A hero was born after Tennessee football's goalposts fell vs Alabama — all because of a saw

Ned Vickers kneeled down on the grass on the banks of the Tennessee River.

A mob of college students pressed tightly around Vickers, a sea of checkerboard overalls engulfing him and chanting.

“Saw man! Saw man!” they cheered as Vickers took a coping saw to the end of one of the uprights that tumbled after Tennessee football beat Alabama on Oct. 15, 2022. He pressed his left hand against the post and sawed back and forth with little progress. A minute passed with the goal post mostly intact. Vickers used two hands to saw. The saw snapped and the cheers turned to boos.

“We didn’t get our piece,” Vickers said. "So we were like all is lost.”

Vickers and his family had their sights set on a small piece of history from Tennessee’s wild win against the Crimson Tide. They got more than they planned for, cobbling together a hodgepodge team, ducking detection and chasing saws to secure the second upright from the Neyland Stadium south end zone field-goal posts.

Why Ned Vickers knew to bring a saw to Tennessee-Alabama celebration

Vickers was a 12-year-old sitting with his father at Neyland Stadium in 1984 as the Vols overtook Alabama with a furious final five minutes. The young Vickers made a daring dash for the field, ditching his father in the dust.

“I took off before he realized what was happening,” said Vickers, the founder and owner of Sugarlands Distilling Co.

Vickers showed up hours later at his dad’s car with a piece of the field-goal post that came down in the aftermath of the 28-27 win. He had followed the goalpost and secured a chunk of it to split with five others, who sought a saw. They found one at an old service station below the train tracks crossing Cumberland Avenue, split their spoils and left.

Vickers, his wife, Jessica, and two of their sons — Zach, 18, and Ben, 15 — watched from their home west of Knoxville a year ago as Tennessee toppled Alabama and the posts fell again. Jessica, 45, sprung into action, saying the boys needed to head to the Strip to see the glorious occasion. Ned, 50, snagged a saw on the way out the door, remembering the experience 38 years prior. He shoved it in an orange Tennessee tote bag and the four headed out.

They parked at Tyson Park and walked to the Strip, where they quickly found the posts from the south end zone being carried down the road after being carted out the northeast gate at Neyland Stadium. He pitched putting it down to cut it up, dreaming of a section to match the plaque he has with his 1984 field-goal post section. The crowd wanted to take it to the Tennessee River. The family followed along as the posts were tossed into the waters across Neyland Drive from the sorority houses and watched as the crowd fished one of the posts out.

“I used my voice I use to yell at my three boys,” Jessica said. “I was like, ‘Boys, what do you want to do with this pole? Do you want to cut it up?’ ”

They did. She scrambled to find Ned — “the only middle-aged man there,” Jessica said.

Ned stepped in, took the saw out of the bag and became the most popular person in the crowd. Then the saw snapped and his hopes shattered. The field-goal post headed for the fraternity houses, where it would be sawed into pieces and dispersed as mementos from the 52-49 win after Chase McGrath's game-winning field goal ended a 15-game losing streak.

How the second field-goal post from Neyland Stadium was recovered

Family members stood on the banks of the Tennessee River with empty hands and with a broken saw, the opportunity gone and sadness setting in. No one remembers who said it, but one of the four suddenly realized there must be another upright in the river still. They spotted it, but they weren’t first to it.

Jake Amos, who was a senior at UT at the time, had been with the upright since Neyland Stadium.

“You are thinking in your mind, 'Man, it would be cool to get a piece of this,' ” said Amos, a Young Life leader at South-Doyle. "But you are also thinking 100,000 people want a piece of it. What are the odds I get anything? I wasn’t too worried about it. I just wanted to see where it ended up.”

Amos had called friends, but his calls went mostly unanswered. So he left his phone, keys and wallet on the shore and hopped in to push the post back toward the banks. He got help from a man everyone only knew as Nick. Then the Vickers' youngest sprung into action.

“Ben turns to me and says, ‘Can I go get it?’ ” Jessica said.

Ben shed his sweatshirt and shoes, hopping into the cold water in sweatpants and a tank. Ben and Amos hauled the water-logged goal post out of the river with Ned pulling on the shore. But they didn’t have a saw anymore and a 30-foot goal post with no way to get it out undetected.

Eli, the Vickers’ third son and Zach's twin brother, had gone to the game with a friend, John Thome. He followed in his dad's footsteps, rushing the field before going home with plans of watching "Lord of the Rings." Jessica called Eli earlier to let him the family was going goal post chasing. She called again, this time in need of a saw.

“It went from no goal post to then they were like, ‘Oh no, we found a whole one,’ ” Eli said.

Eli and Thome checked the garage for another saw, passing on a couple of options. A knock on a neighbor’s door went unanswered. Ace Hardware in Bearden was closed. Kroger didn’t sell saws.

Ned joined the pursuit. Nick, a South Knoxville resident and a boat repair man, went with him. Nick had joined the craziness on Cumberland, losing a shoe in the process. He stuck around and was on the hunt. Ned and Nick headed for the Vickers’ house to grab a hacksaw and a reciprocating saw.

Jessica, Ben, Zach and Amos hid the upright in the brush along the Tennessee River as boats drifted past with flashlights scanning the water. They kept watch, guarding their prized find. Eli and Thome parked across from the sorority houses as Ned and Nick came back with saws. They had to sneak down to the water without police noticing, carefully returning to the post.

The reciprocating saw gashed through the post, turning the upright into five six-foot sections — one for Nick, one for Jake, and three for the Vickers boys.

Where the pieces of the field-goal post are now

The Vickers’ Christmas card featured Ned, Jessica and their three sons with pieces of the goal post. It also featured Nick, the one-shoed man who was along for the night of a lifetime.

Everyone posed for pictures with their prizes by the Tennessee River that night, one of which became the Vickers’ 2022 Christmas mailer. Nick was picked up by a friend on Neyland Drive. The Vickers' returned to their cars, once again slipping away without being seen. Amos went with them as they loaded four pieces into a Toyota 4Runner.

They dropped Amos off at his apartment near Saloon 16 on the Strip. The bar was overflowing as pop-country star Morgan Wallen put on a surprise performance. Amos scampered past and off into the night.

“I didn’t want to walk with that thing,” Amos said. “I think people might have figured out what that thing was and try to take it from me. I got up to my room as quick as I could and put that thing under my bed.”

Amos, 22, cut his segment into small pieces the following day and shared them with friends. He still has two pieces. He plans to keep one, but has considered selling a footlong piece for the right price.

The family returned home with three pieces of the post. They cut off a piece for Thome and distributed more in the days after. They have a 6-foot piece still in their house, the keepsake remaining from the night.

“It is our good-luck charm,” said Ned, who graduated from UT both with his undergrad and law degree.

Zach recounted the tale over the summer while at summer school at Stanford. People could not believe the details, the twists and turns — or even the pandemonium that surrounded it all.

Ned went to work Monday morning and walked into a staff meeting in the middle of a conversation. One of the people in the meeting was telling the story of “Saw man,” an adult amid the mayhem at the river.

Ned told them it was him to their utter disbelief. He was the man who knew to bring a saw — and he’ll be ready if the posts ever come down again.

“We’re there,” Ned said.

Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee man brought a saw to 2022 game vs. Alabama — and became hero