On March 29, 2017, after a week of fanfare and a televised visit from NBC’s “Today” show weatherman Al Roker, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville broke the Guinness World Record for largest human letter . A group of 4,223 students, faculty, staff and alumni formed a giant Power T in Neyland Stadium.
“Standing together in Neyland Stadium with 4,000 members of our Volunteer family will be a shared memory that will last a lifetime,” Beverly Davenport, former UT chancellor, said .
The memories might last a lifetime. The world record, like Davenport’s tenure , ended pretty quickly.
On Aug. 15, 2017, the University of California, Berkeley assembled 7,196 first-year and transfer students into a giant “C” in California Memorial Stadium, gleefully smashing the UT record like it was just another activity at freshman orientation.
UT’s triumphant world record had fizzled out after less than five months.
But what if there were a chance to set a new world record in 2024, and take one back from Berkeley in the process? What if this time, the record lasted a literal lifetime and didn’t require UT to spent $59,871 ?