| Wins against Kentucky - 3 | Losses against Kentucky - 15 |
Alma Mater: Army
Date Born: June 4, 1892
Date Died: November 29, 1982
Overall Record: 80-73 [9 Seasons]

Obituary - Knoxville News-Sentinel (November 30, 1982)

Bill Britton, Athlete, Neyland Aide, Dies

Col. William H. (Bill) Britton, outstanding athlete at West Point and a major figure in the Neyland football era at UT, died last night in Thomasville, Ga. He was 90.

Briton had been in failing health the past two years.

Graveside services will be held tomorrow afternoon at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Thomasville.

Britton, was one of UT's Three Musketeers - along with the late Gen. Neyland and the late Paul Parker - who turned the Volunteers from doormats into champions.

Under this trio, the Vols lost only one of 62 games between 1927 and 1932. Britton also served as head coach in 1939 when Neyland was on active duty in Panama. The team was 4-5-0. Britton became an assistant again in 1936 when Neyland retired from military service and came back to lead the football program again.

In addition to his coaching under Neyland, Britton also was head basketball and track coach, handled alumni money raised by football players, scouted many opponents and helped with recruiting.

Briton was easy going, a favorite with the players, a man of great imagination who fed many ideas to Neyland, who accepted some and rejected many. Britton was an expert bridge player, enjoyed a competitive round of golf and loved to play the piano.

Britton had retired from the military and was in the real estate business in Florida, as was Parker, when Neyland took the head coaching job at Tennessee in 1926. Neyland invited both of them to come to Tennessee and help build a winner.

They accepted. Success was instant. The 1927 team was undefeated, and so were the 1928 and 1929 teams. The 1930 gang lost only one game, and that was to an Alabama team headed for the Rose Bowl. The Vols were also undefeated in 1931 and 1932. No other school ever had such a winning streak over a six-year period.

Britton was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana, where he excelled in basketball, baseball and track. He passed up football in high school because of family objections.

A plebe at West Point in 1912, Britton finally took a shot at football under the late great Charlie Daly. He saw no action at all, but he persisted as a scrub in 1913.

"The first football game I ever played in was the famous game with Notre Dame when Gus Dorais threw all those passes to Knute Rockne." Britton once recalled "I think they knew I was a greenhorn. They ran three plays right at me. Coach Dal left me in there about 15 minutes." Army lost, 32-13.

Britton emerged as a solid performer in baseball, track and basketball. He developed into a first-string end. He set the broad jump record at West Point, starred in the same outfield with the late Omar Bradley and was center on the basketball team. he received the Saber in the spring of 1916, a cherished trophy that goes to the best athlete. That year Neyland also got one, because the brass couldn't decide which cadet was more worthy.

His 20 years at UT were interrupted by World War II service, mainly in the Air Force.

Britton returned to UT for a year, then quit to work a Oak Ridge recreation director for the Atomic Energy Commission. After 12 years, he joined Col. Tom Goodman of Knoxville in the Southeastern Civil Defense Headquarters in Thomasville, Ga.

Britton was married to Ellen McCondless, of Cedar Rapids. He also leaves a daughters, Joan Newton Cox, Dustin, Fla. Robin, another daughter, was born to the Brittons while they were in Knoxville, but she died of pneumonia in the mid-30's.

In 1965, the University of Tennessee had a "Bill Britton Day" which was tied into the game against Army in Neyland Stadium. When the sponsors were fishing around for a gif, someone contacted Bill's wife.

"I can't think of a thing. I really can't. But please don't give him a piano." Ellen said.

Bill never lost his abiding love of football. He watched the games on television and dispatched letters to coaches, giving his views. Every Vol head coach of the past 25 years got letters regularly from Bill offering his incisive views on the game that intrigued him from the day he first went out for the Army team in 1912.

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