Robert Neyland

At West Point in 1916

Born in Greenville, Texas, Neyland attended Burleson Junior College in his home town for a year. He then transferred to Texas A&M University for a year before receiving an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York from Congressman Sam Rayburn. At West Point, Neyland starred as a lineman in football and a pitcher in baseball and was the academy boxing champion. The National League baseball New York Giants offered him a $3,500 contract, which he turned down.

Neyland graduated from West Point in 1916. He was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army Corps of Engineers and served in France during World War I. After the war, he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a graduate degree in engineering before to returning to West Point as aide-de-camp to Superintendent Douglas MacArthur.

Statue of Robert Neyland on display at Neyland Stadium

Wanting to continue coaching, Captain Neyland was appointed Professor of Military Science at the University of Tennessee (UT) in 1925. After one season as an assistant to head coach M. B. Banks, Neyland was named head coach and athletic director by school president Nathan W. Dougherty in 1926. He coached the team for nine years before the Army called him to active duty for one year in Panama. During that first nine-year stint with the Vols, Neyland had five undefeated seasons, all within a six-year period (1927, 1928, 1929, 1931, and 1932). The Vols reeled off undefeated streaks of 33 and 28 straight games. Upon returning stateside from the Panama Canal Zone, he returned to UT as head coach.

Neyland's 1938 team went undefeated and was proclaimed national champion by several minor outlets. His 1939 squad is notable for being the last college football team to go an entire regular season unscored upon, shutting out every opponent; his team was then shut out by USC in the Rose Bowl. From November 5, 1938, to December 9, 1939, the Vols ran off 17 straight shutouts and 71 consecutive shutout quarters—records that have never been seriously threatened. Neyland completed another undefeated regular season in 1940.

He was recalled to military service again in 1941. In fall 1942, Neyland was appointed as head coach of an Eastern All-Army team that took on National Football League clubs to raise money for the Army Emergency Relief fund.[3] The Eastern All-Army played three games, defeating the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers,[4][5] but lost to the defending NFL champion Chicago Bears.[6] Along with the Western All-Army team led by Duke University's Wallace Wade, the games raised $241,392.29 for the fund.[7]

In World War II, Neyland served in the China-Burma-India Theater, supervising the transportation of material through monsoons and across the Himalayas to the troops commanded by General "Vinegar" Joe Stillwell. During his military career he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit and made a member of the Order of the British Empire.

He retired from military service a second time, in 1946, with the rank of brigadier general, and again returned to the Vols as coach through 1952. After producing mediocre teams in the late forties, many thought that the General had lost his touch, as more teams moved toward the "T formation" and Neyland continued running the single wing. Neyland was vindicated, however, as he ended his career with a flourish. His 1950 team was crowned national champion by several minor outlets, while his 1951 team won the school's first undisputed national championship, the first year the Volunteers ended a season ranked first in either the AP or UPI poll. He remained as athletic director at the university until his death in New Orleans on March 28, 1962.

Neyland at Army tossing a pass

Shortly before his death, Neyland drew up plans for a major expansion and renovation to the Vols' home stadium, Shields–Watkins Field. When he had arrived in Knoxville in 1925, Shields–Watkins Field seated only 3,200 people—barely a fraction of the capacity of Vanderbilt's Dudley Field. Reflecting the Vols' rise to national prominence under his watch, the stadium's capacity had jumped to over 46,000 seats—an over 14-fold increase—in the 36 years since then. UT renamed the stadium Neyland Stadium in his honor prior to the 1962 season, and the plans he drew up were so far ahead of their time that they have been used as the basis for every major expansion since then.

Tombstone of General Neyland at Knoxville National Cemetery

On July 16, 1923, Neyland married Ada "Peggy" Fitch (September 1, 1897 – March 7, 1976) of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They had met while she was visiting friends at the academy. Ada was the daughter of Charles Lewis Fitch (July 24, 1845 – September 8, 1930) and Mary S. (June 1853 – ?). They had two sons, Robert, Jr., born February 11, 1930, and Lewis, December 6, 1933 — 2013. General Neyland was the son of lawyer Robert Reece Neyland, Sr. (October 1859 – 1935) and Pauline Lewis Neyland (January 1861 – December 1932). His siblings were sister Carroll M. Neyland (January 1890 – 1965) and brother Mayo W. Neyland (March 1896 – November 1969). Both General Neyland and Ada are buried in Knoxville National Cemetery.

In late 1961, Neyland began working on a plan for supporters of UT athletic teams to show their interest in UT's academic programs by offering scholarships to attract outstanding student scholars to the university. General Neyland himself was an outstanding scholar, as well as an athlete during his college days at West Point. It was the General's dream that the university offer four-year academic merit scholarships to students who possessed outstanding academic and leadership qualities.

Following Neyland's death in early 1962, Dr. Andrew D. Holt, then UT president, announced that a nationwide campaign would be launched to raise a minimum of $100,000 to establish the Robert R. Neyland Scholarship Fund. In October 1962, at half-time of the UT vs. Alabama game, 165 women representing UT's sororities collected more than $10,000 in a 15-minute time period at Neyland Stadium to launch the effort. By the end of fall 1962, more than $65,000 had been committed to the Neyland Scholarship fund. In the spring of 1963, a decision was made that proceeds from the annual Orange and White spring football game would go to help build the Neyland Scholarship Fund.

The first Neyland Scholarships were awarded in 1963. The first two recipients were Melissa Ann Baker of Maryville, Tennessee (now Mrs. Ann Baker Furrow, a former member of the UT Board of Trustees) and Mr. Robert English Allen of Columbia, Tennessee.

During the 1930s, Neyland began having his teams recite seven sentences that he felt summarized everything it took to win a game. These came to be known as "the Seven Maxims of Football", or "the Seven Game Maxims."[8]

• The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
• Play for and make the breaks and when one comes your way – SCORE.
• If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don't let up... put on more steam.
• Protect our kickers, our QB, our lead and our ball game.
• Ball, oskie, cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle... for this is the WINNING EDGE.
• Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
• Carry the fight to our opponent and keep it there for 60 minutes.

• List of college football head coaches with non-consecutive tenure

• Robert Neyland at the College Football Hall of Fame
• Generals of World War II