game." Most folks thought the spring game originated in the 1950s, maybe the 1960s. Not so.

The KNS also reported that the game would be broadcast on WNOX, station manager Dirk Westegaard making the announcement. Sports Information Director Jack Joyner did the play-by-play, with Tys Terway on the color. No mention was made of Lindsey Nelson.

The future broadcasting legend was a student assistant and an integral part of the Vol athletic program at the time, spotting for the print media in the press box and looking for his big break into the business of broadcasting. The best was yet to come for Nelson.

There was no effort, expressed or implied, to draw a crowd. The "World's Largest Spring Game" promotion was 47 years away. The "game," it seemed, was a necessary evil, the sooner dispensed with, the better.

"Only season-ticket holders, along with city officials, and a few newspaper representatives," would be admitted, the story read. A day later, game day, another story stated that, "Only radio sports commentators, U-T faculty, and purchasers of season tickets will be admitted."

Newspaper accounts made no mention of the reasoning behind the restrictions placed on who could attend. It was, as Nelson has admitted, a manifestation of Neyland's intense desire to have as few eyes as possible looking in on one of his practices, which, in essence, the game was that day. Neyland was exceptionally suspicious of who might be watching practice, on the practice field and from across the river beyond the southern part of campus.

"To Neyland," Lindsey wrote, "a football game was too important to be threatened by the presence of outsiders."

The Orange team seemed to have the advantage in personnel, with Bob Suffridge, Ed Molinski, Abe Shires, and George Cafego leading the way, but that seeming talent discrepancy didn't translate to the events on the field.

Hugh Faust was in charge of the Black team, while Bill Britton handled the Orange team. Bob Neyland and John Barnhill were said to be "neutral observers."

Harold Harris' game story in the sports section of the Sunday News-Sentinel on April 2 assessed the scene: "Playing their hearts out for a chance at varsity berths next fall, a makeshift machine of inexperienced reserves and untried sophomores clad in Black shirts held a more powerful Orange brigade to a 6-6 tie Saturday afternoon at Shields-Watkins Field, as the University of Tennessee spring football practice came to an end."

Harris reported 1,500 fans "braved chill winds" to attend a "drab intra-squad struggle."

Excited about an 11-0 campaign a year earlier, Tennessee fans were anxiously looking ahead to the 1939 season, one in which the Vols held 10 regular-season opponents scoreless. Harris noted that, "The Vols are well heeled with oodles of talent for every position with the lone exception of end, where Capt. Bowden Wyatt is no longer holding sway." He might also have mentioned the loss of George Hunter at the other end, but didn't.

"Considering the fact most of them are reserves or sophomores I think the Black team did extra well to hold the so-called varsity on even terms," Neyland said.

The KNS also unveiled a new photographic perspective for the game. No one said it was a "radical technique," but for fans raised on game pictures from the sidelines it might have been.

A caption on one picture read as follows: "Here's something brand new in football photography. Jimmy Richmond of the News-Sentinel took this shot from atop the press box at Shields-Watkins Field with his 'Big Bertha' camera. Notice the clearness of the faces, although the camera was nearly an eighth of a mile away."

Spring games are spring games, nothing more, full of sound and fury, but not really of great significance. On this day, however, seeds were sown for a historic 1939 season and a new way to cover the games.

The "Orange & Black Game" is now a part of the Tennessee football literature and history.

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 is currently working on a biography of Ace Miller of Knoxville Golden Gloves fame. He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net . His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.