X-Nico

24 unusual facts about Knoxville


1928 college football season

In one of the final games of the 1928 season, once-tied Tennessee hosted unbeaten Florida in Knoxville.

A Death in the Family

The novel provides a portrait of life in Knoxville, Tennessee, showing how such a loss affects the young widow, her two children, her atheist father and the dead man's alcoholic brother.

Adam Henley

Henley qualifies for Wales (as his mother is Welsh), England (under residency rules) and the United States, as he was born in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Eugene Maxwell Frank

He was survived by his daughters and sons-in-law Wilmagene and Lewis Noonan of Leawood, Kansas and Susan and Mark Parsons of Ashbourne, Derbyshire in the U.K.; by a daughter, Gretchen Frank Beal of Knoxville, Tennessee, and son and daughter-in-law, Thomas E. Frank and Gail O'Day of Atlanta.

Gordon Granger

After Chattanooga, Granger took part in lifting the siege at Knoxville, Tennessee.

Granville P. Swift

Swift returned to prospecting, this time for quicksilver in the mountains between Berryessa Valley and Knoxville, but on April 21, 1875, he was riding on a mule and suffered a fatal fall from a steep mountain path.

Hardin County, Tennessee

Two parties of settlers (totaling 26) struck out from Knoxville, Tennessee in late spring of 1816 bound for the general area which would eventually become Savannah, Tennessee.

Jane Franklin Hommel

She was born May 12, 1878 as Jane Franklin Hommel, the daughter of Daniel C. Hommel and Sarah Havely of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Jane Franklin Hommel Denney (1878–1946), clubwoman, was president of the Tennessee Federation of Women's Clubs, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Jim Acosta

In 1995, Acosta moved in front of the camera, becoming a reporter and substitute anchor at WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee.

John Hervey Crozier

John Hervey Crozier (February 10, 1812 – October 25, 1889) was an American attorney and politician active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, during the mid-nineteenth century.

Mitch Rouse

Rouse was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he played football at Oak Ridge High School.

Oxnard Air Force Base

The 354th FIS remained at Oxnard until 1955 when it was reassigned to McGhee Tyson Airport/McGhee Tyson AFB, near Knoxville, Tennessee to provide air defense for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Perry Redd

Subsequently, Redd served as Co-Pastor of Holy Jerusalem Church of God, located in Mechanicsville, Knoxville for two years.

Sprint car racing

The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum located in Knoxville, Iowa, USA features exhibits to highlight the history of both winged and non-wing sprint cars.

Suttree

Set in 1951 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the novel follows Cornelius Suttree, who has repudiated his former life of privilege to become a fisherman on the Tennessee River.

Tad Mosel

The movie adaptation of All The Way Home (1963) was filmed in the same Knoxville, Tennessee neighborhood where Agee grew up.

The Happy Telephone

The Happy Telephone tapes were first sold locally in the Knoxville, Tennessee area.

The National Crittenton Foundation

The foundation is affiliated with 22 member agencies operating across the country in urban and rural areas, including Baltimore; Boston; Charleston, South Carolina; Denver, Colorado; Kansas City, Missouri; Knoxville, Tennessee; Orange County, California and Los Angeles, California; Peoria, Illinois; Philadelphia; Phoenix, Arizona, San Francisco, California; Sioux City, Iowa; Washington, D.C. and Wheeling, West Virginia.

Twin Bridges Historic District

The Luten Bridge Company of Knoxville, Tennessee was contracted for the work and for eleven other bridges in the county.

W. I. Thomas

His family moved to Knoxville, home of the University of Tennessee, when he was a boy, because his father wanted to improve the educational opportunities of his children.

Welsh settlement in the Americas

These Welsh families settled in an area now known as Mechanicsville, and part of the city of Knoxville.

Whispers of the Dead

"Recuperating from a near-fatal attack, forensic anthropologist David Hunter has returned to the renowned research facility where he first trained - the Body Farm in Knoxville, Tennessee.

WTNZ

All shows now originate in high definition from WBIR's facilities on Hutchinson Avenue in Knoxville's Lincoln Park section (official address is Bill Williams Avenue).


1981 Tennessee Volunteers football team

Playing as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the team was led by head coach Johnny Majors, in his fifth year, and played their home games at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

1984 Tennessee Volunteers football team

Playing as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the team was led by head coach Johnny Majors, in his eighth year, and played their home games at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

36th parallel north

Cities and landmarks close to the parallel include Kettleman City, California; Henderson, Nevada; Hoover Dam; South Rim of the Grand Canyon; Los Alamos National Laboratory; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Nashville, Tennessee; Knoxville, Tennessee; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; High Point, North Carolina; Greensboro, North Carolina; Durham, North Carolina; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and others.

Bill Battle

Despite a 59–22–2 record in seven seasons in Knoxville in an era in which Alabama dominated the Southeastern Conference and annually contended for the national championship, Battle was forced out after the 1976 season, allowing Volunteer legend Johnny Majors to return to his alma mater after leading Pittsburgh to the 1976 national championship.

Body farm

Authors Jon Jefferson and Bill Bass have published a number of fictional murder mystery novels based on the body farm at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville under the pseudonym Jefferson Bass.

Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park

When Union Major General Ambrose Burnside attacked the Cumberland Gap and Knoxville, Tennessee, Camp Nelson's distance from the Gap and Knoxville, combined with lack of railroads and the weather, hampered the Union advance.

Charles I. Barber

He was cofounder of the firm, Barber & McMurry, through which he designed or codesigned buildings such as the Church Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the General Building, and the Knoxville YMCA, as well as several campus buildings for the University of Tennessee and numerous elaborate houses in West Knoxville.

Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Texas Pacific Railway

Somerset to Hixson, Tennessee, is dispatched by the South End Dispatcher, Knoxville.

Cumberland Gap, Tennessee

In 1888, a work camp was established at Cumberland Gap by Scottish-born entrepreneur Alexander Arthur (1846–1912) to house workers needed to build a tunnel for the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap & Louisville Railroad.

Dixie Cornell Gebhardt

She was the daughter of a pioneer Knoxville physician who served as an army surgeon in the American Civil War with the Iowa Infantry.

Donald L. Moffitt

Moffitt previously served as Knox County Treasurer from 1984 to 1993, Knox County Board Chairman from 1982 to 1984, Knox County Board member 1978 to 1982, Knoxville, Illinois Alderman 1977 to 1978, Mayor of the City of Oneida, Illinois from 1972 to 1975, and an Oneida Alderman from 1971 to 1972.

East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railway

In 1852, congressmen Horace Maynard, William Montgomery Churchwell, and John H. Crozier, along with attorney Oliver Perry Temple and minister Thomas William Humes, chartered the Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad, which planned to build a line northward into Kentucky, where it would join existing lines to Cincinnati and Louisville.

Fort Sanders

Fort Sanders (Tennessee), the decisive engagement of the Knoxville Campaign of the American Civil War, fought in Knoxville, Tennessee, on November 29, 1863

George Barber

George Franklin Barber (1854–1915), American architect in Knoxville, Tennessee

High's Dairy Store

The right to produce High's brand of ice cream was sold in 1989 to Kay's Ice Cream, based in Knoxville, Tennessee (which was subsequently acquired by C. F. Sauer Company in 1990).

Island Home Park

This house was the home of Knoxville judge and businessman John L. Greer, best known as the owner of 1975 Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure.

J. G. M. Ramsey

As early as 1825, Ramsey had proposed connecting Knoxville with the Atlantic Coast via railroad, which would have given the region's farmers better access to markets in Charleston.

James Ernest Karnes

James Ernest "Buck" Karnes (July 20, 1889–July 8, 1966), was born in Arlington, Tennessee and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Jane Franklin Hommel

She served as president of Knoxville's chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and one term as state secretary of the UDC.

Kim McMillan

McMillan, the adopted daughter of two teachers, graduated as valedictorian of Knoxville’s South-Young High School and with honors from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

KXI22

Hourly conditions are given for Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville, Georgia, Atlanta, Rome, Dalton, Athens, and possibly others in Georgia; and Chattanooga, Knoxville, Asheville, Greenville/Spartanburg, and possibly others in surrounding states.

LaVonna Martin

Martin-Floreal is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and is married to former Canadian Olympic triple jumper Edrick Floreal, head track and field coach at Kentucky Wildcats.

Madeline Rogero

In 2003, Rogero ran for mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, competing with businessman Bill Haslam for the position being vacated by long-time Knoxville mayor Victor Ashe.

Mary Boyce Temple

She spent her later years entertaining guests at her Knoxville home, and (during winters) at the Mayflower and Willard hotels in Washington, D.C..

New Knoxville, Ohio

A lot of immigrants originating from the German village of Ladbergen settled down in the area around New Knoxville with which a town partnership was established.

Phil Leadbetter

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Phil was a 1980 graduate of Gibbs High School in Corryton, Tennessee.

Raleigh McKenzie

McKenzie attended Austin-East High School in Knoxville, where, like his brother, he played both at linebacker and on the offensive line (Raiders Director of Player Personnel Joey Clinkscales was among their teammates).

Saks, Inc.

After acquiring Parisian, Proffitt's relocated its corporate headquarters to Birmingham, Alabama from Knoxville in October 1997.

South Knoxville

Celebrities and notable people who are from or have lived in South Knoxville include actors David Keith, John Cullum and Johnny Knoxville, cartoonist Darby Conley, model David White, author Cormac McCarthy, and Pittsburgh Steelers punter Craig Colquitt.

Tennessee State Route 33

The section of SR-33 between Knoxville and Tazewell, along with US 25E between Tazewell and Middlesboro, KY, was an inspiration for the song The Ballad of Thunder Road.

Thistlethwaite

Morwen Thistlethwaite, knot theorist and professor of mathematics for the University of Tennessee in Knoxville

Thomas A. Davis

During the Spanish-American War he served as a Captain of the 6th US Volunteer Infantry, also known as the Sixth Immunes, which was mustered at Knoxville, Tennessee and saw service in Puerto Rico.

Upland South

Knoxville and Huntsville are both centers of industry and scientific research.

WIOL

WKVL, a radio station (850 AM) licensed to Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, which used the call sign WIOL from 1997 until 1998

WMYL

In 2006 Ron Meredith and M&M Broadcasting purchased WXJB, WFXY and WANO in Middlesboro, KY, Harrogate, TN and Pineville, KY, immediately spun off WFXY and WANO and changed the call letters to WMYL branded the station as Merle FM and moved it to Knoxville, TN licensed to Halls Cross Roads.