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Here is why winner of Tennessee soccer vs Alabama smokes cigars after the sport


For many years, the Tennessee vs. Alabama soccer rivalry has ended with the profitable crew lighting up cigars to rejoice its victory.

The groups will meet for the 109th time when Tennessee (5-1, 2-1 SEC) hosts Alabama (5-1, 3-1) on Oct. 17 (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). After the ultimate whistle, the profitable locker room will fill with cigar smoke, and followers will comply with swimsuit within the stands.

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It is a staple of the Third Saturday in October rivalry and a badge of honor for the profitable program every year.

After Tennessee beat Alabama in 2022, snapping a streak of 16 straight losses to the Crimson Tide, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel declared, “Everyone’s lighting a cigar tonight.” He walked off the sector triumphantly with a cigar in his mouth.

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Tennessee soccer gamers, followers smoke cigars after wins vs Alabama: See our greatest pictures

Tennessee followers take the sector after the win over Alabama after their NCAA faculty soccer recreation on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2024, in Knoxville. Tenn.

(Saul Younger/Information Sentinel)

When “School GameDay” was in Knoxville earlier this season earlier than Tennessee performed Texas, legendary former Alabama coach Nick Saban, presently an analyst on the present, poked enjoyable on the Vols followers for his success within the sequence. “I am all-in on the College of Tennessee,” he mentioned, “as a result of we smoked 16 out of 17 cigars once we performed you all.”

Why does the winner of Tennessee vs Alabama smoke cigars?

However how did the custom of cigar smoking begin? It dates again greater than six a long time to 1961, when Alabama coach Jim Goostree — a UT alumnus — celebrated a 34-3 win for the Crimson Tide by passing out cigars to gamers and coaches within the locker room.

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Tennessee adopted the custom quickly after and it developed to represent a win over a bitter rival. The celebration typically begins on the sector after a serious win, like in 2022 and 2024, when Tennessee gamers lit up their cigars alongside the followers who stormed the sector at Neyland Stadium.

The NCAA has banned tobacco on fields and in locker rooms because the Nineteen Nineties, however the profitable crew is alleged to pay a small wonderful every year to maintain the custom alive.

Followers have adopted it, too, and Knoxville and Tuscaloosa at all times see main spikes in cigar gross sales in the course of the week main as much as the sport. Each campuses are technically smoke-free, however followers have loads of inventive methods to sneak their cigars into the stadium. A haze of smoke hovers over the stadium postgame from the hundreds of cigars lit up within the stands.

Emmett Siegel covers Tennessee baseball for Knox Information. Electronic mail: emmett.siegel@knoxnews.com; X: @EmmettSiegel_

This text initially appeared on Knoxville Information Sentinel: Here is why winner of Tennessee soccer vs Alabama smokes cigars after the sport

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