You could say I was lucky—or destined—to lead the Tennessee Volunteers onto the field before the 1999 Fiesta Bowl, wearing the hand-colored Big Orange Tux. My Tennessee roots run four generations deep.

My great-grandfather, John T. “Punch” O’Connor, a former boxer, served as Knoxville’s mayor in the 1930s and lent his name to the John T. O’Connor Senior Center. By then, General Neyland had already begun turning Tennessee football into a powerhouse. I later found a 1938 photo of my grandfather at a Vols game—their first national championship year—wearing a hat much like the one I wore in 1998.

Nearly everyone on my father’s side attended UT. My dad, James Allen Greene, MD, was a lifelong fan who became UT’s chairman of psychiatry. As a student in the ’50s, he delivered newspapers to players like Johnny Majors, who lived in the stadium.

With that family history, my own devotion was inevitable. After Tennessee won the SEC title, Dad urged me to go to the national championship: “It’s been 50 years—enjoy every minute.” Leading the team onto the field in the Big Orange Tux, running beside Smokey as the crowd roared, is a memory I’ll never forget.