The Legends of Tennessee Football Camp is back for another year and this time, it’s going to be bigger than ever.

If you are unfamiliar with the event, it was originally started by former Tennessee coach and current school AD Phillip Fulmer. Once Fulmer landed the athletics director role in Knoxville, he could no longer run the summer football camp, which put its future in jeopardy. That’s when former Tennessee running back Jabari Davis stepped up and took over the camp.

Davis recently shared the story with SDS of why he felt the need to keep the summer tradition going with Fulmer no longer running the camp.

“I saw that it was a very unique and special thing bringing former Vols together and giving back to the community, working with kids, coaching kids, teaching life skills and teaching kids the history of Tennessee football,” Davis said. “So I just had to keep it going.”

Last year was Davis’ first running the camp, formerly known as the Phillip Fulmer Hall of Fame Football Camp, and following a successful turnout for what has become the Legends of Tennessee Football Camp, the camp has expanded from an East Tennessee event to a statewide event this summer.

“We want to do something bigger and better this year,” Davis explained. “We are going to Nashville this month, we will be in the Tri-Cities next month, we will be in Memphis and we will have our big three-day camp here in East Tennessee in Kodak area.”

The camp is set to host a one-day event in Nashville on April 27, another one-day event on May 11, a one-day event in Memphis on May 25 and a three-day event from June 20-22 in Kodak, Tenn.

In Davis’ mind, the camp also serves as an avenue to get former Tennessee greats together each summer and stay connected. This year, the camp is expecting over a dozen former Vols to be in attendance, including Tony Robinson, Eric Westmoreland, Fred White, Herman Lathers, Justin Harrell, AJ Johnson, Joey Kent, Jayson Swain, Gerald Riggs Jr, Cedric Houston, Albert Haynesworth and Aaron Hayden among others.

“I just really wanted to get the former Vols back together, the VFL thing is something unique and something that is very special to a lot of us,” Davis continued. “We need to do a better job of getting guys together because you never know what your brother or your teammate might be dealing with.”

In addition to teaching kids the fundamentals of football, the camp is also designed to teach life skills to those that need it most. For Davis, it’s all about giving back to the community.

“We want to also teach kids life skills they need off the field, too,” he added. “If you look at the news these days, so much tragic stuff going on with the youth — bullying and kids making fun of one another and kids just battling a lot of different issues, a lot of tragedy going on kids 14 and under. Let’s unite everyone together and raise them and coach them the right way.

“It’s a football camp but it’s really a life camp.”

Registration for the 2019 Legends of Tennessee Football Camp can be found here at the camp’s official site, UTLegendsCamp.com.