Editor’s note: This is a daily series revisiting 100 past Tennessee football games ahead of the Vols’ season opener against Syracuse on Aug. 30 in Atlanta. It is not a ranking of games.
Robert Neyland cupped his hand over his ear and learned towards a window inside the Tennessee locker room at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
It was New Year's Day 1951 and the Vols were about to take their biggest stage of the season. As Neyland was making his final remarks before Tennessee took the field, the Longhorns' band began playing "The Eye of Texas" just outside.
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"When this game is over, they'll be playing the 'Tennessee Waltz,'" Neyland said.
The often reserved Neyland, the "General," who just five years before was serving with the U.S. Army in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II, began waltzing with himself.
His players watched, first in amazement at this side of their coach they had not seen before. Then they burst into laughter just as Texas players passed by.
The Vols were relaxed. That mattered in a game where they missed a game-tying extra point in the fourth quarter, turned the ball over late, got the ball back and then beat the Longhorns in a come-from-behind thriller to win, 20-14 in the climax of a national title-winning campaign.
Tennessee was battle-tested. A little more than a month before, the Vols had dashed Kentucky's national title hopes with a 7-0 triumph over Bear Bryant's Wildcats team at an icy Shields-Watkins Field.
They had also beaten No. 14 Duke, Alabama and Ole Miss. Tennessee's lone blemish was a 7-0 defeat at Mississippi State in its second game of the season.
The Vols had already been named national champions by several selectors when they arrived in Dallas for the annual Cotton Bowl Classic against Texas.
The Longhorns were champions of the Southwest Conference and had knocked off previously No. 1 Southern Methodist earlier that season.
Before kickoff, in one of those vintage Neyland speeches, he reportedly told his team that Texas was stronger, but Tennessee was going to be more conditioned. And then, as if reading from the game script, Neyland told his team not to be surprised if the Longhorns lead at halftime.
They did, setting up for a Vols rally for the ages--twice.
It was Tennessee that struck first, though. Hank Lauricella set the Vols up with a 75-yard run through the Texas defense. He was nabbed at the 5-yard line before Herky Payne lofted a pass to John Gruble for a 7-0 lead.
The Longhorns answered back in the second quarter, scoring twice to go up 14-7 as rain began to fall on the Cotton Bowl turf.
Neither team scored in the third, but Tennessee marched 83 yards early in the fourth to pull within one. Pat Shires missed the extra point, though and the Vols' deficit remained.
As Shires made his way back to the Vols' sideline, he was stopped by Neyland.
"We didn't come down here to tie," Neyland reassured Shires.
Looking to put it away, Texas coughed up the ball at its on 43 and Jimmy "Cowboy" Hill, who had intercepted a pass earlier, jumped on it. Tennessee had life.
Three plays later, the Vols were at the goal line. Andy Kozar dove across for the go-ahead score.
That Vols locker room, where pregame tension gave way to laughter hours before, was now full of joyful and delirious Tennessee players. Neyland climbed up on a table, and shouted, "I love every one of you sons-of-bitches."
Editor's note: Quotes from Tennessee head coach Robert Neyland and locker room accounts in this story are from the book, "Neyland: The Gridiron General" by Bob Gilbert.
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