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Great letter


autigger

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Hi Mike,

First of all, thanks for the great job you are doing as our AD. I for one am pleased by your willingness to listen to all of the fans and supporters of the mighty Vols.

As a preface to what I am about to write, I was Smokey the mascot in 81-82 and 82-83, and was a cheerleader (the mike man) in 83-84.

I made the long drive to Knoxville this past weekend for the Auburn game. The outcome was obviously disappointing, but the AU series is one I have always enjoyed. When I was in school, Auburn was always our first SEC game and always had a lot riding on it. After my first trip to Auburn in 1980 as a member of the Big Orange Pep Club (a 42-0 win), I was immediately jealous of what they have going on down at Auburn. There is a spirit there that I only wish we had at UT. I saw it was alive and well last year when I made the trip to Auburn and was again jealous of that spirit they have there. What really blew my mind was how the Auburn people transported this spirit to Knoxville on Saturday.

I am sure you could HEAR the Auburn fans inside of Neyland during the game. They have cheers that all Auburn fans yell along with their cheerleaders. Their cheerleaders know what is happening on the field and do their cheers accordingly. I will not list the cheers for you here, but they were cheers I did back in 1983 and Auburn is still doing them today with much success I might add...again, as you probably heard on Saturday. We have the band play Rocky Top, people sing, and then we all yell Go Big Orange after the band stops playing. Honestly, that is all we have Mike. I have yet to hear any cheers being yelled by the Orange Nation and led by our cheerleaders. It seems that the emphasis in cheerleading is now on competition. That is great, but cheereleaders lead cheers at sporting events. We didn't have scholarships when I cheered, we did it because we loved the Vols and wanted to get the crowd involved. This happens at Auburn. You may or may not remember what went on before the game last year at Auburn. We have tried doing the same thing in the past, but once it appears it is not working, we give up on it. It all depends on presentation. I know we have a "cheer coach", and we are all proud of our cheerleaders making it to the big show on ESPN, but is that all we expect of our cheerleaders now? Give me the squad we had back in 83 that couldn't do back hand springs or the incredibly hard partner stunts we see now, but we knew when to try to get the crowd to yell the right cheers depending on what was happening on the field. I would be more than happy to send you the cheers we did when I was in school!! :-)

Now, the sight I saw in Knoxville that blew my mind this past Saturday. I parked in G-10 around 5:00 and headed up to see the Vol Walk. Much to my amazement, I could hear Auburn's fight song being played by what actually sounded like their band. As I walked towards the stadium from the parking garage, I ran right into the Auburn band lined up on both sides of the driveway where their team buses arrived, the Auburn cheerleaders, and lots of Auburn fans doing their own organized pep rally right where their team was arriving. Holy cow, they brought that Auburn spirit right up to Knoxville and stuck it right in the end of our stadium!! Amazing!! I got the impression this wasn't a one shot deal. Too many Aubie fans in one place for it to "just happen"!! I was totally blown away.

The Auburn fans all greeted each other with yells of "War Eagle" or "War Damn Eagle", but never anything aimed at UT fans (that I saw) or anything malicious. They have an amazing spirit and pride in their school.

I think Vol fans have the same kind of pride in UT, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of formal way to channel it. I would love to see the same kind of spirit at UT that I have seen at Auburn since my days at UT. It doesn't happen overnight, but I honestly believe that you are not afraid to try new things. Hopefully, you can start some new things, and eventually they will catch on. The Vol Walk is a huge success these days, but we didn't do the Vol Walk when I was in school.

Maybe the Pride arrives at a road game in time to meet the team's buses when they arrive and the fans may show up as well for a "road game Vol Walk". You could put notes in the road game tickets for the fans who receive them to let them know what is going on.

Just a few thoughts, I have lots more!!! We can do better than just making a lot of noise when the opposing team has the ball. If it was easy, every one would do it. I am sure there are some bright folks in the Orange Nation who can help out with some new cheers, or even bring back the old ones. I know there are lots of us older alumni who would love to be a part of the Orange Nation!!

Thanks for your time. Keep up the great work! And as always, GO VOLS!!

Sincerely, XXXXX

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War Eagle! It's truly great to be an Auburn Tiger. And props to the writer of the letter. I haven't ever been to UT but to hear it from someone like him tells me that the UT nation isn't as passionate about football as we are!

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WOW!!

Tiger Walks on the Road are my favroite. I love seeing the other fans faces as 2,000-3,000 Auburn fans are standing outside the staduim two hours before kick-off, cheering and singing with the band.

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You know what you need?

What?

The PERFECT CHEER!!!!

108328[/snapback]

:lol::lol::lol:

Thats what they need. Cheri O'Tieri(sp?) and Will Ferrel to get their pep wagon headed in the right direction!

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And to think. LSU fans said we had no right to an away game TigerWalk at their house. Away games always make me have goosebumps, because the one who WANT to be there show up. Not just the johhny-come-latelies. WDE!!!!

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