The preeminent public university in Tennessee, the University of Tennessee was founded in 1784 as Blount College. Originally centered at “the hill” on the eastern end of Cumberland Avenue, UT has spread out along the entire length of Cumberland. Its colors—orange and white—were inspired by the orange and white daisies that grow outside on the hill. UT has a student enrollment of some 29,000.
At UT, it is athletics that are truly center stage, or at least so it seems. Take, for example, the fact that in recent years UT has renamed two major roads throughout the campus not after prize-winning scientists or writers, but after Peyton Manning, the UT quarterback who went on to play for the Indianapolis Colts, and Phillip Fulmer, UT football’s head coach.