Super Powers

Twenty years later, a Memphis football hero relishes the Tigers’ biggest upset.

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Chris Powers has been flying FedEx planes for six years now (and before that, with Continental Express). But over the last two decades, he’s yet to duplicate the lift he helped create for a long-suffering fan base at the Liberty Bowl on November 9, 1996. A sophomore tight end for an underwhelming University of Memphis football team that night, Powers caught a touchdown pass from Qadry Anderson with 34 seconds to play to give the Tigers a 21-17 upset of Peyton Manning and the 6th-ranked Tennessee Vols. It was the first time in 16 meetings Memphis had beaten UT and the Tigers haven’t taken down Rocky Top since (0-7). If it’s not the biggest win in Memphis football history, it’s likely the most memorable upset. The crowd that night — 65,885 — remains the largest in 51 years of football at the Liberty Bowl.

“It seems longer than that,” says a smiling Powers when the 20th anniversary of the upset is mentioned. “It was a lifetime ago. I’ve stayed pretty involved with the program, from tailgating to radio.”

Powers has made Memphis home since his playing days, living downtown for several years before getting married and moving to Collierville four years ago with his wife, Ashley (also a U of M alum). He enjoyed four years (2009-12) as Dave Woloshin’s partner on Tiger radio broadcasts, but stays busy these days — when not flying — helping raise his two sons, Harrison (2) and Hayes (ten months). He acknowledges Ashley might roll her eyes at another mention of his most famous catch, but he looks forward to soon sharing details of the moment — and all the joy that moment helped create — with his boys.

    “People who know me like to introduce me as ‘the guy who beat Tennessee,’” says Powers. “It’s part of my history. And it doesn’t get old because people get such a kick out of it, a positive event that happened to the program. The details, after 20 years, start to fade a little bit, but you remember the big plays. I played four years and that happened my sophomore year. I could have quit right then and it wouldn’t have mattered.” Powers chuckles when a reporter has to be reminded that he moved to the interior line and started at center his senior season (1998).

There was little reason to believe the Tigers could beat that Tennessee team. They entered the game with a record of 3-6 (UT was 6-1). They’d lost four straight and had scored as many as 20 points exactly once (a 37-20 loss at Houston). But as preached in locker rooms from coast to coast, you have to play the game. “It’s so different being inside, as part of a team every day,” says Powers. “If we truly believed we had no chance, then what’s the point of practicing?”

The most famous play of the game is not Powers’ catch, but Kevin Cobb’s 95-yard kickoff return to tie the game at 14 midway through the third quarter. “There’s a pretty cool TV angle, from the end zone Kevin was running toward,” says Powers. “You can see the wedge set, Kevin disappears, and I’m there in the middle. I blasted a UT guy off the camera to the left and Kevin cuts right behind me.”

Down 17-14 late in the fourth quarter, the Tigers made it to the Vols’ 3-yard line thanks largely to a 41-yard pass from Anderson to Chancy Carr, followed by a 13-yard run up the middle by freshman fullback Jeremy Scruggs. Next came . . . The Play.

“[Freshman receiver] Damien Dodson brought in the play from the sideline,” explains Powers. “Qadry looked at Damien in the huddle and said, ‘I’ll be looking for you, so be ready.’ I was lined up on the right, and Damien was split outside of me. I was the secondary [target]. When I released, I saw the safety starting to trail me, so I knew it was man to man. Damien was getting jammed at the line of scrimmage. When I turned around, the ball was already in the air. It was just react, throw your hands up. It stuck.” Powers says he caught the back half of the football, an epic play literally inches from being merely an overthrow.

Does Chris Powers miss football today? “I miss the guys,” he says. “I miss the relationships with the guys. You’re in a situation where, like it or not, you’re with your best friends almost all the time, every day. I miss the process of everybody having a goal, and you get the feedback immediately, whether you won or lost.”

Memphis will beat Tennessee on the gridiron again. But Powers likes the fact his 1996 Tiger team will always be the first to beat the Volunteers. “I was part of that team, and played a significant role,” he says. “No matter what happens with Memphis football, that’ll always be the first time [we beat Tennessee]. With Peyton Manning, arguably the best quarterback to ever play the game. On national TV. Put it all together, and it’s one of those days I can look back on and enjoy the role I played. I made a play that helped all my buddies — my teammates — beat Tennessee.”

Cobb’s kickoff return recently aired during a Tiger broadcast, a game Powers watched at home with his family. Little Harrison pointed at the TV screen as he’s learning to recognize the look and sounds of football. Powers grabbed his remote, rewound the play, and paused as that wedge came into focus. He grabbed his firstborn, pointed at the screen himself this time, and shouted, “Look at Daddy!”