To the heartbreak of Vol fans, McEver tore up his knee playing baseball prior to the 1930 season.  Neyland, however, went back to the fertile ground of Virginia High School in Bristol, and came away with another legendary single-wing tailback, Beattie Feathers.  A full-blooded Native American, Feathers quickly showed that he could fill McEver’s shoes as the team’s star.  Tennessee lost only one game in 1930, an 18-6 decision at the hands of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  In 1931, McEver returned for his final year of eligibility, playing with a bulky knee brace that slowed him down a step.  Still, Feathers and McEver were a potent combination, and Tennessee once again had an unbeaten season at 9-0-1.  At year’s end, the Vols were invited to play in their first post-season game, against New York University at Yankee Stadium.  Feathers and Deke Brackett had long runs for touchdowns, and Herman Hickman led a stingy Vol defense in the 13-0 UT victory.

     In 1932, led by Feathers, Neyland’s Vols won their second Southern Conference Championship.  Their 9-0-1 season was marred only by a 0-0 tie with Vanderbilt at Nashville, a game which drew over 30,000 spectators.  After that season Tennessee would join the fledgling Southeastern Conference, but UT’s years in the Southern Conference had been memorable, producing four future members of the College Football Hall of Fame in McEver, Feathers, Hickman and Dodd.

     The Vols’ first five years in the SEC were not so dominant.  Despite having a fine team, Tennessee struggled against Alabama, going winless against the Tide from 1933-37.  More importantly, though, the Army called Neyland away, transferring him to Panama following the 1934 season.  W.H. Britton, Neyland’s end coach since 1926, took the reins during the 1935 season and guided UT to a disappointing 4-5 record.  However, Neyland did not like Panama and managed to get reassigned to Knoxville prior to the 1936 season.  The newly-promoted Major was ready to build another powerhouse team that would dominate the Conference.

     Neyland’s 1936 and ’37 teams managed six wins in each campaign, but the Vols could not beat Auburn or Alabama, who had passed Tennessee as the top teams in the league.  All that would change in a big way, though, starting in 1938.  Neyland had once again found a Tailback who was capable of leading Tennessee to lofty heights.  His name was George Cafego, a Hungarian from the rural mountains of West Virginia.  Cafego had no parents and lived a kind of vagabond existence, but news of his athletic prowess reached Neyland in Knoxville.  Without ever seeing Cafego play football, Neyland brought him to Knoxville on scholarship.  The Major made the trek to West Virginia to watch Cafego play baseball, and that was enough to convince him.

     In 1938, with Cafego making the single wing fire on all cylinders, the Vols went 10-0 in the regular season and won their first SEC Title.  Halfbacks Bob Foxx and Babe Wood were terrific compliments to Cafego, and End Bowden Wyatt anchored a rock-solid defense and also handled kicking chores.  Tennessee secured their first major bowl bid, and met mighty Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl on January 2, 1939.  The Sooners came into the game sporting a 14-game winning streak, but the Vols surprised them, 17-0, to cap off an undefeated season.  Tennessee was named National Champions by Dunkel and Litkenhous.

     1939 would bring new heights of perfection, though.  Tennessee not only defeated all 10 regular season opponents, they also held each opponent scoreless.  The ’39 Vols were the last college football team to go through the regular season unbeaten, untied, and unscored-upon.  The highlight of the season was a 21-0 win over arch-rival Alabama on the “Third Saturday in October.”  Knoxville native Johnny “Blood” Butler burned an indelible memory into the minds of Vol fans with an uncanny 56-yard touchdown run that is still considered the greatest play in Tennessee football history.  Butler burst through the middle of the line and headed to his right, avoiding an attempted clothesline tackle.  Ten yards downfield, he juked a Bama defensive back, leaving him grasping air as Butler cut back to his left.  Running parallel to the line of scrimmage, Butler crossed nearly the entire length of the field as he broke tackles and his teammates knocked Tide defenders down with crushing blocks.  At last Butler turned back upfield, running toward the goal line on the left sideline now.  He ran through two more tackles before taking it the distance for six.  In all, at least eight Alabama defenders had a shot at tackling Butler.

     Tennessee was invited to play the “Grandaddy of ‘Em All,” the 1940 Rose Bowl, against the Southern California Trojans.  The Vols would be without the services of star tailback Cafego in the game, as he had suffered a knee injury against the Citadel back in November.  Tennessee never got anything going offensively and fell to the Trojans, 14-0.

     The offensive prowess of Cafego and Foxx grabbed the headlines, but the heart and soul of the defense that held opponents scoreless in 1939 was Guard Bob Suffridge.  One of the quickest linemen to ever play football (he once blocked three punts in a single NFL game), Suffridge is the only Vol to be named All-America three times.  From 1938-40, Suffridge’s All America years, Tennessee won every regular season game they played. The Vols won three SEC titles in a row from 1938 through 1940.

     The 1940 team went 10-0 and accepted an invitation to play Boston College in the Sugar Bowl, their third consecutive major bowl bid.  For a while it looked like the favored Vols would have their way with the Eagles, but Tennessee squandered several scoring opportunites deep in Boston College territory.  The scrappy Eagles pulled out a hard-fought 19-13 victory.  Prior to the 1941 season, Coach Neyland’s coaching career was once again put on hold when he was called to active duty as the armed forces mobilized for World War II.

     This time, Tennessee appointed an able replacement for Neyland, one of his chief assistants, John Barnhill.  Barnhill compiled an outstanding 32-5-2 record in four seasons (there was no team in 1943 due to the War).  Barnhill guided UT to a Sugar Bowl win over Tulsa following the 1942 season, and led the Vols back to the Rose Bowl after the 1944 season.  Once again, though, Tennessee was shut out by Southern Cal, losing this one by a score of  25-0.  When Neyland returned from military service, this time for good, Barnhill went to Arkansas where he was a successful head coach, and later athletic director.

     Neyland, promoted to Brigadier General during the War, was now officially retired from the Army and able to devote full energy to coaching.  He felt it would take about five years to put Tennessee back on top of the college football world, and his words proved prophetic.    Tennessee went 9-1 in the 1946 regular season, losing only to Wake Forest, and won a fourth SEC Championship.  They faced Rice in the Orange Bowl on January 1, 1947.  The game was recently voted one of the “Most Boring” bowl games of all time.  Rice hammered out an 8-0 victory on a day when Tennessee showed no imagination on offense.  Over the next three seasons, UT averaged only five wins and there were no bowl games.

     By 1950, Neyland had built another traditional Tennessee team.  He had his marquee tailback, Hank Lauricella, a hard-nosed fullback in Andy Kozar, and a great blocker in guard John Michels.  The defense was led by lineman Doug Atkins, the only Vol who is enshrined in both the College and NFL Football Halls of Fame.  The only blemish on the schedule in 1950 was an upset loss to Mississippi State, a team which had gone 0-8-1 the year before.  Tennessee went 10-1 and was matched against the favored Texas Longhorns in the 1951 Cotton Bowl.

     The game is still remembered as one of the greatest in Tennessee history, and featured one of the most famous plays in Neyland’s tenure.  In the first quarter, from the Tennessee 20, Lauricella rounded right end on a perfectly-executed sweep.  It looked as if he would be able to run right down the sideline and score, but his body leaned a little too far forward and he began to lose steam.  He reversed field to his left, faking out would-be tacklers and angling toward the left corner of the end zone.  Inside the Texas 20 yard-line, he slowed to allow his blockers to catch up, and reversed his field again, back to his right.  As he neared the 10, he changed direction for the third time, heading straight between the goal posts, where pursuers finally caught him from behind and tackled him on the Texas 5-yard-line.  The twisting, turning run covered 75 yards and put Tennessee in position for Herky Payne to hit John Gruble with a two-yard scoring toss that put Tennessee ahead 7-0.

     Texas rallied to take a 14-7 halftime lead, fueled by a blocked Vol punt and a long pass play.  Tennessee scored late in the game to pull within 14-13, but sophomore Pat Shires missed the extra point.  As Shires came to the sidelines following the missed conversion, tears were streaming down his face.  Neyland put his arm around Shires and said gently, “Son, we didn’t come here to tie.”  The Vols intercepted a pass and hope was rekindled.  The teams exchanged fumbles on two consecutive plays and Tennessee finally broke through for the winning score on a touchdown by Kozar.  The Vols left Dallas with a well-earned 20-14 victory.  The 1950 Vols were named National Champions by Dunkel.

     Even the most casual of Vol fans knows what happened in 1951.  Tennessee won their first consensus National Title, going 10-0 in the regular season.  The Vols won every game but one by two touchdowns or more.  The final regular season game was a close one, but the Vols managed a 35-27 win over Vanderbilt to close out the unbeaten campaign.  In those days, the final AP Poll was tabulated before the bowl games were played.  The thinking of the time was that bowls were exhibition games, and rewards for the players for a successful season.  So it was that Tennessee won the 1951 National Championship, even though the Vols lost to Maryland in that year’s Sugar Bowl, 28-13, on January 1, 1952.

     Tennessee remained a top team in 1952, losing only one regular-season game, a 7-0 setback to Duke at Durham in October.  A 14-14 late season tie against Kentucky left UT with a sparkling 8-1-1 record, and again they were invited to Dallas, for a rematch with Texas in the 1953 Cotton Bowl.  During preparations for the game, the news struck like a bombshell: General Neyland had health concerns and had decided to step down as Coach and become the Athletic Director.  The Vol players sleepwalked through a dismal 16-0 loss to the Longhorns.

     The Neyland Era had at last come to an end, but one look at the General’s resume’ is all one needs to be convinced of his impact on the college game:

       *An overall record of 173-31-12 (winning percentage of .830)
       *Seven Conference Titles
       *Seven Major Bowl Bids
       *No losing seasons
       *22 All-Americans
       *31 All-SEC Players
       *A record of 72-19-6 in the SEC
       *A record of 12-5-2 against Alabama

     General Neyland would no longer prowl the sidelines, but he had built a rock-solid foundation at Tennessee, a legacy of winning that would sustain the Vol football program for decades to come.