University of Tennessee Athletics
Grainger's Greatest Tomato Fighter
December 31, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2010
Drew Rutherford
UTsports.com
Grainger County, Tenn., is famous for a few things. Some cite the area's rolling hills leading up to Clinch Mountain. Others notice the pristine lakes that border the county on either end. Tennessee basketball fans know of Grainger County because of former great A.W. Davis and current sophomore guard Skylar McBee. But nothing is arguably more of a trademark for Grainger County than its famous tomatoes.
Aside from similar origins, what could McBee and Grainger tomatoes have in common? More than initially expected.
Since 1992, Grainger County has celebrated the fruit of its vines with an annual Tomato Festival, highlighted by what locals know as the "Tomato Wars." Teams of individuals take bushels of the red fruits and hurl them at one another like a game of dodge ball, in what is essentially the biggest food fight in East Tennessee.
Enter Skylar McBee, a 10-time Tomato Wars champion.
"My team has won every time we've competed, except for one occasion that we don't talk about anymore," McBee said.
But the former high school quarterback doesn't take all the credit for this success. Much like head basketball coach Bruce Pearl preaches the importance of team, McBee attributes the Ws to the efforts of his tight-knit Tomato War squad.
"It's not about me, it's about my team," McBee said. "Two of the guys play college baseball and my brother-in-law is a college pitching coach. We are pretty much stacked."
Scenes closely reminiscent of the O.K. Corral paint the landscape of the Grainger County Tomato Wars each autumn. Much like Wyatt Earp and his band of outlaws, McBee and his team are usually the last ones standing while their opponents lay motionless, their clothes stained with deep red hues of fresh tomato juice.
"I hit an older man in the face once," McBee said, his voice cold and void of emotion. "He was running but I got him. It knocked his hat and glasses off. It was a good sized tomato. You can't worry about that during the game, though. You just have to throw."
The Rutledge, Tenn., native doesn't hide his strategy for winning Tomato Wars. In fact, he says it's rather simple.
"You can't stand too far back because you can't get enough velocity on the tomato--but you can't crowd the line either," McBee explains. "So stay in the middle. You have to be the aggressor. You want to throw more tomatoes than the other team and you have to throw them harder."
While McBee and his basketball teammates put in countless hours in the gym, no such preparation is necessary for throwing tomatoes.
"We don't practice," McBee said, his grin expressing the confidence of a seasoned Tomato Wars champion. "Tomato Wars is--you just have to be a gamer. We show up on game day and take care of business."
Last year, McBee won his 10th Tomato Wars. But the road to the top wasn't easy. The team faced adversity early on but managed to overcome it to claim the top prize yet again.
"My brother-in-law competed with us for the first time and was super pumped up," McBee said. "He may have been too pumped--jumpy even--because when they blew the whistle, he started backpedaling and ran over a whole bushel of tomatoes and knocked them all over the place. None of us could throw because it was so distracting. But we somehow recovered."
In one season on The Hill, McBee established his place in Tennessee basketball history when he hit that oh-so-famous off-balance 3-pointer to seal a win over No. 1 Kansas. However, the UT record books will never reveal that he may also be the greatest Tomato Fighter Grainger County has ever known.
