University of Tennessee kicks out Alabama alumni from visitor’s center building

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An ill-timed “Roll Tide” cheer late last year has ended a 40-year tradition of allowing local University of Alabama alumni to meet behind enemy lines.

The University of Tennessee has allowed Alabama graduates to rent out a room in the UT visitor’s center for their monthly luncheons since the building was a faculty club in the early 1970s. But since 2006, the building on the corner of Neyland Drive and Kingston Pike has been used as the admissions office and the starting point for campus tours.

Last year, when the parent of a prospective UT student told school officials he’d heard the loud Crimson Tide cheer while visiting with his teen, UT decided the rival alumni group had overstayed its welcome.

“We’re sure the fine folks at Alabama would not want us singing ‘Rocky Top’ in their admissions office,” said Karen Simsen, a UT spokeswoman. “We want our visitor’s center to be all about UT, campus traditions and what it feels like to be a student here. So we had to talk to the (alumni group) about how we have a new use for the building.”

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