In Eckleburg's Eyes - 2/16/2009, Part 2

News & Notes from Saturday, February 14th, 2009

-Saturday was Valentine’s Day. I am not one of those single people who is very affected by the holiday. I did get this card in the mail from my grandmother. She has not missed a Valentine’s Day yet.

-On Saturday morning, I received a phone call from a telemarketer (from the 917 New York area code), promoting the February 20th release of The Velveteen Rabbit in theaters. After informing me that I could get a rebate on DVDs if I attended, he asked if I would commit to go on opening weekend. I responded, “Who’s in the movie?” This must have completely disoriented the guy as he paused and then went to ask for help. I stayed on hold a couple of minutes before I hung up. I realize that some of you have not gotten past the fact that I actually answered the phone.

-At noon, I met RWB at Subway. He had called the previous afternoon to see if I was free for lunch. His wife was out of town and he had planned to spend the weekend working at the church. He picked the location. We discussed the church for over two hours.

-We ended the conversation as he knew I had tickets to watch the Tennessee basketball team play Vanderbilt at Thompson-Boling Arena (TBA) at 3 PM. I met KL and MPW at TBA. They had been car shopping off of Alcoa Highway. It was the fourth consecutive day I had attended a basketball game.

-On the way in, I passed DKN and his son, ESN. They were getting situated in Section 126 along with more than seventy other former Vols to celebrate the centennial of the Tennessee basketball team. It may be their presence that forced Scotty Hopson’s crew from Hopkinsville, Kentucky, to sit in the two rows in front of us in Section 317. I was embarrassed that highly vocal rednecks would probably be their lasting impression of Knoxville.

-It was the day of the orange blazer. Not only did Bruce Pearl don the jacket but so did all of his assistants. At halftime, Tennessee presented the All-Century Team and they too were wearing the coats. (You can click on the last link to see the twenty players selected for the squad.)

-Many of the players on the All-Century team were on hand. Ron Widby, Tony White, Bill Justus, Mike Edwards, Dyron Nix (bald aka sans the Jheri curl!), A.W. Davis, Gene Tormohlen, Dane Bradshaw, Dale Ellis and Bernard King were presented at halftime. Ernie Grunfeld, Chris Lofton, C.J. Watson and Allan Houston had other basketball engagements and did not attend. Ron Slay was announced with no explanation given for his absence. Former coach Don DeVoe participated but did not speak. The administration must have learned their lesson from his speech at the 20th anniversary of TBA when they could not pry the microphone from him.

-MPW was disappointed that Lofton could not attend. (He was in Turkey with his professional team.) He was even wearing the Lofton jersey that KL had gotten him for his birthday. Lofton was represented by his mother Kathy and his uncle Curtis Jackson. Unfortunately, the uncle is not 50 Cent.

-The game was less entertaining than the festivities, but the Vols won handily 69-50. The victor was never in doubt. Tyler Smith scored a career-high 30 points in front of the legends and his mother, Shawanda Kennedy, who was in town for the game.