A Look At Fulmer's Career

Sept. 1, 1950 — Fulmer is born in Winchester, Tenn.
Fulmer the player
1964-1968 —Fulmer stars at Franklin County High School, earning a chance to play at the University of Tennessee for coach Doug Dickey.
1968-1972 — Fulmer plays for coaches Dickey and Bill Battle during his time at UT. In his three seasons on the varsity team (freshmen were ineligible at the time) the Vols finished 9-2, 11-1, and 10-2. The 10-win season during his senior campaign would be UT’s last until 1987.
Fulmer the coach
1972-73 — Fulmer, known as an offensive-minded coach, began his career on the sidelines as the linebackers coach and defensive coordinator for the Tennessee freshman team.
1974-78 — Fulmer moved on to Wichita State, where he split his time there as the offensive line coach and as the linebackers coach in 1975-76.
1979 — Fulmer returned to his home state as an offensive line coach for Vanderbilt.
Fulmer back on “The Hill”
1980-88 — Fulmer returns to his alma mater as offensive line coach. His players’ toughness and ability gets him noticed and in line for bigger things.
1988- 1992 — Following a disastrous 0-6 start to the 1988 season coach Majors fired then-offensive coordinator Walt Harris. Fulmer took the reins of the UT offense, with the Vols winning 29 games in his first three full seasons as coordinator.
Fulmer in charge
1992 — Tennessee coach Johnny Majors suffered a heart ailment before the season, and Fulmer was named Assistant Head Coach, filling in for Majors in the interim. The Vols upset highly-ranked Georgia and Florida under his watch before Majors returned ahead of the Cincinnati game. The Vols dropped three-in-a-row, including heartbreakers to Arkansas, which had lost to The Citadel to start the season, and to South Carolina when a two-point attempt at the win fell short, as well as to eventual national champion Alabama— the Vols’ eighth loss in a row to the Crimson Tide, and 12th loss in 16 meetings under Majors. Majors announced that effective after the Vanderbilt game he would step down as UT coach.
1993-1998 — Tennessee football entered a period of success not seen since the 1930s, as the Vols racked up 63 wins in six seasons, culminating with Tennessee’s first consensus national championship since 1951 following a 13-0 campaign in 1998. The Vols joined the nation’s elite during this time frame, with an unprecedented national buzz during the Peyton Manning era and subsequent title season.
1999-2004 — The success of the Manning and national championship era continued, but with a series of noticible dips. The Vols missed the 10-win-mark in back-to-back seasons for the first time in a decade following the 2000-01 season. Even so, UT ended a drought at Florida and the Vols were prevented from playing for a second BCS Championship in four seasons by a late LSU rally in the SEC Championship Game. The Vols closed out the 2004-05 season with a 38-7 win over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, and were an early title contender in 2005.
2005 — The season wound up sticking out in the minds of Vols fans, but for all the wrong reasons. What was supposed to be a national championship-calibre team instead saw its offensive coordinator resign, lost to Vanderbilt for the first time since 1982, and finished 5-6 to miss playing in a bowl game for the first time since 1988.
2006-2008 — The return of former offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe (who had left that post to take the head job at Ole Miss before UT’s 1998 BCS Championship Game appearance in the Fiesta Bowl) sparked renewed hope in the Vols, as did an early win over highly-touted Cal. The Vols found their backs against the wall again in 2007, however, but managed to rally together against increasingly sharp criticism and an equally increasingly divided fan base to win the SEC East and an impressive Outback Bowl showing against Wisconsin. Cutcliffe departed for Duke following the season, giving rise to the hope that Tennessee would install a new offense. The luster and promise disappeared immediately, though, as a 27-24 overtime loss to UCLA, which lost its next game 59-0, and the Vols’ first 0-2 start in SEC play since 1988 sealed Fulmer’s fate as discontent turned to anger. Fulmer leaves the Vols as Tennessee’s second all-time-winningest coach, his 150-51 record a mere 23 wins behind Gen.Robert Neyland.
Fulmer by the numbers
Overall record: 150-51
Bowl record: 8-7
National championships: 1998
SEC championships: 1997, 1998
SEC East titles: 1997, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007
1st win as interim coach: Sept. 5, 1992, UT 38, S.W. Louisiana 3
1st win as head coach: Jan. 1, 1993; UT 38, Boston College 23
1st loss: Sept. 18, 1993; Florida 41, UT 34
50th win: Nov. 8, 1997; UT 44, Southern Miss 20
100th win: Nov. 2, 2002: UT 18, South Carolina 10
150th win: Oct. 18, 2008: UT 34, Mississippi State 3

Source: Tennessee Media Guide