Bill Legge, Jr. 1950-2010 - It's Football Time in Tennessee!

Bill Legge, Jr. – 1950-2010 – It’s Football Time in Tennessee!

I did this once, but it got lost.  So I’m going to re-create the wheel, and do it justice.  A lot has happened since my last post.  Joe’s dad has been in and out of the hospital.  He is a grumpy, demanding, old man, and I’m starting to worry that I have a younger version of him.  I’m not sure how to fix that between now and the next 30 years.  Maybe God will take care of that – for one or the other of us.

 I lost my Uncle Bill the week before the start of University of Tennessee Football Season.  You might think what on Earth does football season have to do with losing your Uncle?  For me, every thing.  My Uncle Bill was a great person -- a wild, fun, crazy person.  He loved life, and he loved living large.  I’m not sure about the veracity of the story, but I heard rumors that he and some friends had his Caddie STS loaded in the back of a 18 wheeler to transport back to Cookeville after a particularly fun day at Neyland Stadium.

My friends know I am super crazy about the VOLS and UT football.  I have not missed a home UT football game since 1986 when I started UT Law School.  Before then, my Uncle Bill took me to my first UT game when I was probably 12.  It was 1976, which was Bill Battle’s last season before Johnny Majors took over as Head Coach.  It was homecoming, and I dressed up in my nice suede jump suit.  Bill bought us all big corsages – white mums with an Orange T in the middle.  We walked to the stadium and all of the banners hung on the rafters outside Neyland Stadium.  I’m like WOW!  It was LOVE at first sight.

At the time, I had discovered the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Iron Curtain, Lynn Swann, Mean Joe Greene, and as a sixth grader had developed a love of football.  You’ve gotta love a girl like me!  So after my first visit to Neyland Stadium, I went to at least a few games each season for the next 10 years.  I like the fact that my “streak” began 10 years after my first visit to Neyland Stadium. 

As I was either approaching or just barely a senior in college, I took a class taught by Virginia Moore at Tennessee Tech on Business Law.  If you ever have a “light bulb” moment in helping guide your career choices that was it.   I went home and asked Joe – hey, what do you think about me going to law school.   He was like what does it cost and what do you have to do?  We found all the facts, I applied to UT, and then, I told my Uncle Bill. Oh my!

My whole family is in the insurance business, and actually, Uncle Bill would have made a wonderful lawyer.  He was a natural.  But insurance people think lawyers are – well, the scum of the Earth.  It’s the plaintiff’s lawyers actually, but he wasn’t distinguishing between them and defense lawyers. When I told Bill I was going to law school, his reaction was akin to me telling him I was going to jail for some horrible crime or going to drug rehab, or something worse.  He was like – “Oh, my GOD, you are disgracing our family!” 

So off to law school I went, and following the passion of Bill Legge, Jr, Kelli Thompson began the “streak.”  I have not missed a home UT football game since 1986 when I arrived in Knoxville.  I love the VOLS.  I endured the 1988 season where we started 0-6.  Derek Dooley is already doing better than Johnny Majors that season.  We lost to Duke who had some up start new coach named Steve Spurrier.  I witnessed the infamous Florida rain game, which Andy Kelly reminded me this week on the radio was in 1990.  The VOLS were leading 7-3 at halftime and rain was imminent.  Dale Carter returned the kickoff following halftime for a TD, and the onslaught began.  The VOLS won 45-3 to hand new Gator Coach Steve Spurrier his head on a platter.  The rain began, the downpour ensued, and the entire stadium, drenched and loving every minute of it, was doing to Gator Chomp back at them!

Of course, the 1998 season was the most magical.  We watched the Syracuse game on a neighbor’s dock, and we all joined hands and prayed when Jeff Hall kicked the game winning field goal.  We were at the UT/Florida game when we were tied 14-14 at the end of regulation.  Florida got the first possession and didn’t score, then Jeff Hall kicked the game winning field goal to win the game.  The stadium was electric, vibrating and actually kind of scary.  I took pictures as the students stormed the field, tore down the goal posts and marched away with a couple of $50,000 CBS goal post cameras. 

My Uncle’s mother, my mom’s mom, and my grandmother died the week before the Arkansas game that year.  She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer the previous year, and had improved quite well that summer.  She told Bill she was going to a game that year, and she had decided she was going to the Arkansas game.  None of us knew the significance at the time.  My grandmother was a trooper, enduring rheumatoid arthritis for many years, and she loved to gamble.  I can remember her delivering her parlay cards to what I now realize was her bookie, betting on college and pro football games every Friday when I was a kid.

Well, she took a turn for the worse that Fall, and she died the week before the Arkansas game.  At her funeral, the preacher told how she had wanted to go to that game, and she would be there in spirit.  For those of you who are die hard UT fans, you know the rest of the story.  Arkansas came to Neyland Stadium ranked no. 7 and we were ranked no. 1 or 2.  It was early November, and we were all sensing the dream of a National Championship was within our grasp. 

So fourth quarter, the Vols are behind, we are driving to get in scoring position, and we need a touchdown, not a field goal to win.  We lose possession of the ball with a little over 2 minutes to go, and people start leaving the stadium.  I look at Joe and we aren’t leaving and neither is my brother.  We are waiting for a miracle.  At mid-field, Arkansas drops back – mind you all they have to do is run the clock out – and Clint Stoner does the infamous Stoner stumble fumble. 

Stoner, the Razorbacks’ quarterback, drops back, stumbles on the foot of his center or another offensive lineman, has the ball in his hand, and puts it on the ground to steady himself. It squirts out, and UT recovered. This is the famous Stoner stumble fumble, which UT recovered, and my brother and I stand up and scream “thank you, Nano!”  because my grand ma caused that fumble!  Never mind we still had to drive 45 yards and score a TD, but we did, and we knew we would at that point.  That was a magical season that I hope I don’t ever forget.

Through the years, we’ve watched so many talented kids play at Neyland Stadium, including that quarter back named Peyton Manning.  I was at every home game.  But the streak was in jeopardy in 2004.  I started onto the road to double pneumonia around the time of the South Carolina game.  I remember because the physician assistant who failed to recognize I had pneumonia at the time was a SC grad who was wearing his SC tie at my appointment.  Within a few weeks, I’m like it’s not normal to speak 3 sentences and be out of breath or walk 10 yards with the same result.  We went to the doctor the Monday of Thanksgiving week, with a bag packed, knowing they would put me in the hospital.  Kentucky was the only remaining home game that Saturday.

After being put in the hospital, I asked my pulmonologist on Tuesday when I would go home.  He said, Kelli, you are going to be here for Thanksgiving.  I’m like I don’t care, but I have a football game to go to Saturday.  He said you aren’t going to game Saturday, and I said Oh yes I am!  The next day when he returned, our good friends, Ricky and Kay, had decorated my room in Orange and White.  He’s like Oh no, she’s serious!

Well, portable oxygen, a wheel chair, a sky box ticket and an agreement to leave at halftime lead to Kelli Thompson being released from a 6 day stay at the hospital at 10 a.m. on Saturday to be at the stadium at noon.  Uncle Bill was quite proud!  And we had fun.

So we all know this season is a huge challenge.  We are already 1-2, but soon to be 2-2 leaving a 4 week home stretch to start the season.  Then, we go to LSU, Georgia, return home to face Alabama the defending National Champions, then South Carolina, who have their best shot at an SEC East title (but not beating BAMA).  But I have hope.  I see a coach who is focused, prepared and not a smart a**, like previous head coach.  They are going to re-build, and let’s hope that Derek Dooley builds at UT what his daddy built at Georgia. 

I know that all of those good breaks this year, and the future of the VOL football program are going to be influenced by an ORANGE clad angel in heaven – named Bill Legge, Jr.  God speed, and I’m so glad you are rid of the burdens that were placed on you in this Earth.  I love you, and I can’t wait to see you in heaven!