KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A dedicated Vols fan traveled nearly 10,000 miles to join his family and watch the Vols play in Neyland Stadium, clinching the victory against Alabama.
Chad Chesney, from East Tennessee, was on a business trip in Taiwan and had 30 hours from the time his business dinner ended to kickoff time in Neyland Stadium.
“The flights were pretty tight," he said. "I had 30 hours to make 26 hours of travel. So if any one of those flights would have been late, and I would have missed a connection, I definitely wouldn’t have made it back in time.”
He made it back to Knoxville with just a few hours to spare. Chesney flew from Taipei, Taiwan, to San Francisco, then to Chicago and then to Knoxville.
He landed in Knoxville at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, put on some orange, and headed to the game
But making it back in time was all part of his well-thought-out plan.
“I had to book this flight for my business trip back in August," Chesney said. "So I looked at the schedule. I knew it was a flex game and it would either start at 3:30 p.m. or 7 p.m. So I pieced together the legs of the flights to get me back in time for either scenario.”
To Chesney, nothing is more important than spending time with family — especially at a Vols game.
“It was important for me to get back to the game because it was an opportunity for me to spend time with my parents," he said. “My dad graduated from the University of Tennessee, so I grew up on Tennessee Football, Tennessee Basketball."
There are several Vols on Chesney's family tree. His daughter, Ann Elise, is a sophomore nursing major at UT.
When she heard about her dad's lengthy travel plans, she asked him to record a series of videos so she could make him his own TikTok account and document the process.
“It’s really fun to see him put that much dedication into coming and it really fuels me to have that much dedication for my school," she said.
Her dad flying that far to watch the team play said something about Vol Nation, too, she said.
“I think it just shows how much we love football and how much we love Tennessee athletics — just the community and how willing we are to do whatever it takes to get there to support our team," she said.