Story by Ryne Rickman | Photos from UTM Special Collections and Archives and University Relations
This timeline offers only a sampling of the many athletes, coaches, staff members, and moments that have shaped 125 years of UT Martin athletics. The full history is far too large to fit within these pages, and every season has included people and achievements that deserve recognition. Our goal is to highlight key milestones and honor the spirit of the Sky Pilots, Junior Volunteers, Volunteers, Pacers, and Skyhawks, knowing that our community’s complete story reaches far beyond what any single timeline can capture.
1900
1900 The Hall-Moody Institute is established on land donated by Ada Gardner Brooks.
1920s
1923 A resolution permitting intercollegiate athletics is passed after years of resistance by the administration and faculty; teams are known as the Sky Pilots.
1924 The Hall-Moody gymnasium becomes the first athletics facility on campus.
1927 Hall-Moody closes and the University of Tennessee Junior College is established with athletic teams adopting the name Junior Volunteers.
1930s
1930 A new athletics facility and adjacent football field are added to campus, creating what is now the Student Life Building and the original field on the site of today’s H.K. Grantham Field.
1933 Intercollegiate athletics are briefly discontinued due to declining enrollment, returning the following year.
1935 Football player Jimmy Long of Union City dies from injuries sustained during a game.
1950s
1950 Partial athletic scholarships are introduced in football and men’s basketball.
1951 The institution becomes the University of Tennessee Martin Branch; teams retain the Volunteer identity, although many sports teams were referred to as “Baby Vols” or “Little Vols.”
1952–1956 Women’s athletics begin to take shape as Bettye Giles joins the faculty and women’s tennis gains varsity status.
1960s
1960–1962 Football wins three consecutive Volunteer State Athletic Conference championships, and Bobby Fowler becomes the program’s first NFL draft pick.
1963 A new Physical Education Building opens west of Mt. Pelia Road with classrooms, offices, activity rooms, locker rooms and a 3,500-seat gym that becomes the campus home for major events and athletics. In 1973, an adjacent field house is added to expand the complex, and in 1994, the facility is officially named the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
1967 Football wins the Tangerine Bowl national championship with a victory over West Chester State.
1969 Nadine Gearin leads UT Martin’s first intercollegiate women’s basketball team beginning in 1969, helping establish the university as a leader in women’s athletics; women’s varsity sports expand, UT Martin holds its first rodeo, wrestling debuts, and Leonard Hamilton becomes the first African-American student-athlete.
1970s
1970–1971 UT Martin joins the Mid-South Conference, later the Gulf South Conference; Pacers becomes the athletic nickname.
1971 Baseball makes its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
1974 Pat Head Summitt graduates as UT Martin’s all-time leading scorer in women’s basketball before beginning her trailblazing coaching career with the Tennessee Lady Vols.
1975 Skip Emmett wins the National All-Around Cowboy title.
1976 Women’s basketball’s Amy Underwood Poteete becomes the first female recipient of an athletic grant-in-aid scholarship at UT Martin.
1980s
1980 Tennessee Vols men’s basketball coaching legend Ray Mears is appointed UT Martin’s first full-time athletic director.
1981 The Pacer Pete mascot debuts, followed a few years later by the creation of Pace-Her Polly.
1983 The inaugural UT Martin Athletics Hall of Fame class is inducted.
1984 The West Tennessee Agricultural Pavilion opens as an 82,000-square-foot facility. The building is named the Ned McWherter Agricultural Complex in 1995 in honor of Weakley County native Governor Ned Ray McWherter.
1985–1987 Pat Nanney Jr. earns NCAA All-America honors in golf, and Rob Harbison wins the NCAA air rifle championship.
1988 Football wins the Gulf South Conference championship and advances to the NCAA Division II playoffs for the first time in school history, winning its postseason opener and producing multiple NFL draft selections; men’s tennis completes a dominant run of six Gulf South Conference titles in seven seasons.
1989 UT Martin rifle wins its seventh straight Gulf South Conference championship and eighth league title of the 1980s decade.
1990s
1990 Men’s tennis sweeps the NCAA Division II national championship awards in singles and doubles; Cal Luther begins his tenure, guiding UT Martin men’s basketball team through Division I reclassification.
1992 UT Martin athletics joins the NCAA Division I ranks as members of the Ohio Valley Conference.
1994 Women’s tennis becomes the first UT Martin program to win an OVC championship; Bettye Giles retires as women’s director of athletics; Bennie Hollis is hired as the first UT Martin athletics director for both men’s and women’s programs.
1995 Athletic teams change from Pacers to Skyhawks and begin a new era of athletics identity.
2000s
2002 Volleyball earns UT Martin’s first NCAA Division I tournament appearance; the Bob Carroll Football Building opens.
2004 Lyndsie Brower is named the Reserve National All-Around Cowgirl; soccer’s Emily Miller wins the prestigious NCAA Inspiration Award.
2006 First-year coach Jason Simpson leads football to its first OVC championship with the program’s most wins since 1988; All-American Don Chapman makes NCAA history as only the 14th Division I athlete to rush for 1,000 yards in four straight seasons.
2007 Lester Hudson records college basketball’s first quadruple-double, and athletic director Phil Dane secures new student fee funding to strengthen UT Martin’s Division I programs.
2008 Alum Jerry Reese wins his first of two Super Bowl championships as senior vice president/general manager of the New York Giants.
2009 Men’s basketball wins its first OVC regular-season championship, shattering 12 school records; Lester Hudson becomes the first UT Martin player selected in the NBA Draft, chosen by the Boston Celtics in the second round.
2010s
2012 Volleyball’s Kasey Elswik finishes as the OVC’s all-time digs leader after setting the NCAA single-season record; Skyhawk softball claims its fourth OVC championship in three seasons with the program’s first regular season and tournament sweep; Leah Taylor becomes the first UT Martin softball Easton Fast Pitch All-American; Coaches statues honoring Pat Summitt, Bettye Giles and Nadine Gearin are dedicated at the Elam Center; alum Lin Dunn coaches the Indiana Fever to the WNBA championship.
2013 John Luthi is named National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Coach of the Year.
2014 Soccer claims its fourth consecutive OVC championship; women’s basketball completes four straight NCAA Tournament appearances as Heather Butler and Jasmine Newsome graduate as the top two scorers in OVC history; Butler becomes the first OVC player to appear in a WNBA game; men’s rodeo becomes the first college east of the Mississippi River to win the College National Finals Rodeo championship.
2015 Ann Asipan becomes the first UT Martin runner to win an OVC individual cross-country title, winning her first of back-to-back championships.
2016 Skyhawk golf claims its first OVC team championship, sweeping the team and individual titles en route to a NCAA Regional appearance; Alec Mills becomes the first UT Martin alum to appear in a Major League Baseball game, pitching for the Kansas City Royals before later throwing a no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs; the renovated press box at Hardy M. Graham Stadium opens, featuring upgraded locker rooms, concession areas, academic support space, the Skyhawk Club level and enhanced media and Chancellor’s Box areas, and hosts its first game as UT Martin defeats Bacone College 84-6.
2017 Men’s and women’s track and field programs are reinstated after a 14-year hiatus; Edwin Kurgat becomes the first UT Martin runner to win the OVC cross country individual championship and the first Skyhawk to compete at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships; Ann Asipan represents the Skyhawks at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the 5k event.
2019 Two-time OVC Golfer of the Year Hunter Richardson becomes the first UT Martin representative to play in a PGA Tour event when he takes part in the Barbasol Championship.
2020s
2021 Chelsey Perry becomes the highest-drafted UT Martin and OVC player to be selected in the WNBA Draft when the Indiana Fever selects the two-time All-American with the 26th pick.
2022 Kelby Kane is named the National Collegiate Equestrian Association Fences Rider of the Year, becoming the first Skyhawk rider to claim that award.
2024 Skyhawk football wins its fourth consecutive conference championship and a NCAA FCS playoff game for the second time in four years; UT Martin STUNT officially debuts as Tennessee’s first program and finishes third nationally among Division I institutions; beach volleyball wins its fifth consecutive OVC championship.
2025 Skyhawk equestrian earns the program’s first at-large berth to the NCEA Championships after capturing its second conference title; men’s cross country wins its first OVC team championship and claims the league’s individual title through Luke Johnson.
