It’s a three day weekend to Nashville and Knoxville. I finally get to see my good friend, Stephen, and see the UT Vols take on the #1 ranked Oregon Ducks. I have not seen this brother since he was graduated from Moody Bible Institute in 1996.
On to the food fixins, Jack’s Bar-B-Que on Broadway is the place for it! Not only were there Oregon Duck fans at Jack’s, but Vandy and LSU fans for the game on Saturday in Nashville, and Oakland Raider fans for the Tennessee Titan game on Sunday. These fans were decked out with their team’s jerseys 1 to 2 days before the game. A lot of crazy team spirit was in the house!
A couple hours after my arrival to Nashville, it began to rain. With the remnants of a tropical storm moving through Eastern Tennessee, it kept raining during most of the 3 ½ hours drive to Stephen’s house outside of Knoxville. I asked the Lord if He could hold off the rain for the game. The rain kept coming through the night. It was looking like we were in for a rainy Saturday football game. Not fun.
We went to buy rain suits at Gander Mtn. So did the rest of the fans as planning to attend the game. Their stock was rapidly selling out. Thankfully, we got what we needed.
The skies began to clear and the sun came out! Thank you, Lord. We watched the weather report at a friend’s house and there was an approaching thunderstorm headed to hit Neyland Stadium at kick-off. We decided, let’s go for it!
Neyland Stadium is one of the largest stadiums in college football with a seating capacity of over 100,000.
The pomp of an SEC (South East Conference) football game is amazing. Of course, it’s the UT spirit that makes the atmosphere what it is -- electric! The game started and it began to rain, not too hard, but enough for me to take cover and watch it so I wouldn’t get wet.
The unranked Vols put 6 points on the board with two field goals. Wow, they’re beating the #7 ranked Ducks – Go Vols! Lightening was sighted the football teams cleared the field. The public address announcer asked the fans to take cover.
It began to rain sideways! The severe thunderstorm produced monsoon like conditions. I haven’t seen it rain like this in years. Some fans tried to make a dash to the cars. They got soaked. The game was delayed over an hour minutes. We watched the rain and talked to UT and Duck fans while keeping dry.
The game resumed. It was tied at the end of the first half. The Ducks got after it in the second half racking up 35 points. Final score: Vols 13 Ducks 48.
