Not so much a comment about Lame, really.
I don't know how much of this history is accurate, because: 1) I read some of it (the next three paragraphs) in The Alligator, and 2) I read it a looooong time ago. However, according to what I read, when Doug Dickey quit as Head Coach at the University of Tennessee at the end of the 1969 season, Tennessee fans were enraged. First of all, he was quitting to take the Head Coach position at UF. That alone was enough to drive them wild. To make matters worse, word of his move leaked out (or was announced?) right before Tennessee's appearance in the Gator Bowl. And who were they playing in the Gator Bowl? The University of Florida. Already incensed that he was leaving them for UF, many Tennessee fans thought it was terribly inappropriate for Dickey to coach Tennessee in that game, immediately before starting at UF, and were ready to ride him out of town on a rail. To add insult to injury, the Gators won the game (no surprise). In the end, Tennessee shouldn't have been that upset. Dickey's record at UF wasn't good (worse that what he had done at Tennessee), and he was (finally) fired after the 1978 season, leaving the program in much worse shape than he had found it. His lousy record at Florida helped open the door for the lyin', cheatin' Bowden to build F$U into a power. Dickey then slinked back to Tennessee to become their Athletic Director, and when Florida got into trouble with the NCAA during the Pell years, Dickey made sure to pile on, helping to get us stripped of our 1984 SEC Championship, and making a comment like "They play by a different set of rules down there." This was particularly ballsy, considering that some of the original 104 NCAA violations Florida was charged with dated back to Dickey's tenure as Head Coach. Anyway, I guess my overall point is that Tennessee seems to have at least some history with coaches thumbing their noses at them as they walk out the door. It should be a familiar feeling to the old-timers there. And while I am enjoying watching this spectacle, (particularly their fans expressing such anger toward someone they never should have gotten into bed with in the first place), they may very well end up with a coach who is a hell of a lot better than that idiot punk. I hope not. Go Gators!!!! Ken B. (NYC Gator)
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