Kentucky comes to Neyland Stadium on Saturday, November 7, and for most of the last century this game came with a prize you could hold over your head: a wooden barrel, painted half orange and half blue.
Tennessee and Kentucky first met in 1893, and the Wildcats won that one 56–0 in Knoxville. Plenty has changed since. But of all the Vols' great rivalries, Kentucky is the only one where the two schools ever handed a trophy back and forth. This week, let's talk about the Beer Barrel.
Born in Prohibition, filled with ice water
The barrel was a Kentucky idea. In 1925, a group of UK alumni who called themselves the Raspberry Patch, including Guy Huguelet and Rollie Guthrie, decided the series needed a trophy, something that said "Kentucky and Tennessee" at a glance. Their minds went straight to moonshine, so they went hunting for a whiskey barrel.
There was one small problem: it was the middle of Prohibition. The Anti-Saloon League objected right away, reading a beer barrel trophy as an endorsement of drinking. Peacemakers suggested calling it the Vinegar Keg or the Water Barrel instead.
So when the barrel rolled onto Stoll Field in Lexington on Thanksgiving Day 1925, it was labeled "Ice Water." The Kentucky band marched in from one end zone and the Tennessee band from the other, then played "How Dry I Am" while student representatives from each school drank from the barrel. Ice water, supposedly. Looking back in 1958, Knoxville News-Sentinel sports editor Tom Siler called that "a likely story."
Kentucky won that first game 23–20 and kept the barrel. At the time, the Wildcats actually led the series 9–8–1, which is why their alumni were so eager to have something to show off. It didn't last. The next year Bob Neyland took personal charge of the matter, and Tennessee won 6–0. From then until 1953, Kentucky got the barrel back exactly once, in 1935.
Seven decades of barrel lore
For the next 73 seasons, the barrel lived with whoever won, and every score was painted right onto its sides. It became a running scoreboard of the whole rivalry.The 1950s were Kentucky's turn. The Wildcats won 14–13 in 1953 and lost to the Vols only once, in 1956, over the next five seasons. It's the only decade of the SEC era where Kentucky had the upper hand, and it produced the barrel's wildest years.
After that 1953 loss, Tennessee students stole the barrel right out of Kentucky's coliseum. It came back a few days later, once Wildcat fans threatened to retaliate against Smokey. At the handoff, UT student leader Allison set the keg down very gently and apologized only that it wasn't full of Tennessee moonshine. He told Kentucky to bring it to Knoxville full of bourbon next year, because the Vols would "win it back and keep it forever." He did not apologize for the mysterious Vol Phantom who took it.
Kentucky didn't forget. In 1955, Kentucky students dognapped Smokey anyway. Vol students answered by splashing paint on Kentucky buildings and hauling off the Colonel, UK's stuffed wildcat mascot. In 1956, both student bodies traded paint raids. In 1957, a crew of Kentucky students came to Knoxville to find the barrel and came up empty. The Wildcat team had better luck, winning 20–6 to take it back. By 1958, the rumor was that it was hidden on a horse farm outside Lexington.
After that, the barrel mostly lived in Knoxville. Kentucky still had its moments, like flying home with it after a 12–10 win at Tennessee in 1962. But the Vols took it home after a 42–0 win in Lexington in 1985, and it never went back. One of the last great barrel photos is Peyton Manning hoisting it after a 59–31 win at Commonwealth Stadium in 1997.
Bring a piece of the barrel home
Stories like the barrel are a big part of why The Volunteer Club exists. We love Tennessee's history: the traditions, the rivalries, and the strange little artifacts that only make sense to people who bleed orange. We think that history deserves better than a dusty corner, so we design pieces that let you bring it into your home and talk about it with friends.
The Beer Barrel is one of our favorite examples. Our collection built around it and the Tennessee–Kentucky series is available at thevolunteerclub.com:
Replica Beer Barrels: available in three sizes, in the orange and blue that made the original famous.
Beer Barrel pendant lamps: a conversation piece for your bar, game room, or man cave.
Tennessee–Kentucky series items: more pieces celebrating 130-plus years of this border rivalry.
Every one of these pieces comes with a story worth telling, and the barrel has one of the best in college football.
No barrel, same rivalry
There's no trophy on the sideline Saturday, but the stakes haven't changed. Tennessee has won five straight in the series, including a 56–34 win in Lexington last October, and the Vols once won 26 in a row from 1985 to 2010, one of the longest streaks in NCAA history.
Come raise a glass (of ice water, if you're feeling traditional) with us at The Volunteer Club tailgate before kickoff. Grab your tailgate tickets at thevolunteerclub.com, and we'll see you on Saturday.
Go Vols!