‘Give him six!’: ESPN’s Rece Davis explains his on-air tribute to John Ward during NC State game

Rece Davis didn’t go into the game planning to pay tribute to John Ward , the legendary former voice of Tennessee Football . Instead, it just kind of happened as the play unfolded in front of ESPN’s play-by-play broadcaster.

Davis was in the booth Saturday night alongside Kirk Herbstreit for Tennessee’s 51-10 win over North Carolina State in the Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. When the game changed in the second quarter on the interception returned 85 yards by Tennessee safety Will Brooks , Davis didn’t miss his chance to honor the Voice of the Vols.

“The walk-on is running it in!” Davis shouted as Brooks got closer to the end zone. “Five, four, three, two, one … give him six!”

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Davis looked back on the call on ESPN’s College GameDay podcast this week, alongside ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Ryan McGee .

“(Tennessee fans) seem to have enjoyed that,” Davis said. “Got a lot of positive feedback, which is not typical for the feedback that anyone in the media gets from Tennessee fans, typically. So I was grateful for that.”

Davis also explained why he wanted to make the call and how it came to be in the moment.

“The great John Ward, legendary voice of the Vols, would start the broadcast … (with) one of the great opening calls, ‘It’s Football time in Tennessee!’” Davis said. “But he would often call touchdowns as they were going in. His touchdown call was ‘Give him six!’ And sometimes he would call it ‘five, four, three, two, one … give him six!’ And it’s a great call.

“So it was in the memory bank. I didn’t say I’m going to do it, but it was a big pivotal play. NC State was scrapping around trying to stay in the game. And then (Grayson) McCall floats (the pass). It looks like they might even tie the thing, McCall floats his pass.”

NC State had driven to the Tennessee 16-yard line late in the second quarter, looking to tie the game at 10-10, when Brooks picked off the errant pass.

The Vols added a field goal to close the first half and outscored the Wolfpack 31-7 in the second half, an onslaught sparked by the Pick 6 that ended with  Davis shouting “Give him six!”

“(The play is) going the other way,” Davis said, “and it just popped out.”

‘I like to shout out to people who love it the way we do. And John Ward loved it the way we do.’

Ward, a Knoxville native who graduated from the University of Tennessee, called his first Tennessee game, a men’s basketball game, in 1958.

He started hosting Tennessee coaches’ shows in 1964, after returning from a stint in the army. He started calling Tennessee basketball games in 1965 and added football duties in 1968.

Ward retired alongside longtime play-by-play man Bill Anderson after Tennessee’s 1998 national championship season. He passed away in June 2018 at the age of 88.

“I’m glad people enjoyed it,” Davis said, “because … I like to shout out to people who love it the way we do. And John Ward loved it the way we do. And it’s cool.

“I loved (Ward), I loved Larry Munson at Georgia, John Ferguson at LSU, way back in the day when I was a little, little kid, you know? So you get a chance to shout those guys out a little bit, it’s kind of fun.”

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