Five Alumni Friends Meet Every Year for a Vols Game
By Vivian DiSalvo (Class of 2026)
On a crisp afternoon in South Bend, Indiana, the Tennessee Vols were playing in a heated football game against Notre Dame in 2005. Though he had just graduated from UT five years prior, Steven Edging (’00) and his four closest friends from his time at UT were reunited for a Vols game. Little did he know, nearly 20 years later, this would become an annual tradition for the group.
Edging and his four friends—Jonathan Boals (’00), Chip Hall (’02), Nathan Carter (’00), and David Kilday (’99)—reunite every year for a football game at Neyland Stadium. Edging was lifelong friends with Boals—they met in elementary school and roomed together their first year at UT. He met Hall through Cru, a campus ministry, and they met Carter when he roomed with them their junior year. Kilday joined the group later; he had gone to high school with Carter and was adopted into the group.
Each has a favorite game that they attended together. Hall’s came post-graduation when the Vols played Notre Dame, Edging’s favorite was witnessing the Vols beat Georgia in 2006: “The energy in Neyland Stadium was buzzing, and the joy from everyone was contagious.”
But the best part of each game together has been the bonds they built at UT, which they sustain through their love for the Big Orange and each other.
“Recently, it’s come to my attention how sweet a friendship we all have. Several of us have had major life transitions and pains,” says Edging. “This group has always been there for the others. This group has been a lighthouse in the storm.”
With over 15 trips dedicated to this group tradition, sometimes life has got in the way. There have been a couple instances in which someone could not make it, but the group has stayed strong through weddings, career changes, a global pandemic, and much more. Edging missed the tradition a couple times because of a missionary trip to Uganda.
But even then, his friends did not forget him! Even in 2020 the group attended a UT game at Missouri, and they made sure to include their missing friend.
“When I was in Uganda for four and half years, I ended up missing two trips. But they all called me both times!” Edging says. “Nathan also visited me when I was in Uganda, and I visited him when he was on a mission trip in China.”
Their Big Orange friendship runs deep, no matter how much time passes. Rocky Top brought them together in 1996, and it continues to bring them together in 2025.
“These guys have been brothers since college, through the thick and thin of life. So many times we have been there for each other,” says Hall. “It really is more about that than anything else. Focusing our opportunities to see each other and catch up on Tennessee football is an opportunity to take those times all the way back to the beginning and remember all that our friendships have endured.”
If you’re missing your Vol friends, plan your reunion at a game day event near you or home sweet home on Rocky Top.
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