In the wee hours of the morning, Oct. 6, 2002, an hour or so after Tennessee had dispatched Arkansas in six overtimes, someone opined that the Vols' 41-38 win was "better than a tie."

That rankled longtime UT sports information director Haywood Harris, a football purist far above all others, who looked up from his writing and asked, "What's wrong with a tie?"

In the panoply of football history, there has always been something special about a tie, particularly the scoreless version. There are those souls across Big Orange Country who have never seen a tie of any variety in their entire career as Vol fans. Ties were common from the earliest days, 12 occurring during the Bob Neyland years, but later fell out of favor and were finally outlawed in 1996.

Often referred to in media accounts as a "deadlock," "draw," "dead heat," or "impasse," the tie went the way of the single-wing, the afternoon newspaper, and cheap gasoline. It's now a fight to the finish, best man wins, the "future-is-now" type deal. Ties went against the grain of the "quick-fix generation," who call their ISP when the Internet doesn't boot up quickly enough, perhaps in 20 seconds instead of 10. Time waits on no man, you know.

Over the years, some ties have been perceived as "good," some not. It all depends on your perspective.

There was the 1919 season, in which Tennessee had the unique record of three wins, three losses and three ties. Not before or since have the Vols been part of three ties in one season. They came close in 1936 (6-2-2), 1960 (6-2-2), 1965 (8-1-2), 1974 (7-3-2), 1985 (9-1-2), and 1990 (9-2-2).

For the record, there are the "inspirational ties," such as in the 7-7 Georgia Tech game in 1955, the 3-3 stalemate in the 1964 LSU game, the 7-7 standoff in the 1965 Alabama game, and the 17-17 ending in 1968 against Georgia. There are the "dispiriting ties," e.g. 13-13 against Auburn in 1965, 26-26 against UCLA in 1985. Getting to the point of a tie often took some doing, some last-minute heroics, or a favorable bounce.

There were 10 ties between 1900 and 1909, seven between 1910 and 1919, six between 1920 and 1929, five between 1930 and 1939 and between 1940 and 1949, four between 1950 and 1959, six between 1960 and 1969, three between 1970 and 1979, five between 1980 and 1989, and two in 1990 before the tie was consigned to the deepest depths of history.

Longtime fans remember the "Tie One for the Gipper" game, Notre Dame and Michigan State squaring off in East Lansing in 1966, with all the marbles on the line. In a hotly debated move, Ara Parseghian played for the tie at 10-10, got it, and won the national title to boot, despite the fact Alabama was sitting there at 10-0, 11-0 after the bowl games, to the Fighting Irish's 9-0-1. People talk about it even today.

The scoreless tie takes on great historical meaning when you consider that 48 years ago this past week, Oct. 1, 1960, at Crump Stadium in Memphis, Mississippi State and Tennessee played the last scoreless tie in Vol history.

It was the last of 22 such deadlocks for the Vols dating to 1900 and part of 53 overall. The Vols were led by captain Mike LaSorsa and Jacobs Trophy winner Jim Cartwright. The '60 season also included a 20-7 win over Alabama on the home grass, the last victory over the Tide until 1967. It was also in the days of Bill Majors and Cotton Letner. You won't find many references to that game in Vol history books.

The last "real" tie for the Vols, when both teams actually scored, was Sept. 29, 1990, at Auburn, when Tennessee led 26-9 going into the fourth quarter (Tennessee and Alabama had a 17-17 tie in 1993, but the Crimson Tide later had to forfeit the game as part of NCAA penalties). Auburn fought back to tie the game, although some folks thought Pat Dye should have gone for two, down 26-25 with fewer than two minutes left. Then followed a desperate last-minute Tennessee drive, leading to a field goal going astray, wide left.

Houston Nutt looked plain tuckered out in the visitors interview room at Neyland Stadium that October night in 2002, as he tried to relive all the big plays of the first 60 minutes of the game, followed by six overtimes. Most of the assembled media also felt that way.

A Free Opinion: The tie has been replaced by overtime, equal tries at the end zone from the 25 going in. The pros do overtime, it is reasoned, so it's good enough for the college game. At present, overtime is to college football what the designated hitter is to baseball, just another contrivance, designed to mess up an otherwise good game. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

What's wrong with a tie? Haywood Harris knew the answer.

Nothing.

Tom Mattingly is the author of "The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006" (2006), to be published in second edition in 2009, and "Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years" (1998). He has seen 13 of the 53 ties on the Vol dossier. He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called "The Vol Historian."

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