University of Tennessee Athletics
Inside The T - The Most Famous Fan
May 25, 2015 | Softball
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
Ralph Weekly stood me up for our usual postgame radio interview Friday night.
A delay getting to the booth was understandable, after all his Lady Volunteer softball team had just completed a tense 2-1 victory over Florida State to secure its seventh trip to the Women's College World Series.
After the celebration, Ralph made it all the way to the hallway that runs behind the home radio booth and the suites up the third base line. But he never made it into my booth for our usual radio interview. Tennessee softball's biggest fan stopped him first. The fan wanted to congratulate Weekly, and he quickly accepted the invitation to join the team on the field for a photo.
On the hierarchy of postgame celebration priorities, Butch Jones ranks far higher than I ever will.
The relationship between Jones and the softball program dates back to his first months on campus. Jones had yet to coach a game at Tennessee, but he gave the 2013 edition of the Lady Vols inspiration and words of wisdom on a World Series run of their own. A ball signed by Jones and all of the members of that team solidified them as "All In," a theme that resulted in a runner-up finish at the WCWS.
This season, Jones took time to speak to the team prior to the start of the Knoxville Regional two weeks ago, a video that the SEC Network sent around the world. As Tennessee faced Utah in the Region Championship on Sunday, Jones was back at the park.
With members of his extended family in town for his oldest son's graduation, Jones brought a large group to the game. He took the time to visit with the players on the field before first pitch and watched the game from a box above.
There are plenty of football coaches around the country that would come out to a game like that for a photo op, a waive to the crowd, maybe even they would stay a couple of innings before going on with their day. Not this football coach. Jones and family made the day of it, even sticking through an hour-long rain delay to passionately cheer on Tennessee as the team earned its eight berth in the Super Regional round.
That brings us to this weekend, where Jones cemented himself as Tennessee softball's most famous fan. Friday afternoon, there he was on the field again, members of the football staff in tow, wishing the players well before the second game against Florida State. They again occupied one of the suites that overlooks the third base line at Lee Stadium. Again he was there for every pitch.
After FSU forced a deciding third game, Jones and crew departed briefly for a bite to eat, but made it clear they were coming back. Sure enough, he was back in his seat for the first pitch.
The ESPN broadcast cut to Jones several times in the stands, the same steely, intense glare that is present on his face during his own team's games. After the clinching ground ball that put UT back in Oklahoma City, Jones made the football play of intercepting Weekly before he could come into the radio booth. The fan needed a picture with his team. And there, in a photo that will go on the wall in the clubhouse, is a beaming Jones surrounded by the victorious Lady Vols.
"What a great person he is to be a part of our program and talking to our kids all the time," Weekly said in his postgame press conference.
Jones follows in the footsteps of a couple of other famous fans. Pat Summitt was the one person that Monica Abbott wanted to meet on her recruiting visit to Tennessee. Summitt promised that she would be there when Abbott took the team to the World Series.
At the time, Tennessee had only made one NCAA Tournament, a World Series was more of a dream than a reality. But Summitt saw the same thing in Abbott that Ralph and Karen Weekly saw. She was a transformative player and exceeded even those expectations. And when she led Tennessee to its first WCWS in 2005, there was Summitt, as promised.
Phillip Fulmer was a mainstay in the stands when his youngest daughter Allison played for the Weeklys from 2006-09. He said at the time something Jones echoes today, that a strong Tennessee benefits all programs. When UT faces Florida in the WCWS opener Thursday, it will be another two-hour commercial for the athletic programs at Tennessee, to the commitment to comprehensive excellence that is found in the UTAD's mission statement.
But that's not why Butch Jones is a fan. It's not a selfish move or something done for the cameras. He's like the rest of us, caught up in the passion and excitement of another team in Orange representing the University of Tennessee well and competing for a championship.
