The band blares “Rocky Top” and the crowd roars as the University of Tennessee football team storms out of the tunnel and onto the field through the giant “T,” their beloved mascot Smokey leading the way. The iconic Bluetick Coonhound has been part of the pageantry and tradition at the University of Tennessee since 1953, delighting fans both young and old. For this entertaining and enlightening book, UT sports historian Thomas J. Mattingly has teamed up with longtime Smokey owner Earl C. Hudson to tell the stories of the nine hounds that have been top dog on campus for more than half a century. It was the Rev. Bill Brooks, Hudson’s brother-in-law, whose prize-winning dog “Brooks’ Blue Smokey,” became the first mascot by winning a student body-led contest at a home football game in 1953. The Coonhound breed was selected because it was native to the state, and several (no one remembers exactly how many) were brought onto the field at halftime to compete. But Smokey stole the show when he threw back his head and howled. The crowd cheered, and Smokey howled again. The raucous applause and barking built to a frenzy. The enthusiastic hound won the hearts of the Volunteer faithful that day, and he and the dogs that followed have remained among the University of Tennessee’s most popular symbols ever since. The authors have interviewed Smokey’s former handlers, university archivists, sports journalists, and local historians as well as legions of longtime fans. Their recollections provide not only the background of the mascot but a history of UT athletics as well. Vol fans will enjoy reading about Smokey’s adventures throughout the years, from his kidnapping in 1955 by mischievous Kentucky students to his confrontation with the Baylor Bear at the 1957 Sugar Bowl to the time he suffered heat exhaustion at the 1991 UCLA game and was listed on the Vols’ injury report until his return later in the season. Filled with photographs and memorabilia, including vintage game programs, football schedules, letters, cartoons, and more, this book brings to life the magic of UT football and the endearing canines that have become such an indispensable part of the experience. THOMAS J. MATTINGLY is the author of Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years, The University of Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006, The University of Tennessee All-Access Football Vault and The University of Tennessee Trivia Book. He writes about Vol history on his Knoxville News Sentinel blog, “The Vol Historian.” EARL C. HUDSON’s family have cared for the Smokeys since 1994.

Sparty, the mascot for the Spartans of Michigan State, tours the campus and attends a football game.

The battered, snow-covered body of a woman is found on the banks of the Ottawa River, across from the Parliament Buildings, launching a complex investigation led by Sergeant John Bass and Coroner Gen Simone. Discovered next to the body is a bag of unrefined gold worth almost $800,000. As layers of mystery are peeled back, John and Gen realize there is a deeper question at the heart of this story, one involving the extinct Beothuk peoples of Newfoundland, one that—if answered—could reveal stunning truths about Canada’s colonial history and the future outcomes of climate change. The dead woman is presumed to be Anouk Demas, a government Director. Soon after her body is released to her sister, Alice Demas, new information comes to light, but by this time the corpse has gone missing, sending John and Gen on a breathless race through Canada’s eastern provinces, involving all levels of government and law enforcement. Unless John and Gen can solve the puzzle in time, the Demas sisters’ secret—and an essential historical truth—will be lost forever. At once a mystery thriller, a sociopolitical inquiry, an exploration of romance, friendship, and teamwork, and a celebration of Indigenous cultures and the natural world, SKHI surprises at every twist, right up until its astonishing conclusion.

Life is sweet when you're a young Jack Russell pup still a few months shy of your first birthday. And Smokey Jack loves his new life with his momma and the Colonel, the kindly old couple who recently adopted him, even though he fears he will not live up to his Colonel's high standards, something Smokey wants more than anything in the whole world. But their happy existence is interrupted when a mysterious blue mist engulfs Smokey during his first hunt with the Colonel, a mist accompanied by the unnatural-smelling Not-fox and a disembodied voice singing a childish tune. Leading to the night Smokey gets caught in a flash flood with Jasmine, the little girl who lives down the street from him. But the trouble really starts when Jasmine's older sister, Lily, dives into the quickly deepening current of Huntsman Creek after them. The Colonel can only watch as his young friends are washed into the floodplain's drainage pipe leading under the street! And in their desperate struggle for survival, the trio find themselves washed up against a strange convex object shaped much like an eye, housing an evil that should have been left alone.

An atypical story concerning depression while lessons in humiliation and pain are learned growing up, living life is deliberately stunted by proud arrogance. With causes of deliberate aggression, hostility, and neglect, a child is turned into a product of ignorance, being allowed to suffer for years in teeth gnashing loneliness and despair. While suffering in darkness, various people attach themselves to a product of ignorance, results of attempted control and manipulation of another person reveal unexpected surprises. Hearing without sight, Truth is written along with teaching by others, a product of ignorance learns struggle with New Found Truth and doing right, reacting to being kicked using non-traditional means, the result is more attention attracted by some who want complete dominion. Upon doing right, making a very wise decision, others will learn what a former product of ignorance had learned, lessons in humiliation and pain, Truth opens eyes as scales along with ignorance falls away.

"Follow smokey around the campus of the University of Tennessee as he makes his way to Neyland Stadium for a football game"--Page 4 of cover.