Tennessee's bruising 1950 win over Kentucky left its mark

The players limped to Mickey O’Brien.

One after the other came to the Tennessee football trainer on the afternoon of Nov. 25, 1950–one of the coldest recorded days ever in Knoxville.

Vols players were bruised and battered, but victorious. They had just beaten Kentucky, 7–0 in a top 10 clash that knocked Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Wildcats from the ranks of the unbeaten and out of contention for a national championship.

And when it was over, Shields-Watkins Field more resembled the frozen battlefields in the Korean peninsula where American servicemen were fighting than it did a gridiron.

Fullback Andy Kozar had a broken nose. Blocking back Jimmy Hahn had blood pouring from his nose, too. Right end Vince Kaseta had injured ribs. Guard John Michels had an injured shoulder.

Their status for Tennessee’s regular season finale against Vanderbilt the following week was uncertain, but at that moment it didn’t matter. The Vols, bound for the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day against Texas, were far too delirious to care.

“Too bad you couldn’t see the casualties in technicolor–black eyes, blue welts, bloody noses, smashed lips–but no serious injuries,” Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist Tom Siler wrote.

Tennessee players weren’t sore enough to not carry their head coach, Robert R. Neyland, off the field on their shoulders. If they were, they fought through it. The celebration carried over into the locker room, too.

It was the Vols’ eighth-straight win after dropping its second game of the season in a shocking, 7-0 defeat at Mississippi State in Starkville–and its most satisfying.

Kentucky, having its best season ever, entered the game with visions of a national title. The Wildcats were winners of 10-straight and No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 heading into their final game of the regular season.

All that stood in the way was rival Tennessee.

Kentucky also had one of the best players in the country in quarterback Vito “Babe” Parilli, who had thrown for more than 16,000 yards and 23 touchdowns on his way to being a finalist for the Heisman Trophy that year.

Parilli was at the center of Bryant’s gameplan, and it had worked for 10 games.

But the Vols had a plan to stop the man newspapers dubbed the “Pennsylvania Flash.” It came from Tennessee men’s basketball coach Emmett Lowery, who scouted the Wildcats in the weeks leading up to the game.

“Emmett did a great job again,” Neyland told reporters. “I think Emmett is about as thorough as a football scout can be. He told us we couldn’t win unless we found a way to rush Babe Parilli.”

The approach paid off, making for an uncomfortable afternoon for Parilli. The Vols took him out of his element early, and Kentucky never recovered.

Parilli was intercepted four times, and the Wildcats couldn’t turn to the run game. They totaled just 36 yards on the frozen ground and fumbled eight times, losing seven. Neyland knew Bryant wasn’t as confident in his team’s ability to run the ball.

“Pass, pass, pass,” Neyland wrote in his postgame notes, according to the biography “Neyland: The Gridiron General,” by Bob Gilbert. “The spread type of passing attack was not effective. The making of a tackle eligible was momentarily successful, but did not justify the time they must have spent on it…Bryant doesn’t know the percentages!”

Tennessee’s offense didn’t fare much better, giving the ball away twice on interceptions and another four times in lost fumbles. The Vols put the ball on the ground seven times total, but knock-down, dragout style of football overshadowed the sloppiness of it.

“Gosh, I can’t ever remember a Tennessee team fumbling that much,” Neyland said. “I’ll tell you this: that was one of the most vicious football games I ever saw. Brother, those boys were really crackin’ ‘em out there, and I mean both teams. You don’t see a game like that very often.”

Then-record frigid temps played a factor in this gladiator fight on ice.

Snow had to be shoveled off the floor of the coliseum before kickoff as the temperature dipped to 5 degrees. Attendance dipped too as 7,000 fans who had bought tickets no-showed and gameday asking prices equally plummeted.

Around 45,000 did brave the weather, though. They were bundled up, many blankets and wool caps bought from stores on Gay Street before the game. Some even donned coon-skin caps.

There were other ways of keeping warm. The News-Sentinel reported that “hundreds of gallons” of whiskey was consumed, and that it was the “heaviest drinking crowd at a Tennessee game this year,” though most fans were orderly.

Kentucky brought 48 pairs of basketball shoes to play in in case the field was covered in ice. The previous night’s snow–some 14 inches–prevented the Wildcats from needing them.

Neyland had trainers run out handwarmers to players during timeout huddles, and Tennessee linemen wore gloves.

“The only humin’ in icy-tenseled Shields-Watkins Stadium was that of the wind as it flecked snow from 52,000 seats and added discomfort for 45,000 fans who wanted to see football at its best,” Knoxville Journal sports editor Ed Harris penned. “Tennessee’s part of the numbed humanity was well-rewarded. Kentucky’s never had a more miserable afternoon.”

Vols fans were rewarded with the game’s lone offensive highlight relatively early.

It came in the second quarter, when on fourth-and-long Vols’ superstar back Hank Lauricella fired a pass to the end zone that fell into the arms of Rechichar, who was being covered by two Kentucky defenders.

The Wildcats didn’t know it at the time, but their championship hopes were dashed. Neither team scored again.

Among the spectators was Texas head coach Blair Cherry, who had previously planned to attend to scout the Wildcats when it seemed they would match up with the Longhorns in the postseason.

Texas got Tennessee instead, and Kentucky went to New Orleans to play No. 1 Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, knocking off the Sooners, 13-7.

“This Tennessee team really plays rugged football,” Cherry told Knoxville reporters. “We’re expecting a really tough ball game out there in Dallas.”

Cherry was right. The battle-tested Vols, after falling behind in the second quarter, scored twice in the fourth–the deciding score a Kozer run from the goal line to win, 20-14.

“I love everyone of you sons-of-bitches,” Neyland reportedly shouted to his players from the top of a table in the postgame locker room at the Cotton Bowl.