University of Tennessee Football Team Extends Win Streak to 25 Over Kentucky---Is the Ghost of 'Bear' Bryant Really to Blame?

According to ESPN, the final score was: Tennessee 30, Kentucky 24, for a game played at Lexington, Kentucky on November 28, 2009. It's the longest active streak in the country (losing for the University of Kentucky; winning for the University of Tennessee) among football teams that play each other annually.

If you visit Graceland, you might expect to glimpse the ghost of Elvis. If you visit the University of Kentucky's Commonwealth Stadium, you might sense the presence of former UK coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.

An Overshadowed, Underloved Sibling

At a luncheon during a (non-sports related) convention held in Lexington, Kentucky years ago, a local radio personality told the assembled group he absent-mindedly left a couple of UK football tickets on the dashboard of his car one evening when he made a stop for groceries. When he got back to his car a short time later, he found that his car windshield had been smashed and---you guessed it---there were four UK football tickets resting on the dash of his car.

Until Coach Rich Brooks' football transformation of the past few years, this was the kind of story often told to the long-suffering fans of UK football. UK football has long been the overshadowed, underloved sibling of UK basketball. Paul "Bear" Bryant coached football at UK in the late 1940s and early1950s. He would, in later years, tell a story about the year the teams of both he and UK basketball coach Adolph Rupp won SEC championships in their respective sports. Coach Rupp received a new Cadillac from the boosters' club in appreciation of his effort. Coach Bryant received a cigarette lighter. (Bryant failed to mention that the Cadillac was also intended to recognize Rupp's 25-year coaching tenure at the school, however.)

Paul "Bear" Bryant and the Curse of the Bearino

In 1973, the University of Kentucky built its current football stadium. Bryant was, at that time, still coaching successfully at the University of Alabama. It has long been whispered among UK fans that Bryant placed a curse on the stadium and its home team similar to that placed upon the Boston Red Sox by baseball legend Babe Ruth after he was sold by the Red Sox to the Yankees in 1920 ( the infamous Curse of the Bambino).

How else do you explain the failure of the UK football team, for the 25^th straight year, to eke out a win over the University of Tennessee football squad? The 2009 game was played in Lexington, Kentucky. The UK team was fresh off notable victories that included the first win against the University of Georgia, at Georgia, in 32 years and a comeback win at Vandy. Tennessee was unranked and experiencing a relatively mediocre year of football under first-year coach Lane Kiffin.

After a strong first half, UK faltered in the third period and much of the fourth, then rallied to tie the game in the final moments of regulation play. In the overtime period, however, Tennessee scored a touchdown; UK did not score, and the final score was: Tennessee 30, UK 24. Both teams now have overall records of 7-5.

Post-Game Processional

As I drove back to Lexington around 11:00 p.m. after watching the game at my sister's house in a nearby town, I passed through a surge of car traffic leaving the football game at Commonwealth Stadium. It was a quiet, orderly, below-the-speed-limit processional. Except for fluttering "UK" flags attached to a few of the cars, you would not have suspected there had been a game in town this night. The flags seemed reminiscent of the small flags some funeral homes affix to cars in a funeral processional. Inside the darkened cars, quiet occupants wondered if this might be the final UK processional to follow yet another extension of the embarrassingly long Tennessee football win streak.

2010's game will be in Knoxville, but Randall Cobb will be back...there are whispers in the night, and maybe the sighting of a ghostly houndstooth hat---the kind Bryant used to wear--- in the rearview mirror...

Update 2010

Randall Cobb played a superb game against Tennessee, but the streak continues. UK lost 24-14 in Knoxville.

Sources:

Personal Observation

ESPN ---- http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/photos?gameId=293320096

Chris Lowe, ESPN, Brooks, Cats Keep Knocking Down Barriers----
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/14024/brooks-cats-keep-knocking-down-barriers

Big Blue History--- http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/bearbryant.html

Commonwealth Stadium, UK Campus Guide ---

http://ukcc.uky.edu/cgi-bin/dynamo?maps.391+campus+0222

History of the 'Curse of the Bambino' ---http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/6323070/ns/sports-baseball/

John Clay, Cats Can't Get Their Party Started 11/29/09--

http://www.kentucky.com/kentuckysports/johnclay/story/1038453.html