He’s all fur, floppy ears, and infectious joy. And it’s impossible to not break into a smile when you see Smokey, the costumed mascot, dancing and getting into antics on the sidelines of a game.
For nearly 50 years the identities of the students who bring Smokey to life have been closely guarded campus secrets. But for the first time this spring, one of those students is taking off the mascot head and stepping into the Big Orange spotlight.
Connor Solsbee grew up just down the road in Etowah, Tennessee, and spent a lot of his childhood coming to campus for football and basketball games with his dad and his dad’s best friend.
“I grew up looking up to those guys and hearing them scream ‘Rocky Top’ with everything they’ve got,” Solsbee says. “So when the time came for me to apply to colleges, I applied to one school and one school only.”
Besides his love for all things Vol, Solsbee says he chose UT because of its affordability and top-ranked engineering programs—particularly biomedical engineering.
As a 16-year-old, Solsbee was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The rare but aggressive blood cancer affects B-lymphocytes, the immune cells responsible for fighting infections.
The time he spent being treated at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital sparked his interest in helping others like him through biomedical engineering and gave him a different perspective on life.
“That experience shaped me. It transformed me,” says Solsbee. “But with that I also kind of got a window into the medical field. And, you know, by the grace of God, I’m still here today, and I’m better than ever.”
And it lit a fire in him to help others.
“I know that hospital did not begin and end with me. There are plenty more patients, and there’s always going to be people in need.”
Becoming Smokey
Solsbee came to UT in fall 2021 ready to dig into his academic goals, but the idea of becoming Smokey kept coming up. He hadn’t performed as a mascot during his time at Walker Valley High School—though one of his teachers swore that he would be the perfect candidate to revive their dormant Mustang mascot.
Within the first few weeks of Solsbee’s first year, his new friends in the residence hall began joking about his outgoing, expressive nature and that they had never seen him and Smokey in the same room together, so he must be Smokey.
He tried to resist, but a few weeks later his roommate sent him an Instagram post advertising an interest clinic hosted by the Spirit Program.
“It had been chasing me for so long,” Solsbee says with a laugh. “So I sent an email to the coach that night, and the clinic was the next day. I’ve been there ever since.”
Solsbee has put a lot of time, effort, and sweat into the job of being Smokey.
In addition to performances at UT athletic events and appearances in the community, he attended three practices a week and three weekly workouts. He and other members of the Spirit Program also put a lot of work into Smokey’s props for games.
“Sometimes we say we’re a D1 arts and crafts team, too,” Solsbee jokes.
As an engineer, he helped come up with and build props, spending upward of 10 hours a week to make Smokey’s performance that much more exciting. One of his favorite props was a TNT box used in tandem with stadium fireworks. When the lever was pushed down, the walls would drop to reveal “BOOM!” written inside.
The Big and the Small
For Solsbee, being Smokey has been a labor of love—but it’s one that has given him a lot of memories and taught him important life lessons along the way.
He was on the field in 2022 when the Vol football team beat Alabama, and the stands emptied onto the field. In 2024, he was in Omaha, Nebraska, for Vol baseball’s first national championship and in Orlando, Florida, with the cheer team when they became national champions.
Outside of athletics, Solsbee has made appearances as Smokey in a commercial, at weddings, and in nursing homes—which he says are his favorite.
“The people in nursing homes light up when they see Smokey, and they’re like, ‘Do you remember when I saw you 40 years ago?’ And you just nod your head and light them up and let them know Smokey never forgot them.”
Photo courtesy of Connor Solsbee
It’s a good example of one of the biggest lessons Solsbee says he’s taken to heart—every interaction, whether big or small, matters. His coach, Rodney Arnold, tries to instill in the team that “it’s always someone’s first time seeing Smokey, and it’s always someone’s last time seeing Smokey,” so they should be intentional about every interaction.
Solsbee has tried to carry that lesson with him into his everyday life, too.
“I’ve been trying really hard to not be on my phone when I’m walking to classes,” he says. “I try to look around and smile and wave at people, and if I see someone I haven’t seen since freshman year, I’ll go out of my way to check in on them, because that kind of stuff matters.”
One powerful lesson that Solsbee says he has learned is how to be a better listener. Smokey communicates through action and body language and often lifts his floppy ear to listen to whoever is talking to him.
“I’m a bit of a chatterbox by nature, but as Smokey, Connor gets put on mute,” Solsbee says. “I’ve been blessed as Smokey to get a look into what people have going on that they might not want to confide in someone who can talk back.”
Solsbee recalls the profound moment at Lindsey Nelson Stadium during a baseball game when a woman approached him and said, “Smokey, I just wanted to let you know that I was diagnosed with cancer. And I just needed to know that someone would be praying for me.”
Photo by Steven Bridges
“I get a little emotional thinking about it, because she just needed to be heard. But that’s something we can do in our personal life,” he says. “I need to have self-awareness to put myself on mute and be that confidant for somebody.”
In true Volunteer fashion, Solsbee says the thing he will miss most about his time at UT is the feeling of purpose and the chance to serve others.
He feels that his experiences at UT have made him a better person and prepared him for his future.
“I feel like I’ve become a better man of God through this program, and that I’m able to use this really strange, unique, awesome opportunity to spread God’s love and be a light on this campus and in our community in a really cool way.”
Solsbee has already landed a job as a project manager with the medical software company Epic in Wisconsin, but in the future he hopes to work with adaptive medical equipment like prosthetics.
He recalls his time recovering from cancer and how isolating it felt not to be able to do things for himself—even having to breathe with the assistance of a tracheotomy.
But regaining the ability to breathe again on his own and to talk and walk was an empowering experience he hopes to help others discover.
“Being able to contribute to their path to growth and recovery, to allow them to do the things that they never thought they’d be able to do is really special.”
