UT’s attempt to gather 4,000 faculty, staff, students, and alumni in Neyland Stadium on March 29 to break the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest human letter — a Power T — is the largest record-breaking attempt in Rokerthon 3.
NBC’s Today show and weatherman Al Roker will be broadcasting live from Neyland Stadium during the world record attempt as part of Rokerthon 3, Roker’s third annual cross-country trek to break world records. This year, Roker is visiting five universities to break different records, and UT’s attempt is the most ambitious of the group.
UT faculty, staff, students, and alumni are invited to read the important details about the world record attempt and sign up to take part. Due to Guinness World Record guidelines, participants must be affiliated with UT.
Roker’s other stops and their record-breaking plans are the University of Oklahoma, which hopes to have 1,000-plus participants create the world’s largest weather symbol; Northern Michigan University, which will attempt to stage the world’s largest game of freeze tag with at least 552 participants; Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland, which hopes to have 377-plus people attempt the world’s largest crab walk event; and Roker’s alma mater, the State University of New York at Oswego, which hopes to have at least 400 people create the world’s largest ice-skating conga line.
Breaking a world record would be a first for UT—sort of.
While the university on its own does not currently hold any Guinness World Records, it has been associated with a few:
- The largest attendance at an American football game was at the Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol on September 10, 2016. The game, where UT defeated Virginia Tech 45 to 24, was attended by 130,045 people. The record is held by Bristol Motor Speedway, which was the site of the game.
- The largest gathering of people wearing duct tape is 752, achieved by Destination ImagiNation participants in Knoxville, on May 22, 2014. The attempt was part of the Destination ImagiNation Global Finals.
- UT’s partner Oak Ridge National Laboratory, along with the Boeing Company, holds the record for the largest solid 3-D-printed item. A trim tool for use during the manufacture of the Boeing 777x airplane wing — measuring 82.4 cubic feet — was created at ORNL on August 29, 2016. It took 30 hours to print.
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CONTACT:
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)