We’re huge fans of Phillip Fulmer around here. Back at the old place, we called him The Papa, after Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, and credited him with much of the best parts about Tradition on Rocky Top. He was the “guy who’d been hugging history and tradition so tightly that it had become both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. He had voluntarily assumed the role as the proverbial salt of the earth, the individual charged with preserving the way things were, the guy who was constantly reminding his peers of the good old days, the paternal old crank who, whether you wanted him to or not, took it upon himself to shield and protect you from the decomposition that too often follows forgetting where you’re from.”
The program put The Papa out to pasture in 2008 and went on a Rumspringa that lasted not just a Kiffin-Year, but a Dooley-Decade. Some wanted the new way, and some wanted the old, but none wanted it to take ten years. The process has been gradual, but we have been slowly walking home the past few years, and the re-hiring of The Papa in an advisory capacity is a comforting signpost of progress.
So count us among the many who were ecstatic about yesterday’s news. Fulmer’s official job duties include serving as an ambassador for the University, supporting the programs, and working with UT government relations and alumni affairs leadership to advocate for the school.
Unofficially, though, this seems to me to be even more valuable than any of that because it signals a long overdue and serious effort to eliminate some of the dysfunction that has been lingering on campus for almost a decade now. Basically, The Papa is adored by nearly everyone and is associated with the last great era in Volunteer history, and having the guy who was unceremoniously fired back in the office and diplomatically and gracefully asking everyone to start pulling in the same direction is a very good thing for the program.
Here’s the press conference announcing the move:
Fulmer’s first great move was preempting speculation about whether he had any lingering bad feelings about not getting the athletic director job and it going instead to John Currie, who some rumors credit with having some role in his ouster as coach. It sounds to me like he’s saying that to the extent it’s true, it’s water under the bridge and that everyone has learned from it.
And Currie himself is echoing the same message:
Of course, at least one person was either not listening or not hearing.
But thankfully, most are applauding the move:
Me, I couldn’t be happier. I love the guy. I know there are varying opinions about what happened in 2008, but I think he got a raw deal. What should not be up for debate, though, is the class with which he handled the whole situation. That continues now, as he sits there smiling, happy to be serving the University he loves for a sixth decade.
I’m sure that there are still some relationship issues bubbling under the surface, but it honestly feels like the program is tweaking its way back to health, making all of the right small moves on a grueling path out of the shadows. This was another positive step in the right direction.
