Tuesday, January 8, 2013

"SMOKEY II" A NEW DOG STEPS UP


                             "SMOKEY II"
                           A New Dog Steps Up


Knoxville, TN (HOUSEOFNEYLAND) Just as Rev. Brooks said, SMOKEY I had "good sons" that would "make good mascots," so SMOKEY II stepped up & would serve as the UT mascot from 1955 to 1963.

SMOKEY II, a.k.a. "PR Brooks Blue Smokey II" was born on October 16, 1954.

Tom Matttingly & Earl Hudson tell us that the 2nd Smokey mascot was "born on the day Tennessee lost to Alabama in 1954."

Not only did we lose to Bama that year, we were shut out 0 to 27.

Despite this gruesome fact, "Smokey II had a glorious career, complete with all kinds of magic moments."

One of those "magic moments" was certainly not when SMOKEY II was dognapped by UK students before the 1955 game in Lexington.

Return to the HOUSE OF NEYLAND tomorrow to hear the details about that story.

SOURCE

"SMOKEY: THE TRUE STORIES BEHIND THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE'S BELOVED MASCOT," by Thomas J. Mattingly & Earl C. Hudson, The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 2012.



                                         "Smokey is #1"
                            Photo by John White (2012)

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