University of Tennessee Athletics
Brown On CSTV's 'Chick-Fil-A SEC Tailgate'
October 24, 2007 | Football
Tennessee senior Chris Brown, who is redefining the tight end position this year for the Vols, is among the features during Saturday???s ???Chick-fil-A SEC Tailgate??? on CSTV. The one-hour program airs at noon live on location from Jacksonville, Fla., site of the annual Georgia-Florida football game.
Brown has 26 catches for 195 yards and a team-leading five receiving touchdowns, just two TDs shy of tying Tennessee???s season record for a tight end.
The ???Chick-fil-A SEC Tailgate??? is the ultimate source for coverage of SEC Football, the premiere football and tailgating conference in the country. The show offers a complete look at all the news and action from around the conference, analysis of the week???s games, along with the SEC traditions and culture live from the heart of the tailgate parties.??
In addition, fans can access highlights of the ???Chick-fil-A SEC Tailgate??? through CBSSports.com and CSTV.com, which features streaming video content from each show. The ???Chick-fil-A SEC Tailgate??? joins CSTV???s post game show, ???SEC Game Room,??? in recapping all the day???s action and featuring interviews with players and coaches, giving fans wire-to-wire coverage of the best college football has to offer.??
InSIDe the Vols -- BIG ORANGE READY FOR TASTE OF HOME
Tennessee returns to friendly turf Saturday, opening a four-game homestand by hosting South Carolina before a nationally-televised audience.
???I am very glad to be home,??? head coach Phillip Fulmer said. ???Our team has played well this year at home and the crowd certainly has helped us. Against a team like South Carolina that does a lot of things at the line of scrimmage, it could be and should be a bonus.???
The Vols are 3-0 this year at Neyland Stadium and have won four home games in a row dating to last season. Another four home wins added to this season???s ledger couldn???t come at a better time for a team that stands 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the Southeastern Conference.
Carolina enters at 6-2 overall, 3-2 in the league and in a three-way tie for first in the jumbled SEC Eastern Division.
???We have had two fine days of practice,??? Fulmer said. ???Our players came out Tuesday and really had one of the best practices we???ve had this year, and I thought it was really good today. (Thursday) will be important as we narrow down the game plan and get ready to play.???
Kickoff from Neyland Stadium is 7:45 p.m. Eastern time, with ESPN and the Vol Network carrying the action.
FORMER VOLS TIGHT END MURPHY DIES AT 51
By Jacque Hillman, The Jackson Sun
| ?? |
| ??John Murphy |
That's what family and friends said Tuesday after learning of his death. Murphy, who practiced medicine in Florence, Ala., died Tuesday in Nashville from complications of a gastric hemorrhage. He was 51.
A 1974 Jackson Central-Merry graduate, Murphy was an all-state football player for the Cougars and signed with UT. He played tight end for the Vols and earned three varsity letters from 1975-77. Murphy was inducted into the Jackson-Madison County Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
"He was very talented and quick for a big man," said Jackson's Neill Ross, chairman of the hall of fame and a teammate of Murphy's at JCM. Ross' father, Richard Ross, coached Murphy. "He was very athletic, and that's why UT wanted him."
Mike McCarty of Jackson played sports with Murphy from childhood through high school and remained friends with him. He said everyone in Jackson knew Murphy as Johnny, not John, during his youth.
"He was a very good football player but a greater person," McCarty said. "This is hard to deal with."
Murphy played for coach Bill Battle at UT his first three years and for coach Johnny Majors his senior season. He finished with seven catches for 70 yards and one touchdown.
He was the son of Josephine Murphy, a long-time Jackson resident, and the late John T. Murphy. The Murphy family owned Murphy Tractor Company in Jackson for many years.
"My brother loved life," said his sister, Libby Murphy. "God called him when we were kids to be a healer, and he answered that call. He took care of everyone, and now he's probably mending some big angel's broken wing. John loved his wife, his children, his mother and his family. He loved being Dr. John. He loved fishing, his patients, the Big Orange, his dogs, those he worked with and sharing his blessings and talents with others."
Dr. Murphy graduated from UT with honors in 1978 and earned his medical degree from the UT Center for Health Sciences in 1984. He won the Hermann Hickman Scholarship for Vol athletes in post-graduate training and received his board certification in 1992 with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
"Not only am I mourning the loss of a great friend, but our clinic is in mourning as is Campbell's Clinic," said Dr. Mike Cobb, an orthopedic surgeon in Jackson who went to medical school with Murphy. Murphy did his residency at the Campbell Foundation in Memphis in orthopedic surgery in 1987-89. He had been in private practice at the Innovative Orthopaedics & Sports in Florence since 2004. Prior to that, he practiced at the North Alabama Bone & Joint Clinic in Florence.
But the years growing up together in Jackson are what stirred memories Tuesday for Calvin Murphy, local Jackson businessman. He said John Murphy was "a good person to look up to. He was a friend as well as a cousin."
"We had a lot of good times growing up, and we probably did a bunch of stuff we shouldn't have," he said. "We worked with Uncle John on Saturdays. We played basketball and softball and fished together. And we drove big trucks and played pranks on each other. It's just hard to talk about John right now."
A book could be filled about experiences playing football at UT and about their friendship in later years, said Brent Watson, a Knoxville attorney and long-time friend of Murphy's.
"I met John when I came to Knoxville to be recruited, and I became fast friends with him my freshman year," said Watson. "I told John's wife this story recently. When we were playing against Tulsa, I'd gotten knocked down by a player on the other team and he'd fallen down also. So John was standing over the guy and shaking his finger and giving him a hard time. The other player was about 6 feet, 9 inches tall, and when he stood up, John said, 'Well, excuse me.' And John walked off. John was a good football player, very tough. Unfortunately, he hurt his knee in his senior year."
Watson said what impressed him most about his friend was that, "John always did the right thing. He was very, very compassionate. He had great respect for all people."
James A. DeBerry, who has worked for the Murphy family about 50 years, said, "He used to go around with me when I was delivering stuff. When he was 4 years old, he'd sit down and talk with me. He was like my son. When he was 15 or 16, he said he was going to be a doctor -- and he was a good doctor, too.
"There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for me and anything I wouldn't do for him. He'd always tell me when I went to Florence, 'You look after Mama.' He was a good son. He called his mama every night."
Murphy was married to Teresa Shannon, formerly of Cullman, Ala. They have three children.
Visitation will be Thursday evening at Greenview Memorial Funeral Home in Florence. No time had been set as of late Tuesday. Services will be at 11 a.m. on Friday at First United Methodist Church in Florence.
