Stories

Ecology Workout I remember having to leave as soon as the 1963 SEC track meet was over to get back to Knoxville. Most of the team spent the night in Birmingham, but I was taking an ecology class where a major part of the grade was an all-day field trip

Stolen Warm-Ups ​Coach Rohe managed to retrieve some of the team’s warm ups that were stolen during a cross country meet at Ohio University in Athens in [1968]. As I recall, somebody stole them on a Saturday morning during our cross country race [won by UT 21-34]. As usual, Chuck

The Railroad Trestle Over Lake Loudon Dickie Fairbanks and Norman Pelletier were involved in several memorable escapades. One early morning we took off on our run across the Henley Street Bridge on our way to the "mountain." Somewhere in the darkness, Norman and Dickie took what they later called a

Another Psyche-Out Story As they breezed through the rest of the season, all the Volunteers knew that the LSU meet would be the big challenge. Perennial champion Louisiana State had won the SEC championship easily the previous year and all their big guns were back to win another championship. This

SEC XC Meet ​This is a story about Larry Kelly. Our UT cross-country team was very strong in 1965 placing 3rd at the NCAA Championships, with almost all members being seniors. Our 1966 team was not real strong and if ever there was a chance for another SEC team to

Trout Fishing and the Black Bear I had been at UT for less than a week, and the cross country team was training in the mountains near Gatlinburg. One day Roy Hall and another fisherman/runner caught some trout in the stream next to our cabin. The fish were stored in the

Recruitment Stories I remember Coach Rohe was never for a loss of words or something to say. During the summer before my senior year Pat Pomphrey and I were in Coach's office talking about the summer track program when I asked Coach for more scholarship money. He just looked and

Memories of Knoxville Track Club Officials Jerry Wrinkle (former Knoxville Fulton High School track coach and co-founder of Knoxville Track Club — the KTC held its organizational meeting on his front porch) ​Soon after Chuck became the track coach at UT, he was still director of a summer camp located in

Train-hopping and Other Life Threatening Stories I recall that a number of the track team members had this ‘god awful’ idea to go hop a train. I can't remember all of those who did this, but it seems like it was at least four and maybe seven or eight (I'm

Confronting Racism As told to Audry Hardy Here is another Rohe Era story shared with me by the late Wayne Whigham shortly before he passed in 2013. After one of the SEC Meets in Alabama, a couple of ‘good ole boys’ drove by the motel where the team was staying.