Kenny Chesney Premiered His Film, The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story Last Night In Knoxville

Documentary Will Air February 20th on ESPN

Knoxville, TN – February 17, 2011 — Last night, the City of Knoxville, Tennessee rolled out the orange carpet for the premiere of The Color Orange: The Condredge Holloway Story. Executive Producer Kenny Chesney narrates the film which documents the life and career of University of Tennessee's Condredge Holloway, the first starting African-American quarterback in the Southeastern Conference. As part of ESPN's Year of the Quarterback initiative, the film will debut Sunday February 20th on ESPN at 8:00pm Eastern time.

Hundreds of guests turned out for the private screening at the historic Tennessee Theatre including many famed athletes, coaches and sports personalities. Amongst the attending University of Tennessee guests were Condredge's Head Coach Bill Battle, National Championship Coach Phil Fulmer and current Head Coach Derek Dooley. Also in attendance were ESPN College Game Day announcer and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit, former Penn State quarterback and ESPN/ABC announcer Todd Blackledge, Monday Night Football commentator and Coach of the Super Bowl-winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jon Gruden, and ESPN/ABC announcer Brad Nessler, who moderated the Q&A panel immediately following the screening. Other celebrity guests included former UT player and current Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten, former UT and NFL quarterback Pat Ryan and former UT quarterbacks Randy Sanders and Sterling Henton, UT National Championship winning quarterback Tee Martin, former UT wide receiver great Larry Seivers, Super Bowl-winning Indianapolis Colts and former UT quarterback Peyton Manning and UT’s Lester McClain, who was the first African-American football player in the SEC.

"We have a lot of my heroes, that played with Condredge, a lot of my friends that came from all across the country, different parts of the world to be here tonight because they love football, and they love Condredge,” Chesney said to the audience during his introduction of the film.

“I think we all know by now how much Condredge is loved by the amount of people in this room, and who came to see the film tonight,” he continued. “We all know Condredge is a great athlete, and know all the statistics and everything he meant to Tennessee football, but I think the thing that all of us who made this film have realized is that we got to know how great the man is behind the Orange Number 7.”

Once the screening was over, ESPN/ABC commentator Brad Nessler led a Q&A panel discussion with Condredge, Chesney, Director Shaun Silva and ESPN Executive Producer John Dahl which included comments from Peyton Manning, Tee Martin, and Coach Fulmer. Condrege and Chesney celebrated at a reception afterwards with close family and friends.