Smokey, the blue tick hound well known to Tennessee fans, will join his human co-authors, Tom Mattingly and Earl Hudson, to sign copies of their new book, Smokey: The True Stories Behind the University of Tennessee’s Beloved Mascot, on Friday, October 19, at 2:00 p.m. in the UT Bookstore located in the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center.
While Mattingly and Hudson will sign their names, Smokey’s assistants will distribute bookplate decals with his actual paw print.
The book, published by the UT Press, tells the stories of the nine hounds that have been the university’s mascot for more than half a century. Mattingly, longtime Tennessee athletics historian and author, has teamed up with Hudson, who owns Smokey, to share the history of Smokey from the very beginning, when Reverend Bill Brooks’ prize-winning dog, “Brooks’ Blue Smokey,” won the title of UT’s mascot in a student contest in 1953.
The book includes colorful anecdotes such as Smokey’s 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.
Hudson and his family have cared for the Smokeys since 1994. Mattingly is the author of Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years and other books, and writes about Vol history on his blog, The Vol Historian.
Read excerpts at the book’s Facebook page.
The book is available at Amazon.com.
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C O N T A C T :
Tom Post, UT Press (865-974-5466, tpost@utk.edu)