NEW ORLEANS — Legendary former Tennessee football player and head coach Johnny Majors has been named to the inaugural class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame, as announced on Monday by the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Majors is one of 16 legends who starred in the annual New Orleans football classic. The first class of Hall of Famers spans seven decades of Sugar Bowl action and includes 12 all-star players, two national championship coaches and two individuals who had the rare distinction of both playing and coaching in the Bowl.
Majors played in the 1957 Sugar Bowl and coached Tennessee to a 35-7 win over Miami (Florida) in the 1986 Sugar Bowl and a 23-22 win over Virginia in the 1991 Sugar Bowl. He also coached Pittsburgh to a 27-3 win over Georgia in the 1977 Sugar Bowl and the Panthers were named national champions.
“The Sugar Bowl has had the opportunity to host many of the greatest coaches and players in college football history,” said Stanley Cohn, the President of the Sugar Bowl Committee. “We wanted to have a way to recognize the best-of-the-best in our history – what better way to do that than to create a Hall of Fame?
“We believe we have an inaugural class which should go down as one of the most accomplished groups of inductees into any Hall of Fame. But let me tell you, it was very challenging to limit it to 16. There have been so many legends in our game, our future classes figure to be just as impressive as this one.”
The living members of the inaugural class of the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame have all been invited to New Orleans for this year’s Playoff Semifinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Attendees and their guests will participate in select Sugar Bowl VIP activities and will be recognized on the field during the pregame ceremony leading up to the big Clemson vs. Alabama showdown.
In the 1957 Sugar Bowl, Majors, who was the Heisman Trophy runner-up, led Tennessee against Baylor. Majors was bottled up by a tenacious Bears defense, but he still managed 51 rushing yards and a key touchdown in a 13-7 loss. He later returned to the bowl decades later to find success as a coach.
In UT’s 1986 Sugar Bowl victory over Miami (Fla.), the Vols seized control of the game in the second quarter and never looked back. After trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, UT tied the game when Daryl Dickey hit Jeff Smith for a six-yard touchdown pass that sparked a run of 35 unanswered points.
Tennessee enjoyed a thrilling fourth-quarter comeback in the 1991 Sugar Bowl to defeat Virginia. The Vols scored 20 points in the fourth quarter. Tony Thompson rushed for 151 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth, including a game-winning one-yard touchdown hurdle over the line with 31 seconds remaining.
Tracy Lawrence and his deep-fried turkeys helped feed a lot of folks and raise a lot of money for charity on Nov. 21 during his 12th Mission Possible Turkey Fry.
Tracy’s 2017 Turkey Fry and Concert raised $148,233 for the Nashville Rescue Mission. Over the years, Tracy’s team has raised more than $383,000 for Nashville’s homeless and hungry.
photo courtesy Splash! PR
“We are so thankful to our sponsors and the citizens of Nashville for their continued support of this event and we are already making plans for next year, said Tracy as he presented a check to the Nashville Rescue Mission.
Tracy dropped his new album, Good Ole Days, on Nov. 10. The new offering features 11 of Tracy’s hits, rebooted as duets with some of country’s biggest stars, including Tim McGraw, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean and more.
After taking “Fix a Drink” to the top of the Mediabase chart in November, Chris Janson hopes his new single, “Drunk Girl,” will find a home there.
But don’t let the two aforementioned song titles fool you. “Fix a Drink” and “Drunk Girl” have nothing in common thematically.
Fun-loving “Fix a Drink” kept the summertime party flowing with cocktails and cold beers, while “Drunk Girl” tackles a much more serious subject matter: respecting women, regardless of the circumstances.
The tune—which was co-penned by Chris, Tom Douglas and Scooter Carusoe—reinforces its theme of respect throughout the chorus: Take a drunk girl home / Let her sleep all alone / Leave her keys on the counter, your number by the phone / Pick up her life she threw on the floor / Leave the hall lights on, walk out and lock the door / That’s how she knows the difference between a boy and man / Take a drunk girl home.
“Both of my co-writers are legendary,” said Chris to Nash Country Daily. “They certainly didn’t need me in the room. I can tell you that the song basically wrote itself. We were just stewards of the ship. And I say that in regard to, sometimes songs happen like that. You can’t really twist and turn ’em. If you try, you mess ’em up. If you let them lead, they lead. We wrote ‘Drunk Girl’ from a father’s perspective. We are all dads. I would hope after hearing the lyrics, if my daughter was in that situation, I hope someone would take care of her. Being a husband, being a dad of girls, I have such a great respect for women in general. I think this song needed to be said.”
Luke Bryan scored the 19th No. 1 single of his career as “Light It Up” ascended to the top of the Billboard Country Airplay chart this week.
“Light It Up,” which was co-penned by Luke and Old Dominion’s Brad Tursi, is the lead single from Luke’s sixth studio album, What Makes You Country, which dropped on Dec. 8. Produced by Jeff Stevens and Jody Stevens, What Makes You Country features 15 songs, seven of which were co-written by Luke.
“I’m just really relishing where I’m at right now, but that doesn’t . . . really make me slow down,” said Luke to Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown. “It’s not like you’re enjoying the gravy so much you don’t wanna stay focused on what you’re doing. I mean, I still really want to be at the top of my game, but it’s also nice to know that if I want to take a little time off—I took a little time off in between this album and Kill the Lights—I look forward to being able to do that in the future to where I can kind go travel a little bit and also be in a situation where you can dedicate a little more time at home also.”
Over the last decade, Luke has kept an “active” schedule, releasing an album every two years since 2007 and headlining tours from 2013-2017.
The Academy of Country Music announced that the 53rd ACM Awards will be broadcast live from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 15 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
Additional details about “The Week Vegas Goes Country,” including information on the ACM Party for a Cause events, activities and official ACM after-parties, will be announced in the coming weeks. Nominations for the ACM Awards will be announced in February.
In September, Nicole Kidman took home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series of Movie for her role as Celeste Wright in HBO’s Big Little Lies.
On Dec. 11, the Australian actress was nominated for a 2018 Golden Globes for the same performance. In addition, Top of the Lake: China Girl, which Nicole also starred in on SundanceTV, was nominated for Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, alongside Big Little Lies.
Keith Urban wasted no time voicing his enthusiasm for his wife’s nomination via Twitter: “Hey baby- CONGRATULATIONS on all the GLOBES love this morn!!!!!!
Incredibly proud of you, the work, and all the BLL and TOTL team. THE STARS ALIGNED!!! xxxxxx – KU #GoldenGlobes.”
Hey baby- CONGRATULATIONS on all the GLOBES love this morn!!!!!!
Incredibly proud of you, the work, and
all the BLL and TOTL team.
THE STARS ALIGNED!!! xxxxxx – KU #GoldenGlobes
KNOXVILLE — He is still the guy that taught them how to play kickball and officiated their dodgeball games. He’s still the guy that wore a Fort Payne Wildcats football T-shirt to class every day and carried them over his shoulder across the playground if they got hurt.
Before he rose to prominence as a college football coach, Jeremy Pruitt was a PE teacher at Wills Valley Elementary School in Fort Payne, Alabama.
The pride of DeKalb County, Pruitt has never forgotten his roots.
Many of his former students followed with great interest last week when Pruitt was introduced as the 26th head coach in Tennessee football history by athletic director Phillip Fulmer.
“It’s crazy to think he was my kindergarten teacher and watched me tumble outside on the playground and now he’s the head coach at a major SEC school,” said Presley Hawkins, a Wills Valley graduate. “I think that’s really cool and really encouraging because it shows that even being from a small town you can still reach your goals and be something in life.”
Jeremy Pruitt is a Southern-bred football coach cut from central casting.
He’s a coach’s son from Rainsville, Alabama. He’s a grinder, a lifer, a country boy comfortable in his own skin.
He prefers wearing sweats over suits and isn’t ashamed of a drawl that caused “aight” to go viral minutes after his introductory press conference.
He flies on private jets not to impress, but to get places faster so he can spend more time working on football.
“Jeremy is a ball coach. That is the bottom line, and that is why I think him and Coach Fulmer are so much alike,” said Pruitt’s father, Dale. “They are just ball coaches, and if you are a ball coach you can coach the offensive line, the secondary or whatever. Because if you are going to be very good, you have to learn all of it.”
Jeremy Pruitt began wearing a full football uniform around the house by age 3.
He grew up in a fieldhouse, and his babysitters were the coaches and players surrounding him.
While many kids were watching Saturday morning cartoons, Pruitt was breaking down film from a Friday night game with his dad’s staff.
Pruitt wasn’t obsessed with being on the fast track in coaching. His feet were always been planted wherever he was, his focus always on achieving greatness in the moment.
Pruitt made stops at Fort Payne High, Plainview High and storied Hoover High before ascending to the college ranks. He’s been on the staffs of four national championship teams, winning three at Alabama and one at Florida State.
“I knew what I wanted to do, I wanted to be like my dad. I wanted to have a positive impact on the people in our community. I wanted to be a high school football coach,” Pruitt said. “The one thing I have always done, I’ve had an opportunity to work for good people. We’ve had success. I’m a believer that if you do your job, keep working and don’t worry about the next job and do a good job at the job you’ve got, good things happen.”
During his interview with Tennessee Chancellor Beverly Davenport, Pruitt told her about teaching kindergarten through third grade PE classes. He said he taught every child in Fort Payne how to tie their shoes from 2001-2004.
“I also told her that I started suggesting Velcro,” Pruitt quipped.
Layton Powell, 21, was in Pruitt’s classes at Wills Valley from kindergarten through the second grade.
Powell and his friends still laugh at some of the stories from those days. Like the time Pruitt pretended Powell was in trouble after kicking a soccer ball into the rafters and threatened to call his mom, sending Powell crying into the corner. Or the different twist Pruitt put on dodgeball by having no boundaries and calling it “Demolition Ball.”
“He would just sit over on his chair yelling in his Southern drawl with a bunch of kids running around the gym like crazy,” Powell said. “He was always playing around with us and having fun. We always had a blast. We were just little kids, but we loved those classes.”
As the boys begged to play football or basketball, Hawkins always wanted to show Pruitt her latest cheerleading moves. Her mom, Vicki Dodd, was the PE teacher and cheerleading coach at Fort Payne High, and Hawkins wanted to be just like the older girls.
“Coach Pruitt was always so encouraging and let me tumble outside on the playground. He just let me be me. He didn’t look down on me wanting to be a cheerleader like some coaches would,” said Hawkins, 24, who is now a kindergarten teacher in the Atlanta area. “He just embraced it and let me do it. He just wanted everyone to play and have fun. I remember he would cut up and laugh with us. He was great.”
Hawkins comes from an SEC-conflicted household. Her mom was a cheerleader at Alabama, her stepfather, David Dodd, played football at Tennessee from 1984-88 and she graduated from Auburn.
It made for some interesting Saturdays.
The one thing they can all agree on? They are all huge fans of Jeremy Pruitt.
“He remembers he started here and this is where he came from. I think that is admirable for anybody that makes it that big and reaches that level,” Vicki Dodd said. “He is a good old homeboy and hasn’t forgotten the people he started out with. All these young boys here look up to that and think maybe one day they can do that too.”
Dale Pruitt says his son’s down-home nature is genuine and helps him relate to the players he’s recruiting.
“He doesn’t try to be somebody for somebody,” Dale Pruitt said. “He talks country and he doesn’t try to change the way he speaks. He is who he is. The bottom line is he cares about kids and they respect him for that. Jeremy can get into a kid real hard when he’s coaching and the kid will be in his office the next day laughing or wanting to learn more from him.”
Powell is the same age as Jeremy Pruitt’s oldest son, Jayse, and they played on a summer baseball team in middle school coached by Pruitt. Once Pruitt began coaching in college, Powell figured they would never cross paths again unless they were both in Fort Payne.
But they reconnected at Alabama, where Powell has been working as a student manager for Pruitt.
“It’s kind of funny how it all worked out,” Powell said. “Jeremy is just a good all-around guy. He cares for you and cares for his players. That is why he is coming back to Alabama to help out for the playoffs, and that is why he is going to do as much as he can for Tennessee to help those players. They are going to really like him at Tennessee.”
Pruitt gained a reputation for sleeping on a cot in his office from the time he started coaching high school. The apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree.
The Pruitt family has picked a random day to celebrate Christmas in December the last few years because Alabama has always been preparing for the College Football Playoff.
“Before last year’s game against Washington, everyone was gathered together and I was in the kitchen hiding from everybody watching film,” Dale Pruitt said. “My wife said, ‘Dale, really?’ But that is what we do.”
Football and family have always gone together for Jeremy Pruitt and guided many of his major life decisions.
“Three years ago, Michigan, USC and Alabama called him and he had the opportunity to go to three pretty good jobs in pretty much different places in the country,” Dale Pruitt said. “But he is a Southern guy and he likes the South and he likes to be close to family and that all fits with Tennessee. It’s a great fit.”
After Pruitt’s introductory press conference, his wife and parents went looking for him in his new office. He wasn’t there. He was already conducting meetings.
He appeared for a few minutes while everyone was eating cake to celebrate his son’s birthday and then disappeared again.
“He had work to get done,” Dale Pruitt said. “He is kind of like Coach Fulmer said, he is not pretty. He don’t want to be pretty. He just wants to win.”
Riding the momentum of his RIAA-certified gold single, “You Broke Up With Me,” Walker Hayes released his new album, Boom, on Dec. 8.
As you may be able to glean from some of the song titles on the 10-tune offering—including “Shut Up Kenny,” “Dollar Store” and “Prescriptions”—Walker’s album is just as unorthodox as his lead single.
The father of six children—with number seven on the way—sat down with Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown to talk about his new album, which is the fulfillment of his dream since moving to Nashville 12 years ago.
“Sonically, it’s all about beats,” says Walker. “Every single song—deep or, you know, shallow like ‘You Broke Up with Me’–they all are infectious. And I love that about it. But they’re all just really intimate stories from my life, like things that I would say in real life, like ‘you broke up with me.’ They’re all quirky, for lack of a better term. You can tell that by just the titles. They’re pretty random. But it gets very deep and it gets very fun, so there’s a little bit for everybody.”
Walker will launch his 13-city Good as Gold Tour on Feb. 1 in Uncasville, Conn. Walker will makes stops in Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit and more before capping the tour on April 27 in San Martin, Calif.
Boom Track List and Songwriters
“Beautiful” (Walker Hayes)
“Shut Up Kenny” (Walker Hayes, Pete Good, AJ Babcock)
“You Broke Up With Me” (Walker Hayes, Thomas Archer, Kylie Sackley)
After signing a record contract with Warner Music Nashville in May, Morgan Evans has released his second single, “I Do,” while he continues to work on his major-label debut album.
Morgan, who married Kelsea Ballerini on Dec. 2, said via Instagram that he wrote the new tune “about his girlfriend, recorded it about my fiancée, releasing it about my wife.”
Morgan’s previous single, “Kiss Somebody,” peaked at No. 57 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.
Highway 30A stretches for 28.5 miles through the Florida Panhandle, hugging the Gulf of Mexico as it intersects picturesque beach communities like Sandestin, WaterColor, Seaside and Rosemary Beach. In January, the sugary white beaches and 60-plus-degree weather of 30A make it an ideal respite from the harsh winter temperatures in the majority of the country. And for three days, more than 170 singer/songwriters get added to the not-so-wintry mix during the 30A Songwriters Festival.
Hayes Carll performs at the 30A Songwriters Festival in 2016.
For the ninth year, music lovers will pack more than 25 venues along the scenic highway from January 12–15 for intimate solo sessions, writers’ rounds and outdoor concerts on the Grand Boulevard. This year’s lineup includes Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, The Zombies, North Mississippi Allstars, Lee Ann Womack, Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley, Patty Griffin, Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls, Ann Wilson of Heart, Paul Thorn, Kathy Mattea, Aaron Lee Tasjan, James McMurtry, Hayes Carll and many more.
If the rowdy spring-break experience isn’t your cup of beer anymore, graduate to 30A this year for friendly songwriters’ sessions, artist Q&As, respectful listening rooms and outdoor shows where a picnic blanket and a nice bottle of wine are the norm. Tickets are on sale now.
Boom Track List and Songwriters![Morgan Evans Drops New Single, “I Do” [Listen]](https://cdn.socast.io/6616/sites/1446/2017/09/15141031/2017-09-15-Morgan-Evans-Music-City-Performance-Studio-5891-1000x750-v2.jpg#aqua_resizer_image_not_local)
