Are there any construction companies in Knoxville? The workload is mounting on Tennessee’s campus. There are now two statues that need to be built to honor major championships at the University of Tennessee.
I’m willing to forgive the latest lack of a monument to baseball coach Tony Vitello. That just happened. However, a statue had better be in the works. He and every Tennessee baseball fan deserve as much and, if they root for football, they should have another statue coming.
Where is that statue for Phillip Fulmer by the way? Remember? The football coach that led the Vols to a national championship in 1998. If it’s on campus, I haven’t seen it.
Sure, Fulmer has a street named after him, but that’s not nearly as eye-grabbing/snagging/catching/holding as the statue of former Tennessee football coach Gen. Robert E., Neyland. at the front of the stadium that adorns his name. The legendary figure isn’t the only Tennessee sports figure that deserves a statue. Former Lady Vol coach Pat Summitt has one. Vitello and Fulmer? I’m waiting.
Fulmer and Vitello both deserve something similar to what Neyland and Summitt have. I’d be surprised if Vitello didn’t have a statue at Tennessee one day. However, I’d be equally as surprised if Fulmer actually did receive one. That ship seems to have sailed. That’s a shame.
Perhaps some of he negativity towards Fulmer is how he did his best Homer Simpson impression as an athletic director and performed the final bumble in the Vols’ decade-long tumble through college football oblivion, which was, of course, hiring Jeremy Pruitt as the Vols’ head football coach. That will slow a statue design if there was one in the works. That might melt down the early brass rendition. Speaking of brass, can you get stubble out of that? Asking for Vitello.
Fulmer’s time, however, as an athletic director shouldn’t have kept a statue from being built to honor his run as the Vols head coach, which includes 152 wins, which is just short of Neyland’s all-time mark of 173 victories. Fulmer deserved a statue despite the fact that he was fired by the Vols in 2008. He still deserves to be remembered fondly even if emotions were blunt and painful at the time of his dismissal. The second one.
Vitello should take note of as much. There might be two lessons to learn if you want a statue built in your honor at the University of Tennessee. First, don’t try to get bigger than you already are, which means don’t flirt with NFL jobs and eventually try to run the entire show as an athletic director. Fulmer did that. Second, realize that UT can hold a grudge for a very, very longtime. I hope not too long.
There is plenty of time to build a statue for Vitello. With Fulmer, 73, it would be nice to welcome him back into the athletic department sooner rather than later. Morally, it’s the right thing to do. He didn’t know former UT head football coach Jeremy Pruitt was a dolt. Fulmer certainly didn’t want to hurt the university. He just made a bad hire when he was asked to do something he wasn’t trained to do.
Vitello may make a mistake that taints his legacy one day, but why wait? Just like the impromptu crowd at his parade, celebrate Vitello with a statue and anything else deemed appropriate. As much as Tennessee fans believe another championship is just around the corner, those are hopes and expectations, not completed task. Enjoy the moment. Then, double up. Use one championship to celebrate two.
Build the statues.
