Must have not set close to any Volquesters!
If you're wondering what kind of experience visiting teams' fans have in Knoxville on game day, here's a great letter we received in the Mayor's Office -- from ...a Gator! Thanks, Anish -- come back anytime! Tennessee Football Visit Knoxville
Dear Ms. Rogero,
As you know, your Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Florida Gators in football for the first time in 12 years on Saturday, September 24. I graduated from UF in 2005 and came to Knoxville to see the game on that weekend with my wife and our dog. As disappointed as we were with the outcome (to be honest, “disappointed” doesn’t really come close to covering it), I felt compelled to write to you about how the citizens of Knoxville and Vols fans in general treated us during our stay.
Let me put it to you this way: from this point forward, it will be hard for me to dislike the Vols maybe as much as I should, being a Gator. From the moment we set foot in Knoxville to the second we left, everyone – from hotel staff to bartenders to the fans at the game – was respectful, welcoming, and accommodating. When the game reached an end, all of the Vols fans around us remained wholly positive and peaceful with us, with many of them shaking my hand and offering simple, kind words. At no point during the game or otherwise did we feel intimidated or disrespected. It was a truly refreshing experience. My wife did not go to UF but she is now a Gators fan (she didn’t really have much of a choice). I warned her before the game that the environment would be hostile and to be wary of rowdy, obnoxious fans. Instead, everyone treated us so, so well to the point where I was stupefied. All of the football talk and banter remained just that: talk and banter. No one was ever negative or threatening towards us and no one took their fandom beyond its boundaries, as often occurs with big rivalry games like this one. Despite the loss, we drove out of Knoxville with an air of positivity and that is a direct result of how wonderfully the people of Knoxville acted towards us (not to mention how much they embraced the dog). The people we interacted with treated us as people first and as fans a distant, distant second. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Since we can’t thank everyone directly, we thought we would pass this note to you. If we could speak to all of them, we would thank them all for our overwhelmingly positive experience and we look forward to doing it again (with a Gators win next time).
Respectfully,
Anish Mathur
University of Florida
Class of 2005
If you're wondering what kind of experience visiting teams' fans have in Knoxville on game day, here's a great letter we received in the Mayor's Office -- from ...a Gator! Thanks, Anish -- come back anytime! Tennessee Football Visit Knoxville
Dear Ms. Rogero,
As you know, your Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Florida Gators in football for the first time in 12 years on Saturday, September 24. I graduated from UF in 2005 and came to Knoxville to see the game on that weekend with my wife and our dog. As disappointed as we were with the outcome (to be honest, “disappointed” doesn’t really come close to covering it), I felt compelled to write to you about how the citizens of Knoxville and Vols fans in general treated us during our stay.
Let me put it to you this way: from this point forward, it will be hard for me to dislike the Vols maybe as much as I should, being a Gator. From the moment we set foot in Knoxville to the second we left, everyone – from hotel staff to bartenders to the fans at the game – was respectful, welcoming, and accommodating. When the game reached an end, all of the Vols fans around us remained wholly positive and peaceful with us, with many of them shaking my hand and offering simple, kind words. At no point during the game or otherwise did we feel intimidated or disrespected. It was a truly refreshing experience. My wife did not go to UF but she is now a Gators fan (she didn’t really have much of a choice). I warned her before the game that the environment would be hostile and to be wary of rowdy, obnoxious fans. Instead, everyone treated us so, so well to the point where I was stupefied. All of the football talk and banter remained just that: talk and banter. No one was ever negative or threatening towards us and no one took their fandom beyond its boundaries, as often occurs with big rivalry games like this one. Despite the loss, we drove out of Knoxville with an air of positivity and that is a direct result of how wonderfully the people of Knoxville acted towards us (not to mention how much they embraced the dog). The people we interacted with treated us as people first and as fans a distant, distant second. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Since we can’t thank everyone directly, we thought we would pass this note to you. If we could speak to all of them, we would thank them all for our overwhelmingly positive experience and we look forward to doing it again (with a Gators win next time).
Respectfully,
Anish Mathur
University of Florida
Class of 2005
