KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A chance to do what no other Tennessee team has done, bring home a College World Series win. Tennessee made it to the finals in 1951 but lost a close one to Oklahoma 3-2.
The 1951 Vol Baseball team roster included people like Harold "Herky" Payne, Sidney "Sid" Hatfield and Ace Adams. Ace Adams was a sophomore and outfielder when he played for the team.
"As far playing in that particular game against Oklahoma where they almost won, they lost 3 to 2," Buck Adams, the son of Ace, said. "He actually scored the second run. But I don't know the particulars about the game."
Buck recently sold a baseball from the 1951 College World Series signed by players on the team.
Before he played baseball for the Vols, Buck said his dad had a football scholarship at UGA, played football at Tennessee Wesleyan University and even served in World War II. He said his dad got his nickname for being very athletic.
"Nobody knew my dad as James or Buchanan," Buck said. "They called him JB sometimes, but he was known as Ace since he was a young person kid because he was the best at every sport he played in. So the name Ace stuck with him."
Buck said this year's team is different than the team the Vols had in 2022, which has come to be known as one of the best in college baseball that year. He said Tony Vitello is a great leader.
"He's obviously a great coach," he said. "I know nothing about him at all. But you know, you don't have to just see his record and see what he's done. And this year's team, to me, is so much different than that team two years ago or even last year's team. They don't act up, they do show emotion and everything, but they're not as jacked up as that team from two years ago. And I think that quiet confidence they carry will hopefully put them over the hump and to win this thing."
He said his dad would have loved seeing this year's team at the College World Series Finals.
"He would love to," Buck said. "He'd be out there watching them. He would love it. He would absolutely love it."
Sadly, there are no more living members of that 1951 baseball team. Buck said his father passed away in 2002.
He said his dad wasn't the only family member who played for the Vols. His niece Jody Adams was a point guard on the 1991 Lady Vols basketball championship team. His father's teammate, Sid Hatfield coached at Tennessee Tech University and recruited his brother, Joe Adams, on a baseball scholarship.
"He went there and played baseball," he said. "Sid left before my brother's senior year and went back to Tennessee and was the golf coach for something like 28 years or 30 years. But he gave my brother a chance to keep going, and my brother overcame a lot. He had polio when he was a child. They didn't expect him to walk, and so his story parallels my dad's in some way. He wasn't brought up dirt poorly my dad, but he overcame so much."
Buck said he got his master's degree from UT so he's also a VFL, like his father and niece.
Tennessee baseball takes on Texas A&M on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.