No. 18 Tennessee will open its 2026 football season Saturday against Furman (1-0). Kickoff is slated for 3:30 p.m. EDT at Neyland Stadium. The contest can be watched on SEC Network+.
Located in Greenville, South Carolina, Furman is the winningest program in Southern Conference history.
Furman's school nickname, Paladins, is knight on a horse.
"Furman University’s official athletic mascot is a knight on a horse and the school’s intercollegiate athletic teams are nicknamed Paladins," Furman mentioned of its mascot. "Prior to 1961 the baseball team was known as the Hornets, the football team Hurricane, and the basketball team Paladins. First used by a Greenville sportswriter in the 1930s to describe Furman’s basketball team, Paladins became the official nickname of all the school’s intercollegiate athletic teams following
a vote of the student body on Sept. 15, 1961.
"A “Paladin is defined by the American Heritage College Dictionary as a “paragon of chivalry; a heroic champion; a strong supporter or defender of a cause; and any of the 12 peers of French emporer Charlemagne’s court.” While the same dictionary does not specifically describe a knight as a Paladin or vice-versa, the knight’s definition — “a defender, champion, or zealous upholder of a cause or principle” — closely resembles that of Paladin. While history reveals that knights and Paladins were not always mounted men-at-arms, the modern image of a knight has no doubt played a role in the development of Furman’s mascot as knight on a horse."
Furman first fielded a football team in 1889. The Paladins won a FCS national championship in 1988 under head coach Jimmy Satterfield.
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This article originally appeared on Vols Wire: Furman football: What is a Paladin?
