2022 Mascot Hall of Fame Best Collegiate Live Animal Program Award Winner
Smokey X is the live animal mascot of the University of Tennessee Volunteers, competing in the NCAA’s Southeastern Conference (SEC). A purebred Bluetick Coonhound, Smokey X has patrolled the sidelines of Neyland Stadium in Knoxville — one of the largest stadiums in the country with a capacity exceeding 100,000, as the Volunteers’ most loyal fan and official team leader. He earned the 2022 Mascot Hall of Fame Best Collegiate Live Animal Program Award for a legacy that spans nearly seven decades of one of college football’s most beloved mascot traditions.
How Smokey Found His Howl
The origin story of Smokey is one of college football’s best. During halftime of the 1953 Tennessee vs. Mississippi State game, the UT pep club held a competition to select the university’s official mascot. When a locally owned, award-winning Bluetick Coonhound named “Blue Smokey” was introduced to the crowd, he let out a howl. The students erupted. The more they cheered, the more he howled. The more he howled, the more they cheered. The University of Tennessee had found its mascot in the most Tennessee way imaginable, through sheer, unscripted enthusiasm.
A Tradition Cared for by Brothers
Following Smokey’s selection, the agricultural fraternity Alpha Gamma Rho became the official caretakers and handlers of the live mascot, a tradition that continues to this day. Two to three fraternity members are selected each year to serve as Smokey’s handlers. While Smokey lives with a Knoxville family descended from the original owner, he stays at the fraternity house on game weekends, where he is treated accordingly.
In 2019, ten bronze statues were unveiled across the UT campus, one for each of the ten Bluetick Coonhounds who have served as Smokey over nearly 70 years. It is a permanent tribute to dogs who did their jobs exceptionally well.
The End of an Era
The 2022 season marked Smokey X’s final year as the live mascot, the longest tenure in the program’s history. His successor, Smokey XI, his own son, was already in training and took to the sidelines in 2023, ensuring the howl heard at that 1953 halftime show continues to echo through Neyland Stadium for generations to come.
Bluetick Coonhounds are named for the distinctive blue-black ticking pattern on their coats and were originally bred in the American South for tracking and hunting. Smokey has repurposed those instincts entirely toward tracking down the end zone and hunting for SEC championships.
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