The boy who met Reggie White
Knox Chamber of Commerce members and guests at the Chamber’s Speaker Series in Jewelry Television, 9600 Parkside Drive, Tuesday morning, Aug. 4.
“Today is what they call Media Day at the University of Tennessee,” he said. “All the media will come over, they will get interviewed with the head coach Josh Heupel and they will go to the stadium and everyone will take pictures of the team.”
For Keith, the event evokes a memory of his youth when in 1980 he was 12 and was invited to be a runner at Media Day.
“That was, back in the day, when they had stations and [runners] would guide players from station to station to station,” he said. “I came over. I was all fired up about doing it, and they said ‘we’re going to assign you to a player and you are going to take him around from station to station to station. [The player is] a freshman; he’s a big deal; he’s a very big individual, so you’re going to have to tell him [to which media station he will go] … you’re coming with me.’
“That freshman’s name was Reggie White,” Keith said. At that time, White was 6 feet, 5 inches, 235 pounds.
“He would grow to be 335 pounds later and he would become the minister of defense, Hall of Fame player, one of the greatest in Tennessee history,” Keith said of White.
While playing four years with the Vols, White collected a school record 32 sacks and established himself as the most prolific pass rusher in Tennessee history.
“That’s a great memory for me,” Keith said. “Forty-six years later, Media Day will look different for me because my great highlight of that 1980 Media Day was hanging out with Reggie White, seeing the players, meeting coach [Johnny] Majors, but my real highlight was meeting John Ward because, for me, John Ward was the biggest star.”
A play-by-play sportscaster, Ward was the “Voice of the Vols” from 1965 until 1999.
“[Ward] was my introduction, in so many ways, to Tennessee football,” Keith said. He remembered going to the games, but, he said, “The way I really followed the team was through the Vols radio network in whatever city we were living in at the time.
“Listening to John tell the stories, getting interested in radio, understanding … the games were not on television,” he said. “The games did not get to be on television, on a regular basis, until Reggie White’s senior year, when Turner Broadcasting System started carrying Saturday night SEC football.
“That was the year Reggie White had the famous game against LSU, where he had, like, nine sacks or something crazy and became a nationwide phenomenon,” Keith recalled. “So, John Ward was that sort of connection. My build still comes directly from that [connection].”
Part of the proceeds from the speaker series benefitted Emerald Youth Foundation, with which Keith, a Knoxville native, has a history.
“I got involved early with Emerald Youth Foundation because his family’s church is Emerald Avenue United Methodist Church,” he said. “So when [founder] Steve Diggs was in the process of starting Emerald Youth Foundation, he was actually the youth minister at Emerald Avenue United Methodist Church, and I helped him on Sunday nights with the youth.”
