Tennessee Volunteer Cheerleader Tryouts 2014 The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) college sports teams at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. In September 2011 Dave Hart, formerly the assistant athletic director at the University of Alabama, was introduced as Tennessee's new athletic director. Hart became the school's first athletic director in Tennessee history to oversee both the women's and men's athletic departments as they merged in June 2012 after which Joan Cronan, the former women's athletics director became the senior adviser to Hart and Chancellor Jimmy Cheek.[2] Men's teams are called the Volunteers and women's teams the Lady Volunteers, with "Volunteers" frequently shortened to "Vols" (pronounced ˈvȯls, like "dolls"), i.e. Vols and Lady Vols. The Volunteer State is the nickname of the State of Tennessee The Tennessee Volunteers have competed in the Southeastern conference since its inception in 1932 and consistently been at the top. The Vols have adopted a tradition for competing in every sport often resulting in many teams being ranked within the top 25. Tennessee has historically been known for their football and women's basketball programs that have both featured several famous coaches including Robert Neyland and Pat Summitt. Tennessee's football team won the first ever BCS National Championship Game and also represents the 9th winningest program in the NCAA. Most recently Tennessee women's basketball team won the 2007 and 2008 National Championships earning Pat Summit her eighth national title, which is the most in women's basketball. Overall Tennessee has won 147 regular season SEC championships and 23 national championships in women's basketball, football, men's indoor and outdoor track & field, women's indoor and outdoor track & field, and men's swimming & diving. The only Tennessee sport that does not compete in the SEC is women's rowing which competes in C-USA and won the 2010 conference championship. Tennessee is one of the most tradition-rich programs in the country with many of their traditions coming from the early 20th century. Tennessee's iconic orange and white colors were selected by Charles Moore, a member of the first football team in 1891. They were later approved by a student body vote. The colors were chosen because of the common American daisy which grew on The Hill, an area of campus surrounding UT's most notable building, Ayres Hall. Tennessee adopted the name Volunteers, or more popularly Vols, because of a now-official nickname that Tennessee received during the War of 1812, the Volunteer State. The name became even more prominent in the Mexican War when Gov. Aaron V. Brown issued a call for 2,800 men to battle Santa Ana and some 30,000 Tennesseans volunteered. The iconized 'T' that represents the men's Tennessee sports programs was introduced by Doug Dickey and then re-designed by Johnny Majors. The once-separate men and women's programs allowed the women's sports to adopt a separate identity apart from the men's by not only referring to themselves as the Lady Vols but also adopting the color Columbia Blue into their uniforms and adopting a different logo with a different 'T' that represents the Lady Vols. The famous Smokey mascot was introduced in 1953 by the late Rev. Bill Brooks who entered his prize-winning blue tick coon hound, "Brooks' Blue Smokey," in a contest at halftime of the Mississippi State game that season. The dogs were lined up on the old cheerleaders' ramp at Shields-Watkins Field and each dog was introduced over the loudspeaker and the student body cheered for their favorite, with "Blue Smokey" being the last hound introduced. When his name was called, he barked. The students cheered and Smokey threw his head back and barked again. This kept going until the stadium was in an uproar and UT had found its mascot, Smokey. The widely known and unique tradition of running through the 'T' on game days began in 1965 when Doug Dickey moved the teams' bench to the east side and had the team enter and simply turning around back to their sideline through a giant 'T' performed by the Pride of the Southland Band. Changes came in 1983 and 2010, namely the direction of the team from simply turning around to going right and then left out of the T. From the team's locker room at the north end zone. One of the biggest and most popular trademarks and most recognized sights, other than the running through the T, about Tennessee sports is the orange and white checkerboard end zones that was introduced in the 1960s and reappeared in the 1980s, inspired by the checkerboard design that Ayres Hall features on its outside brick work, and currently can also be found in the Thompson-Boling Arena on the basketball court. The Hill is another highly memorable aspect about UT because since the 19th century

• published: 17 Dec 2013
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