Great Man, Phillip Fulmer

When I was a little kid, my dad died. My life (and my brother’s) was a little different than the other kids I grew up around, tinged first by illness, later by absence. My mom is a superhero, and we still had an amazing childhood, but make no mistake, dadlessness was there.

One constant in our childhood was our love for Tennessee Volunteer football. Our family never missed a game, sometimes watching on TV, sometimes listening to John Ward and Bill Anderson on the radio, and rather often in the magical confines of Neyland Stadium.

When my dad died in 1992, Phillip Fulmer was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee. Unbeknownst to me (and inspired to do so by my godfather, Larry Johnston, also a great man and VFL), Phillip Fulmer sent my brother and me signed media guides and some Vols swag with a little note that said, “hey boys, thanks for being big fans, Go Vols!” We lost our minds. We were so starstruck. We memorized every stat in that guide.

In the way that only a 10-year old kid could do, I kept in touch. I wrote frequent letters back to Coach Fulmer using the return address from his initial mailing. I would suggest plays with drawings of x’s and o’s. Me, a ten year old kid, suggesting a statue-of-liberty play to the offensive coordinator of a Top 25 football program! Here’s the best part: Coach Fulmer answered every. single. letter. He always wrote me back: “thanks for the suggestions, Adam!”

Even after he became the head coach, Coach Fulmer stayed in touch and sent us media guides every year. Even after consecutive SEC Championships and a 13–0 National Championship campaign, Coach Fulmer had the time to correspond with me.

In addition to writing us letters, Coach Fulmer also invited us to watch the Vols practice every year. Larry Johnston would take us as Coach Fulmer’s guests to the practice field. We met our heroes and asked for their autographs and they always obliged, from Carl Pickens to to Charlie Garner to Little Man Stewart to Aaron Hayden to Joey Kent to J.J. McClesky to Peyton Manning to Albert Haynesworth to Al Wilson. Larry also introduced us to some Vol legends like Doug Atkins and Herky Payne.

After practice, Coach would bring us with him to eat supper at the training table where all the players ate. While we were eating, the players would come over and introduce themselves to us and talk to Coach. One time my brother was wearing a t-shirt with a drawing depicting a UT player jumping over an Alabama player. In the drawing, the UT player was wearing the number 47, which Tyrone Hines was wearing at the time. Coach Fulmer loved it: “Tyrone! Tyrone! Come over here and look at Russell’s t-shirt! It’s you! I better see you doin’ that when Bama comes to town!!!”

Even now twenty years later I think about how magical an experience that was, what a charmed relationship we had, and how spectacularly generous everyone at UT was to us.

Just like everyone else, 2006–2007 was a rough time to be a UT fan. It was hard to watch the Vols suffer on the field. What is more clear to me now more than ever is that we didn’t take the right medicine. I’m no expert (big shock to the 10-year-old drawing x’s and o’s) so I don’t know what the right medicine was, but I know the wrong medicine was severing our lifelong relationship with the 2nd winningest coach in school history.

I live in Philadelphia now, and I rarely see Coach Fulmer. But I have bumped into him twice as an adult, once in line at a Dairy Queen and once in the parking lot at a gas station. Both times he remembered me, shook my hand, gave me a hug, asked about my mom and my brother, and wished me well. Great man, Coach Fulmer.

I am so glad that Coach Fulmer is back as Athletic Director. I hope he exercises sound judgement and makes great decisions. I hope the Vols start contending for SEC titles again. But whatever happens, I will never question Coach Fulmer’s loyalty to Tennessee. Coach Fulmer is a GREAT man and the model of a VFL.

Also, he prefers Phillip. A pretty easy litmus test to see who respects Coach Fulmer is to see who extends him the simple courtesy of calling him the name he prefers instead of “Phil.”

Welcome back, Coach! It’s been a rough decade, and we did you real dirty, thanks for agreeing to help us rebuild. All best.