Knoxville - UT, Women's BBall Hall of Fame and an old World's Fair site

I spent a rainy afternoon in an empty Knoxville movie theater watching “Man of Steel.”  It seemed prudent since I had no rain gear and there were very few people out and about on the slick narrow downtown streets that are lined with coffee shops, restaurants, throwback general stores and an occasional professional office.

Fortunately, by the time Superman prevailed the weather cleared enough for me to resume a driving tour of the interesting city that hosted a World’s Fair, Peyton Manning’s upward football trajectory and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

For the most part, Knoxville has a low profile skyline with a great many Victorian era buildings, old warehouses and a vibrant downtown pedestrian only market square.  It was refreshing to be in a franchise-free zone.  I didn’t see a McDonalds, TGI Fridays or other generic brand establishment during my entire visit downtown.

Knoxville is, of course, a college town.  The University of Tennessee covered about half of the territory I covered during my drive-through.  The campus is perched on a range of hillsides with narrow road accesses to its buildings that curved and weaved through massive groves of tall old shady trees.  A four-lane congestion-free highway, Neyland Drive, boarders the University along the Tennessee River side and provided a formal brick main entrance to the campus.

Like other campuses I visited this summer – Ohio State and Virginia Tech – the University of Tennessee is under constant construction with closed access roads, heavy equipment and scaffolding in ample evidence. Unlike Ohio State, the campus is architecturally consistent featuring matching red brick exteriors at home with the Victorian nature of the rest of the city I saw.

I hoped to get a good look at the 102,000 seat Tennessee Volunteers’ NeylandStadium where Peyton Manning worked his collegiate magic, but my limited knowledge of the terrain, the construction, narrow roads and geography conspired to offer only a view of the beige colored lower rear exterior. The stadium site reminded me of old Mountaineer Field at West Virginia University – wedged between hills and not many parking options. Perhaps I missed the parking lots with my haphazard self-guided exploration. Pictures of the main exterior and interior make the facility look spectacular.

Heading north of the campus, I stumbled upon the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in an empty appearing segment of the downtown.  I didn’t investigate but I did see the world’s largest basketball lodged in what must logically be the world’s largest basketball rim and net outside the building.

I backed into a very interesting site known as the Worlds’ Fair Park – site of the 1982 World’s Fair that drew 11 million visitors in its day for an exposition officially known as Knoxville International Energy Exposition featuring the theme, “Energy Turns the World.”  The park is located in a kind of valley between downtown Knoxville and the hillsides occupied by the University of Tennessee.

The most obvious remaining facility from the event is Sunsphere that once featured a full service restaurant and an observation deck.  After the fair, the Sunsphere fell into disrepair but has been brought back to its former glory. After being opened and closed numerous times over the past 30 years, the observation deck is now reopened and offices now occupy some of the other levels. One level again houses a restaurant and a bar called the Icon Ultra Lounge. Another level is available to rent for special events.

The Sunsphere has become an iconic symbol of Knoxville and it appears as the background photo for local television newscasts and other venues.

The rest of the remaining World Fair Park is in kind of a state of flux.  All the other original buildings are gone. Some green space remains along with some fountains. A convention center that appeared empty sits on one side of the green space. City planners are embarking on plans for redevelopment of the park as outlined in this newspaper article that appeared the day I visited in the Knoxville News.

There are classy museums around Knoxville like the American Museum of Science and Energy, the Mabry-Hazen House, the Museum of Appalachia and others.

And, let’s not forget the famous folks Knoxville gave us like: Alex Haley,

James Agee, Chet Atkins, Polly Bergen, Kid Curry (of Butch Cassidy Wild Bunch fame), the Everly Brothers, Patricia Neal and a host of NFL/UT football players.

Knoxville doesn’t have a lot of stuff to keep kids engaged but it is worth a stop for adults.