page_title: Sewanee–Vanderbilt football rivalry
section_title: 1907: Grantland Rice's Greatest Thrill
hierarchical_section_title: Sewanee–Vanderbilt football rivalry / Notable games / 1907: Grantland Rice's Greatest Thrill
caption_attribution_description: Vanderbilt football player Bob Blake pictured in Spalding's Football Guide
context_page_description: The Sewanee–Vanderbilt football rivalry was an American college football rivalry between the Sewanee Tigers and Vanderbilt Commodores. They were both founding members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the Southern Conference, and the Southeastern Conference. Both teams' histories feature some powerhouses of early Southern football, e.g. 1899 Sewanee Tigers football team and 1906 Vanderbilt Commodores football team. It was the oldest of Vanderbilt's rivalries; dating back to 1891 when Vanderbilt played its second ever football game and Sewanee played its first. Vanderbilt leads the series 40–8–4. It used to be claimed as the oldest rivalry in the south, older than the "South's Oldest Rivalry" between North Carolina and Virginia. Usually played towards the end of the season on Thanksgiving Day, the two teams have not met again since 1944.
  The two universities are in the same state of Tennessee and are over 90 miles away from each other. A newspaper account of the rivalry reads: "Both schools look upon the game as the big feature of their schedule each year, no matter what other games are included, and it is always the biggest drawing card on either schedule."
context_section_description: In the second year of the legal forward pass Vanderbilt won the SIAA championship on a double-pass play. Sewanee led 12 to 11 with twelve minutes to play. At McGugin's signal, the Commodores went into a freakish formation in which Stein Stone remained at center but all other players shifted to his left. Quarterback Hugh Potts took the snap and lateraled the ball to Vaughn Blake, who lateraled it across to Bob Blake, who had lined up deep in punt formation, as Stone ran down the field. Blake then connected with Stone on a 35-yard pass down inside the 5-yard line. Honus Craig ran in it to win the game.  It was cited by Grantland Rice as the greatest thrill he ever witnessed in his years of watching sports.
  Vanderbilt coach Dan McGugin in Spalding's Football Guide's summation of the season in the SIAA wrote "The standing. First, Vanderbilt; second, Sewanee, a might good second;" and that Aubrey Lanier "came near winning the Vanderbilt game by his brilliant dashes after receiving punts." Innis Brown recalled that Sewanee was likely the South's best team that year.
caption: Bob Blake
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