Born And Raised In The South...,: Knoxville, TN

Knoxville, Tennessee

Nickname(s): The Marble City

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the state of Tennessee, behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is also the principal city of the "Knoxville Metropolitan Area" which is included in the "Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette Combined Statistical Area" and the largest city in East Tennessee. As of the 2000 United States Census, Knoxville had a total population of 173,890 with a metro population of 655,400.

Of Tennessee's four major cities, Knoxville is second oldest to Nashville, which was founded in 1779. After Tennessee's admission into the Union in 1796, Knoxville was the state's first capital, in which capacity it served until 1819, when the capital was moved to Murfreesboro, prior to Nashville receiving the designation. The city was named in honor of the first Secretary of War, Henry Knox.

One of Knoxville's nicknames is The Marble City. In the early 20th century, a number of quarries were active in the city, supplying Tennessee pink marble (actually Ordovician limestone of the Holston Formation) to much of the country. Notable buildings such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington are constructed of Knoxville marble. The National Gallery's fountains were turned by Candoro Marble Company, which once ran the largest marble lathes in the United States.

Knoxville was once also known as the Underwear Capital of the World. In the 1930's, no fewer than 20 textile and clothing mills operated in Knoxville, and the industry was the city's largest employer. In the 1950's, the mills began to close, causing an overall population loss of 10% by 1960.

Knoxville is also the home of the University of Tennessee's primary campus (UTK). The university's sports teams, called the "Volunteers" or "Vols", are extremely popular in the surrounding area. In recognition of this popularity, the telephone area code for Knox County and eight adjacent counties is 865 (VOL). Knoxville is also the home of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, almost entirely thanks to the popularity of Pat Summitt and the University of Tennessee women's basketball team.

Krutch Park

James White's Cabin at Fort Knoxville

St. Johns Cathedral

Sunsphere at 1982 World's Fair

Holston Treaty

Old Knoxville Court House

The Sterchi Building

Knoxville River Frontage

Craighead-Jackson Home

Goody's Family Clothing is a chain of clothing retailers based in Knoxville, Tennessee. It operates approximately 383 stores in the U.S South and Midwest, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Goody's Family Clothing was founded in 1953 by M.D. Goodfriend in the town of Athens, Tennessee as a small family business, Athens Outlet Store. In 1979, the family business changed the merchandise focus from offering closeout, irregular, and previous-year merchandise to offering current, first-quality, brand name merchandise. This change brought a new headquarters in Knoxville, a new president and CEO, M.D.’s son, Bob Goodfriend, and a name change to Goody’s Family Clothing, which reflected the company’s new strategic direction. Goody’s has grown from 12 stores and $3 million in sales in 1972 to over 380 stores and well over $1 billion in sales in 2007. Goody's went public with its stock in October 1991, but continued to be headed by Bob Goodfriend until it was taken private again in a sale to GMM Capital and Prentice Capital Management in January 2006

Goodys Store

Tennessee Theatre

Home of University of Tennessee (College Of Law)

UT System Logo

UT Campus Arial View

UT Volunteers

The Hill. The University of Tennessee was established in 1794, making UT one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the region.

A Brief History of UT Knoxville

Blount College, the University of Tennessee’s forerunner, was established in Knoxville in 1794, two years before Tennessee became a state. Located near the center of Knoxville’s present business district, Blount College was nonsectarian in character, which was unusual for an institution of higher education in that day. The university has remained nondenominational and is said to be the oldest such institution west of the Appalachian Divide.

From the outset, Blount College was all-male, as were most colleges at the time. The restriction was ended in 1892 when the first women students were admitted. The University of Tennessee thereafter was fully coeducational.

In 1807 the state legislature changed the name to East Tennessee College, and in 1826 the present site at Knoxville, the 40-acre tract known as “The Hill,” was acquired. The college’s name changed again in 1840 – to East Tennessee University.

The Civil War forced the institution to close, and its buildings were used as a hospital for Confederate troops and later occupied by Union troops.

East Tennessee University reopened after the war, and in 1869 the state legislature selected the university as the state’s federal land-grant institution, under terms of the Morrill Act passed by Congress in 1862. This enabled the university to broaden its offerings by adding agricultural and engineering courses to its curriculum, as well as military science, which the Morrill Act required.

The university has grown almost constantly since then. The medical campus, founded in Nashville and acquired by the university in 1879, moved to Memphis in 1911. The University of Tennessee at Martin, established in 1900 as a private institution, became part of the University of Tennessee in 1927. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was established in 1969 when the private University of Chattanooga merged with the University of Tennessee.

The Space Institute, a graduate research and education center near Tullahoma, opened in 1964. The Institute of Agriculture, headquartered in Knoxville, traces its beginnings to 1869 when UT became Tennessee’s land-grant institution, and the Institute for Public Service was founded and brought together several government and industrial outreach programs in 1971.

Gen. Robert Reese Neyland

The history and tradition of Tennessee football began when Gen. Robert Reese Neyland came to Tennessee as an ROTC instructor and backfield coach in 1925 and was named head football coach in 1926. From that date, Tennessee was in the college football arena to stay.

Neyland, who came to Tennessee as an Army captain and left as a brigadier general, brought one of the most efficient single-wing offenses in the country to go with an unyielding defense. It was Gene McEver who kicked off the Neyland era with his 98-yard return of the opening kickoff in the 1928 Alabama game, a game the underdog Vols won 15-13. Each of his succeeding eras would be highlighted by similar big plays. Johnny Butler's 56-yard run against Alabama in 1939 and Hank Lauricella's 75-yard run against Texas in the 1951 Cotton Bowl.

Neyland's 1939 Vols were the last to shut out each of its regular season opponents. Over the course of his career, 112 of 216 opponents failed to score against his Tennessee teams and the Vols still own an NCAA record for holding opponents scoreless for 71 consecutive quarters.

Neyland's teams won Southern Conference titles in 1927 and 1932, piling up undefeated streaks of 33 and 28 games along the way, and SEC championships in 1938, 1939, 1940, 1946 and 1951. In addition, Neyland-coached teams won four national championships. The Vols were consensus national champions in 1951 and Neyland's 21-year record at Tennessee was 173-31-12.

His legacy continues to live through his name on the football stadium, the indoor football complex and the road paralleling the Tennessee River.