OMAHA, Neb. — Tennessee. Baseball school.
On Friday, three days before his Volunteers won their first Men’s College World Series championship via a hot-as-Hades, suddenly too-tight-late 6-5 Game 3 win over Texas A&M, head coach Tony Vitello was taken aback when a question about his school’s 0-for-forever title drought framed Tennessee as a “baseball school.”
“First of all, I appreciate you calling us a baseball school,” he said on the eve of Tennessee’s second MCWS finals appearance and first since 1951. “But I think we’re an everything school.”
Fair enough. It is. Always has been. The school of Peyton Manning, who was in attendance in “Omaha!” on Monday night, sitting alongside Vols football and basketball coaches Josh Heupel and Rick Barnes. The school of Pat Summitt, the coach who pushed women’s basketball into the stratosphere where it lives today. The alma mater of Todd Helton, just elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in January. Ernie and Bernie, Alan Houston, Johnny Majors, Reggie White … it’s a list of all-time sports greats as long as the Tennessee River.
Squad goals 🍊
Rick Barnes, Josh Heupel…
