UTC's Faysal Shafaat is tackled by UT's A. J. Johnson Saturday at Neyland Stadium.KNOXVILLE -- All around University of Tennessee at Chattanooga chancellor Steve Angle roamed happy football fans loyally clad in UTC blue and gold, fans full of hope and pride, even as a sea of pale orange threatened to swallow them whole.
In a little more than an hour, the Mocs would take on big brother Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in a late Saturday afternoon homecoming contest for the Volunteers. In a little more than an hour, the sports world would begin to find out if this contest would more closely mirror Chattanooga's stunning 14-6 upset of UT on this same field in 1958 or a 31-0 Tennessee win the last time the two programs met in 1969.
"We are looking forward to a fun time and a good game," Angle had said two days earlier. "We know we're in a bit of a David and Goliath situation, but that's why you play the game. And the opportunity to play in Neyland Stadium gives our players a wonderful experience and exposure that will benefit the program tremendously."
But now he was just outside Neyland, almost in the belly of the beast, so to speak, and Angle was clearly enjoying the atmosphere.
"This is wonderful," he said as his wife and children stood near. "We've been waiting months for this."
Don Lepard, a former Mocs player and prominent booster, was equally impressed.
"Oh, this is awesome," he said. "A bunch of us were with [UTC athletic director] David Blackburn last night and he said, 'We can walk out of here with $450,000 [and a loss], or we can walk out of here with the kind of win that could build [a new practice facility] building.'"
UTC ultimately walked out with the money and a 45-10 defeat, snapping a three-game winning streak. Yet that wasn't all that UTC focused on.
"The atmosphere was incredible," said running back Derrick Craine.
Added senior defensive lineman Davis Tull, a Knoxville native: "It was pretty exciting ... it's hard to talk about after a loss ... but it was great experience."
No one tied to the Mocs had a harder time emotionally with this game than Blackburn, who spent more than two decades in the UT athletic department before becoming UTC's AD in the spring of 2013.
"I have a lot of great memories and wonderful friendships I made in 20-plus years in Knoxville," Blackburn said before the game. "It's a weird feeling to be back, walking the visitors' sideline. It's great to see a lot of those friends again, but this is just a very strange day all around for me."
Yet no one should think Blackburn was ever anything but 100 percent committed to running UTC athletics.
"I was on the search committee," Lepard said, "and David was the only one who said he wanted the job."
It's a tough job, with or without the $450,000 the Mocs earned for this overwhelming defeat or the $350,000 the program got for a narrow loss at Central Michigan to open the season.
But as Tom Losh, who was a Mocs basketball player the last time the two schools played in 1969, "It's a good opportunity to keep our [university system] money in the family."
A family of football fans several thousand strong was little more than a hypothesis to the scientifically minded Angle before he was hired by UTC in the spring of 2013. By his own estimation, he hadn't attended a college football game of any kind since attending graduate school at UCLA at the dawn of the 1980s.
"I've always known the importance of athletics," he said. "In many ways, it's the front porch to your university, the first thing many people read about."
But knowing that and warmly embracing that figured to be an uncertainty. Then Angle and his family began attending the tailgate parties that rim Finley Stadium before each home game.
"I love just walking around and talking to people," Angle said. "And Doug Dyer's tailgates get everybody in the spirit. That level of support and enthusiasm was something I didn't expect."
How many UTC fans seriously expected to beat the Vols is hard to know. But at least two 18-year-old freshman students from Sevier County High School were certainly expecting big things before the game -- Evan Grayson and Hunter Haynes both dressed head-to-toe in blue and gold.
"I'm a UT fan," said Grayson, whose father has season tickets, "but I go to UTC so I thought I'd wear the school colors."
Added Haynes, who estimated he averaged attending one Big Orange game a year while in high school: "I'd like to think [we could win]."
Alas, they didn't win. The Mocs didn't even make it all that close. But had they shocked the college football world, had the miracle of 1958 happened all over again, Angle was willing to do something pretty big to celebrate the occasion, though perhaps not as big as when former UC president David Lockmiller called off classes the Monday after that magnificent Mocs moment 56 years ago.
"I don't know about calling off class," Angle said with a grin. "But we would certainly do something really special."
Maybe next time.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.