Vols, never change Neyland Stadium name, says Pilot founder Jim Haslam | Toppmeyer

Jim Haslam recites Gen. Robert Neyland’s maxims accurate to the word, as if he’s envisioning the legendary Tennessee football coach writing them on a blackboard in front of him.

Haslam’s favorite of Neyland’s seven maxims applied to more than football. He believes it spoke to his business career.

“Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way — SCORE,” Haslam told me this week, while reciting Neyland’s second maxim as his favorite.

Neyland wrote his maxims in chalk on a blackboard for his players before games. Vols fans revere those maxims. Haslam, 93, lived them.

Haslam started on the offensive line for Neyland’s 1951 national championship team. He became a team captain his senior season in 1952, Neyland’s final year as coach.

Haslam has a maxim of his own: Never take Neyland’s name off Tennessee’s football stadium. Protect it always.

Tennessee announced last week a 20-year revenue-generating branding deal with Pilot Company that will keep Neyland Stadium’s name unchanged while bringing Pilot’s branding inside the stadium, including the Pilot name on the 25-yard lines and additional signage throughout the iconic venue.

Haslam provides unique perspective as Pilot’s founder and one of the last living Vols who played for Neyland.

He says he's “very humbled” to see Pilot’s name alongside that of his coach, Neyland. He’s also very pleased this deal will not alter the Neyland Stadium name.

“I’d be 100% opposed to ever taking Gen. Neyland’s name off the stadium,” Haslam told me.

Jim Haslam: ‘You’ve got to keep Neyland on the stadium.’

Haslam did not engineer this branding deal. In January, the Haslam family sold their remaining stake in Pilot , the Knoxville-headquartered fuel supplier, to Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s company .

The NCAA didn’t allow field branding deals like this until this year. Used to be, if a company wanted its name on a team’s field, it had to buy stadium naming rights. Think Kentucky’s Kroger Field.

The NCAA eased its rules this summer, allowing schools to strike deals to put a company’s name on the field without selling off the stadium name.

Of course, Tennessee athletics director Danny White acted swiftly. Money moves are White’s specialty.

This stadium branding deal is the work of White and Pilot CEO Adam Wright .

Still, Haslam had a voice.

White and Wright, in separate conversations, ran the idea by Haslam, the Pilot founder told me.

“When this all came up, Danny talked to me about it. Adam talked to me. And I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to keep Neyland on the stadium,’” Haslam said. “The way they’re doing it will preserve Neyland Stadium as it is and also benefit the athletic department by (generating revenue).”

How much revenue?

UT and Pilot won’t disclose the financials, but let’s see if we can do a little math.

Tennessee previously reached a 10-year, $20 million deal with Food City to add Food City Center to the Thompson-Boling name.

The total sum of the Neyland Stadium branding deal should be worth at least double that of the basketball arena, and then double it again, because the Pilot deal is for twice the length of the Food City deal. Throw in a little extra to sweeten the pot, and I think you get a ballpark estimate, give or take.

TOPPMEYER: How former Tennessee Vols lineman Jim Haslam came to play football for Al Davis on a military base

PILOT DEAL: Changing name of Vols' Neyland Stadium 'a non-starter' for Pilot, CEO SAYS

ADAMS: Neyland Stadium forever, but there are other stadium deals to be made at Tennessee

The deal is a win-win for Tennessee. Importantly, the Vols didn’t sell Neyland’s name down the river. And the revenue will help fund ongoing stadium renovations. College athletics is at a pivot point. Every dollar counts, considering expenses are about to increase, with revenue-sharing with athletes around the corner.

Actually, call this a win-win-win, because the deal earned approval from Haslam, an influential alumnus and philanthropist and a staunch protector of Neyland’s legacy.

Jim Haslam remembers Gen. Robert Neyland as ‘strategic’ and ‘tactical’

Like Neyland, Haslam served in the Army. Haslam joined the advanced Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at UT, which allowed him to be commissioned as an officer. He entered the Army as a second lieutenant.

Haslam later founded Pilot in 1958 as a gas station in Gate City, Virginia. The company peaked at No. 5 on Forbes’ list of largest U.S. private companies.

Neyland graduated from West Point. He served in both World Wars. His World War II service interrupted his Vols coaching tenure.

Neyland remembers his coach, the general, being “strategic” and “tactical.”

“He had football figured out,” Haslam said.

Haslam finds wisdom in Neyland's maxims, like his favorite about taking advantage of the breaks.

“That’s what life is all about,” Haslam said. “You’ll get certain breaks in life. Take advantage of them.”

And never sell off your good name.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer .

Subscribe to read all of his columns. Also, check out his podcast, SEC Football Unfiltered , and newsletter, SEC Unfiltered .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vols, never change Neyland Stadium name, says Pilot founder Jim Haslam | Toppmeyer