Ad Disclosure
Zora G. Clevenger
By Ethan Levine
Last Updated:
Zora G. Clevenger served as the head football, basketball and baseball coach at the University of Tennessee from 1911-1916, leading the Volunteers’ football team to a Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship in 1914. Clevenger posted just two winning seasons in five years as the football coach from 1911-1915, but his 1914 title team finished a perfect 9-0 and 7-0 against SIAA competition. His other winning season came the year before in 1913, when he led Tennessee to a 6-3 record. Clevenger stepped away from the football team in 1915 and left Tennessee in 1916. His final record as the Vols’ football coach was 26-15-2, and he retired from coaching for good in 1921 with 47 career victories. Clevenger was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1968. He passed away in 1970 at the age of 88.
A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.