University of Tennessee Football Team Extends Win Streak to 25 Over Kentucky---Is the Ghost of 'Bear' Bryant Really to Blame?

Surreal Tennessee Win Streak May Have Help from the Great Beyond

According to ESPN, the final score was: Tennessee 30, Kentucky 24, for a game played at Lexington, Kentucky on November 28, 2009. It's the longest active streak in the country (losing for the University of Kentucky; winning for the University of Tennessee) among football teams that play each other annually.

If you visit Graceland, you might expect to glimpse the ghost of Elvis. If you visit the University of Kentucky's Commonwealth Stadium, you might sense the presence of former UK coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.

An Overshadowed, Underloved Sibling

At a luncheon during a (non-sports related) convention held in Lexington, Kentucky years ago, a local radio personality told the assembled group he absent-mindedly left a couple of UK football tickets on the dashboard of his car one evening when he made a stop for groceries. When he got back to his car a short time later, he found that his car windshield had been smashed and---you guessed it---there were four UK football tickets resting on the dash of his car.

Until Coach Rich Brooks' football transformation of the past few years, this was the kind of story often told to the long-suffering fans of UK football. UK football has long been the overshadowed, underloved sibling of UK basketball. Paul "Bear" Bryant coached football at UK in the late 1940s and early1950s. He would, in later years, tell a story about the year the teams of both he and UK basketball coach Adolph Rupp won SEC championships in their respective sports. Coach Rupp received a new Cadillac from the boosters' club in appreciation of his effort. Coach Bryant received a cigarette lighter. (Bryant failed to mention that the Cadillac was also intended to recognize Rupp's 25-year coaching tenure at the school, however.)

Paul "Bear" Bryant and the Curse of the Bearino