Tennessee High alums show support

BY SPENCER CAMPBELL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

BRISTOL, Tenn. – For those visitors unfamiliar with the bordertown that is Bristol, there is a simple line of demarcation splitting the city between Tennessee and Virginia.

The appropriately named State Street cuts right through the middle of downtown Bristol, with the Commonwealth to the north and the Volunteer State to the south. Small plaques label each side of the street, should tourists confuse one side of the border for the other.

Not that the plaques are needed to tell the Tennessee side of the street – not this week anyway.

Tonight, Tennessee High will play Virginia High at the Stone Castle in the 90th edition of the V-T game. The Vikings haven’t lost a game in the rivalry since 1997 and own a 63-26 advantage in the series. As a result, much of Tennessee High’s pageantry – the parades, the bonfires – have evaporated.

But the Vikings’ supporters are still strong within the city and in a very logical place: the Tennessee side of State Street, where Viking alums have posted all manner of signage directly in the state of Virginia’s face.

“I guess it’s sort of a Bristol tradition,” Amy Booher, TH class of ’93 and co-owner of State Lane Bar & Grill. “It’s got to mean something to everyone who went to Tennessee High or Virginia High, because even now, when you meet someone new, you ask: ‘Where did you go to high school? Oh, Virginia High? We don’t like you,’ is the first thing out of your mouth.”

State Line’s two cardboard posters were the most taunting of all the State Street signage, declaring: “We own these streets,” and “We have the Bearcats eating from our hand,” but they were far from alone.

At Treasures in Time, an antiques store on the corner of State and 6th Streets, owners Michael Brown and Brian Pruitt agreed to let TH supporters cover their windows with crepe paper posters advertising both TH and the V-T rivalry game.

Although Brown is a graduate of TH, his commitment to the border war came from somewhere other than school spirit. 

“If we put it up in the window, it shows that we’re more than a store,” he said. “We’re here to support the Bristol area. I think that makes a big difference in how people see you.”

Further down State Street stands K.P. Duty, a restaurant owned by 1975 TH alumnae Lisa Martin. In her window a large white poster screamed: “VIKING PRIDE.”

Although reluctant to discuss how the rivalry had changed since she was in high school because, as she points out, she’s not in high school anymore, Martin still has her favorite aspects of the V-T game.

“It’s a tradition that Tennessee High wins,” Martin said.

And if the Vikings are victorious again tonight, are there any VH friends she’s ready to pounce on?

“I could probably find a few,” she said.

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