page_title: History of Tennessee Volunteers football
section_title: Early history (1891–1963)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Tennessee Volunteers football / Overview / Early history (1891–1963)
caption_attribution_description: Tennessee Volunteers end Graham Vowell circa. 1922
context_page_description: The Tennessee Volunteers football team represents the University of Tennessee in American football.
context_section_description: Tennessee's football program began in 1891, organized in large part by Henry Denlinger, a teacher who had played at Princeton. The team's first game, a loss to Sewanee, was played on November 21, 1891. The program's first win did not come until October 25, 1892, when they defeated Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, by a score of 25–0. Tennessee competed in their first 5 seasons without a coach.
  In October 1894, the Athletic Association had resolved to drop varsity football and look forward to baseball in the spring of 1895.  After the humiliating 1893 season with two wins and four imposing defeats, only two athletes willing to admit they had played on the 1893 team returned to campus in 1894. To complicate matters further, the practice field, located just west of the main entrance to the Hill, was being graded and improved. Soon after the Athletic Association's decision, W. B. Stokely, a UT senior who transferred from Wake Forest University, persuaded a group of students to form a team in the fall of 1894.  Stokely, who was elected captain, gave encouragement and direction to the other players. Even though the institution chose not to be represented officially on the gridiron in 1894, Stokely and his unofficial team kept football interest alive during this period when almost certainly it otherwise would have been allowed to lapse completely. These unofficial games, referred to as "The Lost Years", are not included in NCAA statistics or in official UT win-loss records. The 1896 team was the first "official team", posting the school's first winning record, and joining the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the first Southern athletics conference. 1898 was UT's first time to not have an active football team, due to the Spanish–American War.
  Tennessee played on Waite Field during these days, on the southeast corner of 15th street and Cumberland avenue, where the Walters Life Science Building now stands.
  In 1899, J. A. Pierce became the first head coach of the team. Author Nash Buckingham was a prominent athlete in 1901 and 1902, two of Tennessee's strongest early elevens. The 1902 team scored on rival Vanderbilt for the first time, and also featured halfback Tootsie Douglas, who booted a 109-yard punt (the field length was 110 yards in those days) in a blizzard, against John Heisman's Clemson Tigers. Fullback Sam Y. Parker of the 1904 and 1905 teams made Buckingham's All-Southern team in 1904, and was murdered in 1906 for an alleged affair. Roscoe 'Piggy' Ward was the school's only three-time captain. The 1908 team coached by George Levene was considered the best Tennessee football yet assembled, led by All-Southerns captain Walker Leach and College Football Hall of Fame inductee Nathan Dougherty. Its four SIAA wins was the most in school history. Vanderbilt coach Dan McGugin noted "All things considered, Leach was perhaps the best football player of the year in Dixie." The 1909 team won only a single game, and Levene was fired. The 1910 team was coached by former Sewanee tackle Lex Stone.
  The team had several coaches with short tenures until Zora G. Clevenger took over in 1911. The 1912 squad was the first non-losing Volunteer team in four years, but they did not win a conference game. In 1914, Clevenger led the Vols to a dominant 9–0 season and their first championship of any kind (even state titles), winning the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association title. The team included All-Southerns end Goat Carroll,  tackle Farmer Kelly, guard Mush Kerr and fullback Rus Lindsay. Tennessee beat rival Vanderbilt for the first time, passing for two touchdowns to Carroll in a 16–14 victory.  The 1914 Vols were retroactively awarded a national championship by 1st-N-Goal, though this remains largely unrecognized.
  The Vols would again field an undefeated squad in 1916 under coach John R. Bender, but consistency was still elusive. A second, unblemished SIAA championship in three years was relegated to a tie with Georgia Tech when Kentucky held Tennessee to a scoreless tie in the final week of play. End  Graham Vo
caption: Graham Vowell
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