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Tom Mattingly, Earl Hudson and Smokey will sign their new book,
Smokey: The True Stories Behind the University of Tennessee’s
Beloved Mascot (University of Tennessee Press, $29.95)
The authors of Smokey: The True Stories Behind the University of Tennessee’s Beloved Mascot will be signing their book at the University Center Bookstore on Friday, October 19 at 2:00pm. Smokey will be there to sign autographs.
Smokey tells the stories of the nine beloved coonhounds that have been UT’s mascot for more than half a century. Mattingly has teamed up with Smokey’s owner, Earl C. Hudson to interview Smokey’s former handlers, sports journalists, longtime fans and many others to bring to life these endearing canines.
Vol fans will learn Smokey’s history from the very beginning when Rev. Bill Brooks’ prize-winning dog, “Brooks’ Blue Smokey” won
the title of UT’s mascot at a student body-led contest in 1953. The book includes many anecdotes of Smokey’s most infamous moments, including his kidnapping in 1955 by mischievous Kentucky students, his confrontation with the Baylor Bear at the 1957 Sugar Bowl and the time he suffered heat exhaustion at the 1991 UCLA game and was listed on the Vols’
injury report, to name a few.
Readers will find this book to be not only a background of the mascot but also a history of UT athletics. Thomas J. Mattingly is the author of Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years and others. He writes about Vol history on his Knoxville News Sentinel blog, “The Vol Historian.” Earl C. Hudson and his family have cared for the Smokeys since 1994.
Find more information on the UT Bookstore website: utbookstore.org
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