KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Do you remember the last time the Vols were the No. 1 team in the country?
Times have a way of changing, and for Tennessee Football and Vols fans -- it changed with a turbulent couple of decades after the glory of the 1998 championship season. Tennessee hadn't been ranked No. 1 in any national poll or rankings since the Vols won the national title that season.
That was until Tuesday night.
As the incredible season continued, Vol fans were truly feeling the Spirit of '98 returning when the team was named No. 1 once again in the initial College Football Playoff rankings.
For some people, the 1998 season is a distant memory. For others -- including at least one of our producers -- it's not a memory at all because they weren't even born yet.
The last time the Tennessee Vols were No. 1...
►Head Coach Josh Heupel was wearing Oklahoma Crimson and Cream instead of Tennessee Orange and White.
►QB Hendon Hooker had only just entered the world in January 1998. He was literally born into a world of Tennessee Football greatness
►Blockbuster Video was still in business and renting out video tapes across the U.S., including the much-anticipated 1998 home rental release of James Cameron's megahit 'Titanic' once it finally left theaters. Be kind and rewind before you slide it in the drop box!
►Armageddon and Saving Private Ryan were doing numbers at the box office in 1998 -- but still not nearly enough to beat Titanic's record-shattering popularity. Few might also remember this the year of movies such as Patch Adams, Air Bud: Golden Receiver, and the U.S. release of Spice World.
► The WWF's Attitude Era was in full force at this point, and a certain Knox County mayor who was known by most as Kane at the time would also emerge a champion this year after taking down Stone Cold Steve Austin in the main event at King of the Ring. But don't let this distract you from the fact that in 1998, the Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell in a Cell, who plummeted 16 feet through an announcer's table.
► Steve Jobs and Apple had just released the iMac computer, which paved the way for iPods, iPhones, and other iDevices.
► People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" was Harrison Ford, beating the likes of Leonardo Dicaprio and Brad Pitt.
► Several of the most acclaimed video games of all time were released around the same time, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, and Half-Life. Pokémania also began this year in the U.S. with the North American release of Pokémon Red and Blue for the Gameboy.
►Google had only just been created before the year's end, and even then -- nobody knew about it yet. People were still dialing into AOL and typing in keywords to find stuff, and search engines like Yahoo!, AltaVista and Excite.
►The person writing this was a 13-year-old at the time obsessed with the Beastie Boys' summer album, 'Hello Nasty.' It made its way onto Billboard's No. 1 spot for a few weeks, but the best-performing album of the year by far was the Titanic soundtrack, which stayed at number one for 16 weeks before being dethroned by Dave Matthews Band's new album, 'Before These Crowded Streets.'
►'Seinfeld' finished out a legendary TV run this year after nine seasons. But seriously, what's the deal with lampshades?
►The massively-successful "Harry Potter" series finally came to the U.S. a year after J.K. Rowling wrote the first book.
►Did you think we would forget about Smokey? Smokey VIII reigned as UT's live mascot during this time, and he infamously helped lead the Vols to victory in the national championship despite having secretly eaten a hotel washcloth before the game. What a champ.
