University of Tennessee Athletics
An Era Preserved: Rohe Track Reunion
October 03, 2014 | Track & Field
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- With the pageantry and tradition of a Tennessee-Florida football game at Neyland Stadium swelling to its climax just before a noon kickoff on Saturday, the reaches of the occasion will extend backwards into the annals of Volunteer history and folklore as hundreds of VFLs return to Rocky Top to support the Orange and White once more. And while VFL Reunion Weekend will see a decorated contingent of football alumni taking part in the pregame festivities on the field, another renowned class -- waiving the banner of one of Tennessee's most successful and formative eras in track and field -- will also be honored for its foundational contribution to UT athletics.
During the first quarter of Saturday's game, the Chuck Rohe Track and Field Era will be recognized at Neyland Stadium in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1964 SEC Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships -- the first in the history of the UT programs. Under the tutelage of legendary head coach Chuck Rohe, Tennessee would go on to win 21 SEC crowns in track and field and cross country, including 15 consecutive indoor and outdoor titles from 1964 to 1971.
The in-game presentation is part of a weekend-long reunion for the Chuck Rohe Era, a gathering of around 180 former athletes that competed under Coach Rohe during his tenure on Rocky Top. The reunion will bookend Saturday's football game with a golf outing and reception dinner on Friday as well as a meet-and-greet breakfast with new UT director of track and field/cross country Beth Alford-Sullivan on Sunday morning. Coach Rohe, now age 83, will also be in attendance for the weekend's festivities.
"We've been meeting on and off for the past 15 years, and this is shaping up to be one of the biggest and best reunions we've organized so far," said Coppley Vickers, one of the chief organizers of the reunion and a three-time SEC individual champion. "The goal is to present a summation of Coach Rohe's legacy at UT and to savor the great memories we have of our successes on the track and of the influence Coach Rohe has had in our lives."
"It's been 50 years since most of us had competed at Tennessee and all of us athletes from that time are now in our 60s or 70s," said Tom Scott, another chief organizer of the reunion and the 1963 cross country team captain. "We're at the stage of life where we're a lot more interested in getting together and savoring those memories. We all reflect back on how important and formative those years were for us when we were at Tennessee."
Regarded as the "father" of track and field in the South, Rohe had six top-10 NCAA Championship finishes, and he coached three NCAA individual champions, 53 SEC Indoor event champions and 49 SEC Outdoor event champions. He was named the 1967 NCAA National Coach of the Year. In 2003, Rohe was inducted to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and was named to the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame in 2009.
Rohe arrived on Rocky Top in 1962 and served as the head track and field coach as well as the football recruiting coordinator. As such, he quickly became the link between between football players and track and field athletes at Tennessee, introducing the dual-athlete concept that paid tremendous dividends for both programs. One of Rohe's most successful dual athletes was Richmond Flowers, an NCAA tournament champion in the 110m hurdles who went on play in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. Flowers is a scheduled speaker at Friday night's reunion reception.
Other notable dual-athletes during the Rohe era included Chip Kell, Carl Kremser, and Chip McGeean.
Rohe was also instrumental in raising donations for the construction of Tom Black Track, still the home of Volunteer track and field.
"The track program was rock bottom when I started there. I believe it was about the worst program in the country. We didn't even have a track to run on," recalls Scott, who recently retired after 43 years of teaching at Kennesaw State University. "And I remember it was a great day for me when the announcement came that Chuch Rohe had become our new track coach. He was coming in from Furman and I knew that Furman was quite a bit better than us, so I knew good things were on the horizon."
Possibly Coach Rohe's most sterling influence on the University of Tennesse came in his role in the integration of UT athletics. Rohe is credited with having recruited the first African-American track and field athletes to Rocky Top, bringing James Craig and Audry Hardy into the program during the 1967-68 season. Rohe also had a hand in the recruitment of Lester McClain, the first black Volunteer football player.
Hardy will be on hand this weekend and is also scheduled to speak on Friday night.
"Coach Rohe's philosophies and his outlook on life are so ingrained in each of us," explained Vickers, now an attorney in Knoxville. "We've taken those ideas with us throughout our lives and they've had a profound effect on the people we've become and the things we've accomplished."
As legacy of the Rohe track era is preserved, the leading caretakers of this history continue to express a deep desire to pay forward their own experiences and passion for UT track and field into the current program.
"We just want to help out the program in any way we can," Vickers said. "We're looking forward to meeting Coach Sullivan this weekend and we plan on announcing a few things that we believe we can contribute to benefit the track and field program. We care very deeply about this program and long to see it continue at the forefront of collegiate track and field."
As for current head coach Sullivan, she knows that a pronounced and active relationship with past eras and alumni of UT track and field can only benefit and reinforce the plans and expectations she has of the program in the upcoming years.
"I'm very excited to be able to be in one place with a lot of the alums," said Sullivan. "I am really looking forward to sitting down and hearing their stories. I feel it's very important in the role of a director of a program with this much history to tie our alumni back into the current setting and to be able to meet with them and give them reassurance that we're going to get this program up and rolling again."
The Rohe track era will be honored at Neyland Stadium during the second timeout of the first quarter of Saturday's football game. For more information on Coach Rohe and his contributions to the University of Tennessee, visit rohetrackera.com.
