It's a phrase thrown around too much these days, "Team X is having themselves a roller-coaster season."  While it is a good metaphor, there are few teams that have had as many highs and lows as the 1965 Tennessee Volunteers.

One week they were at the top of the mountain.  The next were at the very bottom, but by season's end, they were back on top.

Not much was expected of Tennessee when the 1965 season began. It was the second year for head coach Doug Dickey.  In his first season, the Vols went 4-5-1. Tennessee had not had more than six wins in a season since 1957, and they were picked to finish ninth in the 10-team SEC at the start of the season.

Among the players on the 1965 team were Austin Denney, Frank Emanuel, Walter Chadwick, captain Hal Wantland, Charlie Fulton, acrobatic receiver Johnny Mills, Paul Naumoff, and Dewey Warren.

Tennessee started the season alright. They thumped Army (coached then by ex-LSU hero Paul Dietzel) 21-0, tied Auburn, and beat South Carolina. So Tennessee was 2-0-1 as the the third Saturday in October rolled around and the Vols headed down to Birmingham to meet eventual national champions Alabama, who had blown out the Vols the previous four seasons.

The game itself was a war. The Tide ran the ball all over Tennessee, but the Vols defense only allowed the Red Elephants into the end zone once.  The game was tied 7-7 with less than ten seconds to go, when one of the weirdest plays in this storied rivalry occurred.

A young sophomore quarterback named Ken Stabler had replaced injured Tide QB Steve Sloan three snaps earlier and had just scrambled 14 yards on 3rd-and-long to pick up a first down—or so he thought.

With the clock winding down and Tide kicker David Ray sprinting on the field to try for a winning field goal, Stabler took the snap and quickly threw the ball out of bounds.  Unfortunately for Stabler, it was fourth down.  Yes, "The Snake" got the clock stopped, but he was all out of downs and the game ended a 7-7 tie.  

It is a play that would be shown repeatedly on ESPN had it happened more recently. Today it is more of a footnote in football history and not really talked about as one of the biggest faux pas in college football.

Tennessee was ecstatic following the game, and were ready to take on Houston the next week when tragedy struck.

The Monday following the game, Tennessee assistant coaches, Bob Jones, Bill Majors (brother of legendary Tennessee player and coach Johnny Majors), and Charles Rash were carpooling to work, when their car was broadsided by a train.

Immediately, Jones and Majors were killed, while Rash was able to hang on until the week's end before dying.

News of the crash spread quickly through Knoxville. Tennsessee President Andy Holt and Head Coach Doug Dickey, along with other coaches had the somber job of telling the three wives what happened, and telling the combined seven young boys that their dads were not coming home. 

In less than 48 hours, the Tennessee family had gone from the euphoria of the tie with Alabama, to the pit of despair after losing three coaches.  However, the players voted to continue the season.

Outfitted with black crosses over the orange "T" on their helmets, the Vols played Houston that Saturday and beat them 17-8 in a game where any win would be just fine.

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