The 1926 team finished with a record of 8-1 and the 1927 team had but one tie to accompany eight victories. In his book ’50 Years in Big Orange Country’, former Knoxville Journal sportswriter Ed Harris says that "the Neyland era of Tennessee football was conceived with the 1926 team, born in 1927, and reached maturity in 1928".

Two things happened in 1928 to place Tennessee on the big-time college football map permanently. First, the Vols scheduled a game that year with the Alabama Crimson Tide to be played in Tuscaloosa. Alabama had been a nationally recognized power since their victory over Washington in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1926. The Tide returned to the Rose Bowl the following wear and fought Stanford to a 7-7 stalemate. They were the Gridiron Darlings of Dixie in the eyes of the nation. The Vols and Tide had not met since a somewhat controversial 17-7 victory by Tennessee in the 1914 game played in Knoxville. The matchup appeared on the 1928 schedule, however, and has been there ever since.

Second, Coach Neyland welcomed an extraordinary group of sophomores to the team in 1928. This group, along with a small, but solid, group of returnees led the team to an unexpected 9-0-1 record that season including a 15-13 upset of the Crimson Tide in the Tuscaloosa game. Following that game the press began referring to the Tennessee team as the ‘Flaming Sophomores’. The moniker stuck and a legend was born.

The 11 "Flaming Soph's"

The 1928 season opened with a 41-0 victory over Maryville followed by a 41-7 triumph over the Praying Colonels of Centre College. Sophomore sensation Gene McEver scored three touchdowns in each of these games kicking off one of the greatest careers of any Volunteer, any time, any place.

The Vols survived a scare in game 3 with a narrow 13-12 win over the Ole Miss Rebels in Knoxville. Sophomore Bobby Dodd passed to McEver for one TD and fellow sophomore, Buddy Hackman scored the other. Hackman also knocked down an Ole Miss pass attempt for the conversion following the second Rebel score, preserving the one-point victory.

Tennessee entered the historic fourth game against Alabama, the first of only two road games for the ’28 squad, as decided underdogs. A popular legend holds that Neyland, ever the psychologist, approached Alabama Coach Wallace Wade before the game with an unusual request. Since his boys were so outmanned, the General wondered if Wade would agree to shorten the last period or two if the Volunteers were being unmercifully slaughtered. In later years Wade, who met Neyland for the first time that day, admitted that he was taken aback by the request but agreed to consider the proposal if Neyland’s ‘fears’ proved correct.

In one of the most scintillating 10 or 11 seconds of Tennessee football history, Gene McEver returned the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, and the Tide knew quickly that this game would not be a breather.

The two teams slugged it out for the remainder of the afternoon with the Vols hanging on to win 15-13. Other Tennessee points came on a safety credited to senior guard Farmer Johnson and a Dodd pass to McEver. Six future College football Hall of Famers were on the field that historic day. Bobby Dodd, who holds Hall of Fame membership as both a player and a coach, Gene McEver, and Coach Neyland of the Vols would someday reach the Hall. On the other side of the field, the future Crimson Tide Hall of Famers were Coach Wallace Wade, sophomore tackle Fred Sington and a reserve lineman named Frank Howard. Howard would gain admission on the strength of his coaching career at Clemson.

The Vols returned to Knoxville to face Washington & Lee the next weekend and came away with a 26-7 victory over the Generals. For the second consecutive week a Volunteer would would return the opening kickoff for a touchdown. This time wingback Buddy Hackman would turn the trick. Immediately, the press dubbed McEver and Hackman ‘The Touchdown Twins’. Hack & Mack would be forever linked in Tennessee football lore.

Carson-Newman and Sewanee were dispatched by decisive scores of 57-0 and 37-0 as tune-ups for the big game with Vanderbilt in Nashville. An estimated 7,000 fans would follow the team to Nashville but it is uncertain exactly how many were able to squeeze into a stadium packed to the gills with an over-capacity crowd of 23,000. It was the largest crowd in the history of Tennessee football to that date. Vanderbilt had a fine team and came into the contest with a 6-1 record. A pass from Captain Roy Witt to sophomore end Paul Hug provided all the scoring and the Vols won 6-0.

Hopes for a Southern Conference Championship and a possible Rose Bowl berth were dashed on Thanksgiving Day when the Kentucky Wildcats managed a scoreless tie with the unbeaten Vols. 120 yards in penalties and a general lackluster performance by Tennessee resulted in a Southern Conference Championship and Rose Bowl appearance for the undefeated and untied Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Tennessee ended the 1928 season by defeating the previously undefeated Florida Gators by the thinnest of margins in a hotly contested game in Knoxville. The Vols hung on to win 13-12 when Bobby Dodd made an outstanding effort to knock down a Florida conversion pass which would have tied the score. This loss was the only blemish on the Gator record which ended up at 8 wins and one loss.

Who were these players who have been fondly and respectfully referred to as the Flaming Sophomores? This year marks the 75^th anniversary of their appearance so perhaps this is a good year for Vol fans to take a closer look at this group of athletes who started the storied Tennessee Football Tradition.

At the end of the season, 21 letters were awarded to members of the 1928 team, an unbelievably small number by today’s standards. During that time, however, specialization had not arrived to the grid scene and players were expected to play both offense and defense, and often were expected to do so for 60 minutes. Of the 21 letters awarded, 11 went to sophomore members of the team. These 11 young men, therefore, were the Flaming Sophomores. Seven of the sophomores started at one time or another during the season with the other four contributing in backup roles.

Two of the sophomores, Bobby Dodd and Gene McEver, enjoyed a level of success that resulted in their induction in the College Football Hall of Fame. Dodd was a gangly kid from Kingsport who played quarterback in the Neyland system. At that time, the quarterback (later referred to as the blocking back in the system) called the plays and was the general on the field. Dodd was very slow afoot but was a fine punter, passer and had a knack for knowing how to win. Throughout his life, he had great success at all types of sports and games, football, tennis, bridge, checkers and just about everything else he tried including coaching the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from 1945 through 1966. He had talent, great leadership ability and an intangible quality that is perhaps summed up best in the title of his autobiography published in 1987. The book is titled ‘Dodd’s Luck’ Dodd started the 1928 campaign as the backup quarterback to starter, Captain Roy Witt. Dodd became a starter when Witt was injured in the opening game with Maryville.

McEver was a 185-pound running back from Bristol, Virginia who almost played his college football at Wake Forest. He had reported to the Winston-Salem school but had not officially enrolled when Vol assistant coach Bill Britton traveled to Wake Forest on a scouting assignment and to ‘check on McEver’. In a coup that would probably earn the Vols several years on probabion by today’s rules, Britton persuaded McEver to enroll and play his collegiate football at Tennessee. McEver continues to hold the Vol single season scoring record with his 130 points scored in 1929. McEver was a starter with Vols throughout the 1928 season.

The third sophomore who achieved considerable success in 1928 and beyond was running back J.S. ‘Buddy’ Hackman from Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville. Hackman was a fine all-around player who lined up as the tailback in the Neyland single wing. He excelled on defense. Hackman joined the Roanoke College coaching staff in 1935 and served as Athletic Director for nearly 30 years.

The other four sophomores who were ‘starters’ on the 1928 team were Paul Hug, an end who played high school football with Dodd in Kingsport, Frederic ‘Fritz’ Brandt from Erwin, Tennessee who played the end opposite Hug, Harry J. ‘Hobo’ Thayer, a rugged tackle from Charleston, West Virginia and James Quinn Decker, fullback from Nashville. Reportedly, Dodd and Hug and made a pact in high school that they would play at the same college as a ‘package’. Hug was a highly prized recruit who was also a standout in the classroom. Since Dodd’s high school academic credentials were marginal at best, the two teens made an interesting ‘package’. They attempted to enroll at both Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech as freshmen in 1927 but were denied when Dodd’s high school transcripts arrived in the admissions offices at those schools. Dodd’s brother intervened by calling Neyland to see if he would still take the pair (scholarships had been offered to both previously). Neyland agreed and the two Kingsport products found themselves on ‘The Hill’. Hug became head football coach and AD at the Tennessee Junior College at Martin in 1939. This school would achieve senior college status in 1951 and today is known as the University of Tennessee at Martin. Hug served in World War II and returned to Martin in 1946. After the 1946 season he suffered an illness and died shortly thereafter. Hobo Thayer started three years at Tennessee and was the captain of the 1930 team. He coached for two seasons at Tennessee High in Bristol and owned a Knoxville Real Estate until his death in 1961

The eighth of the Flaming Sophomores was Charles W. ‘Dutch’ Reineke, a diminutive 155-pound quarterback from Wheeling, West Virginia. He was the third team quarterback at the beginning of the season but rescued the Volunteers with a solid second half performance against Alabama after Dodd went out with an injury in the second quarter. He came to the Vols, along with Thayer, from the Greenbrier Military School in Lewisburg, West Virginia. Quinn Decker, the sophomore fullback, was head coach at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky from 1938-1941 and, following the war, led the Citadel from 1946 until 1952

Louis T. Roberts was the second-team center from Fulton, Kentucky. He backed up Jim Finney at that position before becoming the starter in 1930

The final two Flaming Sophomores who were 1928 letterman were Herbert T. Brown, a backup guard from Nashville and Phillip Beene, a tackle from Jasper, Tennessee. These two linemen would win letters in 1928, 1929 and 1930, but neither could crack the starting lineup during their stay in Knoxville. They did play valuable backup roles, however. Beene later coached at South Pittsburg High School near Chattanooga

There they are. The Flaming Sophomores, Dodd, McEver, Hackman, Thayer, Decker, Hug, Brandt, Reineke, Roberts, Brown and Beene. They started the madness 75 years ago this year. The VIB salutes them.