Are Tennessee fans passionate or crazy? UT alums at ESPN weighed in
Ryan Mcgee, proudly wearing his 1993 University of Tennessee class ring, was shocked when the rock struck him in the head just down the street from Neyland Stadium.
It was among a few items thrown at him and his ESPN production crew on the UT campus on that November afternoon in 1997.
Mcgee was documenting Peyton Manning's final home game for “College Gameday.” And there was already a frustration among Vols fans that ESPN was promoting Charles Woodson over Manning for the Heisman Trophy, which Woodson won a week later.
“I kept wanting to yell at the crowd, ‘Hell, I just graduated from here!' ” said Mcgee, who was a member of the UT football video crew as a student in the early 1990s.
But there was a narrative that ESPN was pro-woodson and anti-manning — which Mcgee says was untrue — and that pushed some Vols fans from understandable frustration to outright fury.
“I think that's the first time we saw that reputation (of UT fans) — or whatever we want to call it,” said Mcgee, whose show, “Marty & Mcgee,” will air on UT'S campus before the Vols (5-4, 3-3 SEC) play No. 1 Georgia (9-0, 7-0) on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET, CBS).
'I want my alma mater to do well, but'
ESPN is teeming with Vols. And they know the fine line UT fans have walked between admirable passion and irrational behavior.
Mcgee, who worked under former UT coaches Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer, has been with ESPN most of his career. Paul Finebaum is also a UT alum and ESPN on-air personality. So are Chris Low, Gene Wojciechowski, Woody Paige and Courtney Lyle.
Former UT basketball players Dane Bradshaw, Tamika Catchings, Nikki Caldwell Fargas and Andraya Carter, former UT baseball player Chris Burke and former Lady Vols softball player Madison Shipman work for ESPN.
Even ESPN director of social media Brett Edgerton is a UT alumnus. And several other producers, editors and social media staffers also graduated from UT.
“I want my alma mater to do well,” Mcgee said. “But what I learned from my father — who was a college (game) official for 40 years — is that you check your loyalties at the door when you're covering a football game.”
ESPN and SEC Network have promoted the passion of UT fans, and they'll do that again this weekend.
“The Paul Finebaum Show” will broadcast live from Ayres Hall lawn from 3-7 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, “Marty & Mcgee,” (9-10 a.m.) and “SEC Nation” (10 a.m.-noon) will be at that same location.
Expect them to praise the atmosphere on Rocky Top and the 100,000-plus fans that pack Neyland Stadium, just as ESPN and SEC Network have done countless times. But the same commentators have criticized UT fans at their worst moments.
“I thought it was classless and unconscionable behavior. It was an absolute disgrace,” Finebaum said on “Sportscenter” after fans tossed trash on the field late in the Vols' loss to Ole Miss on Oct. 16.
“That was not cool,” Mcgee said of the incident. “Whether it was five fans or 30,000 fans, you're putting people in danger. It was pretty obvious that was crossing the line.
“I'm not reluctant to say that. My friends and family were in the stands that night, and they didn't do that.”
And ESPN lobbed similar criticism at UT fans in past incidents.
In 2009, fans protested and burned mattresses in the street as Lane Kiffin abruptly left as coach. In 2018, a backlash of fans, local and state politicians and local business owners disrupted a deal that would've made Greg Schiano the football coach.
Fair or not, each incident added to UT fans' notoriety.
“I appreciate the passion, and that same passion was there in the early '90s when I was there,” Mcgee said. “But when the narratives take over, it starts to get misguided and some fans do more damage than they realize.”
How would #Voltwitter have reacted to Majors vs. Fulmer?
For better or worse, Mcgee thinks social media has amplified the fervor of UT fans.
He had a front row seat for UT'S controversial coaching change from Johnny Majors to Phillip Fulmer in 1992. And he can only imagine how #Voltwitter would've reacted to that divisive event in Vols history.
“Social media would've turned that up by 100 degrees, just like it does everything,” Mcgee said. “That's certainly not exclusive to Tennessee football fans. Social media makes everything in this world look more intense than it actually is.”
That perspective, along with close ties to UT, helps Mcgee see the best in the Vols. His wife is from Knoxville. His former classmates and professors still work at UT. And his friends who live in the area plan to attend the “Marty & Mcgee” show on Saturday.
“It's homecoming every time I get back to town,” Mcgee said. “It all comes back to you when you get on campus.”
Reach Adam Sparks at adam.sparks@knoxnews.com and on Twitter @Adamsparks.