Phillip Fulmer plays to a charity crowd, starting with a Kiffin joke

Phillip Fulmer has returned to coaching.

Only his role has been much smaller and the scrutiny just a bit less intense.

“I was the assistant to the assistant that is the assistant on a pee wee 6- and 7-year-old baseball team,” Fulmer said, referring to his grandson’s squad. “I loved it. It was great. I told my son-in-law Robert he was in charge. I did not want to talk to a parent, not make a lineup out. I’m just going to go out and have fun.”

Fulmer was the keynote speaker at the 32nd annual Catholic Charities Emerald O’ccasion fundraising dinner on Thursday night at the downtown Marriott.

For nearly 25 minutes, Fulmer regaled the crowd with stories from his career as the University of Tennessee football coach.

He received a standing ovation as he walked to the dais to begin speaking. Fulmer knew how to play to his target audience by opening with a joke about former UT coach Lane Kiffin.

“I miss coaching every day. I have done quite a few things. I did CBS for a couple of years and that was a lot of fun to get a chance to do that,” he said. “But it was real time-consuming. I really did it mostly to get me out of town while Kiffin was here (in 2009).”

Fulmer asked the crowd, which included his former players Richie Gandy, David Ligon and Tim Irwin, how many recalled seeing his two daughters on the field with him at games.

It turns out his wife, Vicky, wanted them to be ball girls on the sideline. If the boys could do it, the girls should be able to do it as well, she reasoned. Fulmer was initially worried.

“Those big boys. They can fly off the field sometimes. They could hurt my little girls,” Fulmer said. “And the whole time I am thinking in the back of my head, ‘Oh my gosh. I am scared to death what they might hear their daddy say.’”

By the end of his career, Fulmer was grateful his daughters were right by his side for some of the biggest moments.

“It turned out to be one of the absolute best things we did as a family because now they understood better why dad wasn’t home maybe as much as the other dads were,” said Fulmer, a former UT player who led the Vols to a national title and five SEC East titles during his tenure (1992-2008). “They understood and felt the love that was on our team and passion that was on our team and the excitement.”

Fulmer learned to deal with the criticism that came with being the UT head coach. After the Vols lost to Florida during the 1997 season, Fulmer visited his favorite store in Maryville to grab coffee, a newspaper and fill his car with gas.

An “elderly gentleman” Fulmer didn’t recognize came to pump his gas and noticed Fulmer’s ring.

“He says oh you follow the Vols? I said yes sir follow them pretty close matter of fact. He said what did you think of the game yesterday? I thought oh gosh I don’t want to get into this conversation with this guy,” Fulmer said “I said we didn’t tackle well, we didn’t carry the ball well, whatever else I said. He said well let me tell you what I think. OK I really want to hear this one. He said until they get rid of that Fulmer guy we aren’t going to win many football games. You know what? I just agreed with him and left.”

Fulmer told the story of the 1998 national championship team’s “synergy stick,” a hiking stick carved by a friend that become a symbol for UT’s success.

When Fulmer first showed his players the stick, they told him he looked like Moses. Irritated by the comparison, Fulmer soon realized it’s motivational value.

“Moses led people to the promised land,” he said. “There is a real opportunity here.”

Fulmer ended the night talking about a punter.

During training camp of punter Dustin Colquitt’s freshman year, Fulmer stood on the field “where the real players are” and saw Colquitt in the distance kicking “60 yards high and 60 yards long – one after another.”

Fulmer decided to bring Colquitt, who now plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, in front of the entire team to inspire confidence in a kicking game that had been shaky. But Colquitt’s kicks all went awry with dribblers and hooks befuddling Fulmer.

Fulmer pulled Colquitt aside and asked him what was wrong.

“He said coach, I get really nervous when you are watching me,” Fulmer said. “I said Dustin, I am going to be at all the games man. We got to figure this thing out. And we did and he had a great career.”

Jim Wogan, the communications director for the Diocese of Knoxville, informed the News Sentinel before Fulmer’s appearance that the former coach would not be speaking to the media.

The proceeds from the event enable Catholic Charities of East Tennessee to provide services to the region’s poor and vulnerable.