University of Tennessee Athletics
A Special Night On Rocky Top For VFLs
October 04, 2014 | Football
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By Brian Rice KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
UTSports.com
The weekend also includes an opportunity for the VFLs to make the Vol Walk with the team and to run through the "T" just prior to kickoff.
The event brings together players from all eras to bond over the shared experience of being a part of the Tennessee Football family. It also serves as another reminder of the meaning of Vol for Life.
"It's hard to put it into words," Brad Lampley said. "A lot of schools don't treat their former players this way and it really speaks to why you have the concept of Vol for Life. They didn't just create a program and give it lip service, they're serious about it. Everything they've done has been about embracing former players, especially this staff.
"You have to believe that a recruit or a current player will see this and the way we've embraced the program as former players and been embraced back and see that is something special that they're either glad to be a part of or want to be a part of."
The VFL program started prior to his arrival at UT, but has grown exponentially under head coach Butch Jones and VFL coordinator Antoine Davis, himself a former Vol.
"It's a lot of fun," Davis said of planning the reunion weekend. "It's a lot of work involved getting these guys back, but at the end of the day, these guys want to come back. They want to see their old friends and they want to feel welcomed to the program and that's really what it's about. For me, it's a labor of love."
Jones' message to the former players was simple: Don't be a stranger.
"We want you to feel welcome," Jones said in his address to the group. "If you want to come to practice, come to practice any time you want. We want our players knowing you first-hand. I want them to understand all of the hard work, pride and tradition that goes into being a Tennessee Volunteer each and every day."
Jones has impressed Albert Haynesworth, a Vol from 1999-2001 before a 10-year career in the NFL. He also reminds the two-time Pro Bowler of his head coach at UT, Phillip Fulmer.
"He's not just another coach," Haynesworth said. "He's like Coach Fulmer and can take this football program and this university to another level. I love his enthusiasm and I talk to the players and they love him to death."
He was also impressed at the gathering, happy to take in the atmosphere of players from all eras standing together in one room as Volunteers.
"It's awesome to see everybody back," said Haynesworth. "To see guys from 1965 to 2005, it shows you what it means to be a Vol for Life."
Some of the attendees went even farther back than that. Charles Severance, a wing back in 1959-60, said Jones reached out to a group of 25-30 of his teammates during one of their regular gatherings at a West Knoxville restaurant.
"My little group gets together and the reason is we lived together, we ate together, we grew up together, so we're still together," he said. "That's where Butch first came to us, he found out that we were there when he had been here about a week and told Antone that he wanted to come down and see us. That was great, he didn't just come, he stayed and had lunch and talked to us."
Davis has been more than an event planner or someone that keeps up with the alumni mailing list. He has served as a link between players and the program that gave them so much. A familiar face that knows how special it is to put on the orange jersey.
"It means a lot to us to have a guy like him that bridges a lot of gaps," Lampley said. "I think it's important to have a former player in that role. Staffs change and people come and go, but it's good to have that familiar person to come back to. You always have a home, this makes you feel like you always have a home."
And it is a home that will always be special to every player that has come through the University of Tennessee.
"This University, this football team, it changed my life," Haynesworth said. "I came from a small town, Hartsville, South Carolina, and was a big fish in a little pond. To come here and get the coaching and experience and the kind of fathership that Coach Fulmer showed me and gave me was amazing, I wouldn't be the person I am today if I hadn't been here."
