Why South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium is a house of horrors for Rick Russo

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Oct. 27, 2018 is one of the many defining dates of Rick Russo’s career covering Tennessee athletics, but not from a Vol victory.

Tennessee didn’t win that night in Columbia, and that’s not why Williams-Brice Stadium is a house of horrors for the Knoxville Sports Hall of Famer.

“I was crushed by one of our players, one of Tennessee’s players,” Russo recalled.

Less than a minute remained in a game Tennessee was trailing, 27-24. Russo didn’t need to be filming, but he was.

“Over the years, doing this kind of thing, you learn to get out of the way. You got to have your head on a swivel when you’re down there on the field,” Russo said. “Apparently, I wasn’t swiveling enough.”

As Russo avoided the first two players, South Carolina’s Rico Dowdle and Tennessee’s Darrin Kirkland Jr., a third player, Nigel Warrior, took out Russo’s legs while attempting to make a tackle.

“I ended up breaking my ankle, and it was fractured,” Russo said. “And to this day, I have a plate and seven screws in that right ankle.”

A fracture was bad enough. Making it worse, Russo was over 200 miles from home.

“I was in the back with my leg propped up,” Russo said. “That was quite the ride home.”

One year later, Russo was back covering the Volunteers and got to ask Warrior about the play that changed his career forever.

“We said, ‘Do you remember me and what happened in South Carolina?’ And it started to come back to him,” Russo said. “But he didn’t realize it at first. And at that point, he did apologize.”

A 27-24 loss that most Tennessee fans have very little memory of is one of the most memorable nights in the career of Rick Russo.

“I’ve had so many really crazy experiences over the years covering sports, but that’s right at the top of the list,” he said.

For the latest coverage as the Vols prep to take the Gamecocks, click here.