Pioneers

Carson-Newman has stood across the field from Tusculum for as long as the Pioneers have played football.

None of that was guaranteed. Tusculum fielded a team from 1901, dropped the program entirely in 1950, and did not put players back on the field until 1991, first in the NAIA before the climb into NCAA Division II and, in 1998, into the SAC itself.

Two names carried the orange and black into professional football. Ricardo Colclough went on to win Super Bowl XL with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Dee Alford played in the NFL for the Atlanta Falcons and Buffalo Bills before winning a Grey Cup in the CFL.