UT star Gene Etter
Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the University of Chattanooga's famous 14-6 victory over the Tennessee Vols.
Some longtime Vol fans rank the game with the 1975 North Texas State upset as among the worst losses in history, while Chattanooga fans consider it perhaps their greatest victory.
In fact, the members of that Moc team are being honored this weekend in connection with its home game against Appalachian State, which pulled a similar upset on Michigan last year.
The 1958 game was memorable not only because of the Chattanooga victory, but also a riot that broke out after the game when some fans tried to tear down the goal posts.
Going into the game at what was then Shields-Watkins Field (now Neyland Stadium), Tennessee was a disappointing 2-4, causing Vol fans to start to become impatient with coach Bowden Wyatt.
Chattanooga – which was then coached by longtime mentor Scrappy Moore - was only 4-3, which included a loss to Tennessee Tech. However, the Mocs had a few good players, such as future pros John Green and Bill Butler, and had also played well against a good Auburn team earlier in the year.
“We felt confident for some reason,” said Harold Wilkes, an end who later became Chattanooga head coach and athletic director.
Although the two teams have not played since 1969, they did play almost yearly for decades, with Tennessee even making an occasional trip to Chattanooga, such as in 1939.
The Mocs had also managed to beat the Vols in 1905 and tie them in 1909 and 1910 in the early days of the two programs.
When the 1958 game began, the Mocs showed they would be tough to beat, as they twice drove inside Tennessee’s 5-yard line early in the game without scoring.
The Mocs did go ahead 7-0 at halftime after a Green score. Then, after stopping a Vol drive in the fourth quarter, Chattanooga scored again on a Don Hill touchdown for a 14-0 lead before Tennessee scored in the waning seconds on a pass from Gene Etter to Don Stephens.
Etter, who would complete a pass to himself on a batted ball and later score a 75-yard touchdown to lead the Vols to an upset over Ole Miss the following week, did not think of the game as a humiliating upset for the Vols.
“UC outplayed us and deserved to win,” said the longtime baseball coach at Baylor School and son of legendary football coach E.B. "Red" Etter. “Coach Wyatt, when asked about the upset, replied that it was no upset, that UC had the better team.”
The Mocs also had praises for the Vols. “I caught five passes, but I paid the price for them,” remembered Wilkes. “Their defensive secondary got on you quickly.”
Just as the Moc victory over Tennessee was unusual, so was the post-game melee that followed.
As some fans tried to tear down the goal posts, a scuffle took place and police tried to intervene. What followed was a major riot involving paddy wagons, tear gas and fire hoses.
“The older I get, the more I think about the riot after the game than the game,” Wilkes said.
Etter also has memories from the post-game escapades. He said he had come out of the locker room after showering when he first noticed that a confrontation was taking place.
“I sat down on the ground and watched,” he recalled. “Several UC fans were arrested, and a paddy wagon drove onto the field to pick them up.”
He believes the Knoxville police overreacted.
“I felt this was such a huge deal for UC, that whoever was making the decisions should have removed the police from the area, which ruined the celebration for the ones who were arrested or injured,” he said.
Etter, who remembers not being able to go into his dorm room in the stadium for several hours afterward because of all the tear gas, said that Tennessee ended up going through several sets of goal posts that year.
“UT officials decided not to go the expense of installing new goalposts, and instead, used some thin wooden slats, which looked like goalposts a kid and his dad might put up in their back yard,” he said.
“Our students tore those down the next week, which was an easy chore, after our victory over Ole Miss. Two more just like them were erected, and we finished out the season using those pitiful looking posts.”
jcshearer2@comcast.net
Gene Etter