This may come as a shock, but the Lauderdales do follow the local sports teams, when we are not traveling the globe, trying to escape from creditors. And this year was quite remarkable for the Southeastern Conference, wasn't it? I can't remember a time when so many coaches were sent packing when the season finally ended.
Ole Miss currently has an interim coach, and UT is now in the hunt for another one, as both teams lost more games than their fans expected in 2017. Of course, it wasn't always that way, and in 1957, the teams fared much better.
Why am I sharing my thoughts and photos from 1957? Only because I found a few blurry images from that game, when it was played in what may seem an unlikely place: Crump Stadium in Memphis. They are actually glass-mounted slides, which turned up in a box of photographs I purchased at an estate sale.
You have to remember that before Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium was erected, any teams searching for a "neutral" game site played at Crump Stadium, and that's how it was in 1957, when the Rebels met the Volunteers in Memphis.
I'm not a sportswriter, so I won't even begin to describe the game, or try to figure out what, exactly, is going on in these particular images. I'll just tell you that the Rebels won the contest 14-7, finished the regular season with a very enviable record of 8-1-1 (a loss to Arkansas, and a tie with Mississippi State), and that year they went on to play in the Sugar Bowl, where they defeated Texas 39-7. They were ranked #7 in the final polls.
And Tennessee? Not bad at all. They finished the season 8-3 (with losses to Auburn, Ole Miss, and Kentucky), and played in the Gator Bowl, where they beat Texas A&M 3-0.
Yep, 3-0. I'm glad they had a good field-goal kicker.
