Herman Schrader and his wife Mary have been University of Tennessee football season-ticket holders for more than 40 years. For the last decade or so that’s meant driving from their East Ridge home to the Kmart on Highway 58 early on the morning of every home game, then boarding a bus with friends for the two-hour ride to Neyland Stadium.
“Section K in the South end zone, 51 rows up,” Schrader said Tuesday evening. “Only place we’ve ever sat.”
And he’s excited to start another season of Big Orange football on Sept. 4, when the Vols host UT-Martin.
“Oh, I look forward to it every year,” Schrader said. “To me, it’s so much more than the game. I love to watch the crowd, watch the people. I love the whole atmosphere. I even love watching the warm-ups.”
But he didn’t love hearing that Tennessee has decided to drop a two-game series with North Carolina that was set to begin next season in favor of non-BCS conference foe Buffalo of the Mid-American Conference.