Big Orange Caravan hits town Saturday
An expected crowd of more than 1,000 Chattanooga-area Tennessee fans will get the first look at a revamped Big Orange Caravan on Saturday at First Tennessee Pavilion.
Football coach Butch Jones, his entire staff, men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes and new athletic director John Currie are the headline guests at the event that has been redesigned with a family-oriented atmosphere after the planning process got a late start this year.
“I’m really excited about the format we have,” Currie said in an interview with the Times Free Press last week. “Instead of charging people $35 for a rubber chicken plate to sit inside a ballroom, we’ve got a low-cost, family-friendly deal, where if your kid runs around a little bit, you don’t have to keep them quiet the whole time. They can have fun.”
The Big Orange Caravan event historically came to a Chattanooga hotel or country club in May, but when Currie started as athletic director on April 1, he learned that no caravan events had been planned for 2017, he said. The event also has gone to Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta and the Tri-Cities in the past.
Saturday’s 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. event will include an appearance by Vols mascot Smokey, games, food trucks and other interactive components.
The headline for die-hard Volunteers fans likely will be a question-and-answer session with Currie and Jones hosted by Tennessee’s radio play-by-play announcer, Bob Kesling.
“What we’re trying to do on this particular deal is, let’s go back to the roots of the caravan,” Currie said. “The roots of the caravan were thanking our fans and appreciating the fans who get in their cars on Saturday morning and drive up to Knoxville or drive over the mountains to Knoxville, or whatever it may be, for their support.”
Saturday’s event will be somewhat of a test run for the new format. The event will hit Memphis next weekend, Nashville on July 10 and the Tri-Cities at a date still to be announced.
Proceeds from this year’s event are going to the scholarship funds of local alumni association chapters, and officials from the university’s undergraduate admissions office will be at the caravan stops.
Tennessee’s freshman football players arrived on campus this week, and Jones traveled to Destin, Fla., for the Southeastern Conference spring meetings. He and his nine assistants also are working on assembling the 2018 recruiting class, which includes 11 commitments thus far.
Saturday will be about the fans — specifically those in and around Chattanooga.
“I really appreciate Coach Jones making that commitment that Saturday we’re going to be in Chattanooga,” Currie said. “He’s bringing the whole staff. It’s not just him. I’ll be there, and I think it will be fun for the whole university to have a platform … and the admission is a donation. It goes into the alumni association scholarship fund for general students, not athletics.
“We’re not going down there raising money from a tangible standpoint. We’re going down there to thank our fans for their incredible support.”