The Big Orange Jacket

I am going to take this opportunity to use this part of my blog to talk about something very loosely related to college football.

My wife and I lost a friend this past weekend to cancer. I first met Steve Maness over 11 years ago when my wife and I were dating. He sang at our wedding. He also added to the comedic value of our wedding video when interviewed during the reception, when he said in his Tennessee drawl, "This food is butt-kickin' good!"

Steve was a passionate person, and fun for everyone to be around. He was a native of west Tennessee, and his love for the Vols never ended, even as he spent two decades in Texas. We would invite him to our place for watch parties, and he was in his finest form during the Miss America pageant and when the Tennessee Volunteers were playing. During the Vols’ heyday in the late 90’s, we would have parties with the express intent of watching Steve watch Tennessee. It would be hilarious to watch him yell at Peyton Manning, Tee Martin, Phil Fulmer, or whoever the Big Orange target would be at the time. As would be expected, he thought Steve Spurrier was the Antichrist. We hosted a watch party at our house for the 1999 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, in which the Vols defeated Florida State for their most recent national championship. Steve walked into our place with the most obnoxious looking deer hunter-orange jacket, with a Tennessee football helmet on the back. Those of us not from Tennessee could not help but laugh. After all, we weren’t there just for the Tostitos, the Vols, or the ‘Noles. We were there to watch Steve watch the game. He was in rare form that night, especially as the Big Orange won the crystal football.

Steve was about much more than the Big Orange, though. He was a well-rounded individual, and was first and foremost a committed follower of Jesus Christ. He was an accomplished musician and soloist. He was also a scholar, with a PhD in New Testament, and taught graduate classes in Greek. For his day job, he worked in the financial industry for a mortgage company in Dallas. With varying interests and talents such as those, I would call him a Renaissance man.

Steve fought cancer off and on for the past four years. After what was apparently a successful surgery last week, he was unexpectedly found dead of a heart attack last Saturday. He never married, but leaves behind his parents and a world of friends, on whom he had enormous impact.

Heaven is richer today. Steve is in a place where there is no death, no pain, no suffering, and no sin. His gain is our loss.

On a side note, I’m no fan of the Vols, but I want the jacket.