Overview
- Tennessee wore a butterfly helmet decal honoring Dolly Parton during its season opener, and team leaders said the sticker will remain on helmets for the entire season.
- During the Sept. 5 season opener at Neyland Stadium, more than 100,000 fans joined a mass singalong of “I Will Always Love You,” creating a large, public moment of mourning.
- Athletics director Danny White signaled the change on social media and Tennessee played Parton’s “My Tennessee Mountain Home” as the fourth-quarter song on Sept. 5, though the school has not confirmed whether that will be permanent.
- The Pride of the Southland Band and stadium production ran multiple Parton songs, used a ‘Dolly karaoke cam,’ and staged spirit-squad performances to integrate her music into gameday traditions.
- Other Tennessee institutions joined the tributes: Middle Tennessee State added a commemorative patch and QR codes to solicit donations and the governor proposed renaming Nashville International Airport for Parton, while colleges are directing fans to her Imagination Library, which has delivered hundreds of millions of books.