LAFAYETTE – A Macon County couple and lifetime Vols fans decided to participate in the University of Tennessee System’s “Everywhere You Look, UT” mural campaign as a way of recognizing a friend.
Polly and Glen Donoho wanted to have a UT mural painted on their pole barn to celebrate the achievements of Jimmy Glover (Knoxville ’67), a former UT Knoxville football player and long-serving Macon County pharmacist.
The Donohos, lifelong Volunteer fans, nominated their 60-foot-wide pole barn as the canvas for the latest “Everywhere You Look, UT” mural, which they see as a homage to Glover. More than 2,400 drivers pass by the barn on Sneed Road daily. Glover received a scholarship to UTK and played football for the University in the 1960s before attending the UT Health Science Center College of Pharmacy (Memphis ‘71), and returning to Macon County, where he became a respected pharmacist until his retirement in 2020.
“He’s always been a good friend of ours, and we felt like it would be an honor to him,” she said.
Polly said Glover’s story is a testament to what someone from a small town can achieve with a UT education.
For Polly and Glen, who have been married 60 years, the mural holds special significance. “All my family are big UT fans and have been since the get-go,” Polly said.
The mural honors not just Glover, but also Polly’s late brother Joe F. Cothron (Knoxville ‘64), who earned an electrical engineering degree from UTK. Cothron worked for the Department of Defense on the F-15 fighter jet program for many years.
“My brother’s love for his alma mater never faded,” Polly said. “He was an avid UTK fan until his passing in 2021, wearing orange everywhere he went.”
“Everywhere You Look, UT” murals run in the family. The Donohos first heard about the mural campaign from Tim Gregory, Polly’s first cousin, who has a UT mural on his barn off Highway 25 in Trousdale County.
As a family of generational UT fans, Polly hopes the new mural will be a point of pride and reflect the University’s enduring impact on her community.
“UT has a lot of following here,” she said.
The newest mural in Macon County, Tennessee, painted by muralist Michael Cooper, marks county number 54 of the “Everywhere You Look, UT” campaign. This campaign aims to paint a mural in each of Tennessee’s 95 counties by 2030. Since its launch in 2018, the campaign has created 58 total murals across the state. The University covers the cost of the first mural in each county.
To learn more about the “Everywhere You Look, UT” mural in Macon County or to submit a location for consideration, visit the campaign website.
About the University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a statewide system of higher education with campuses in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Pulaski, Martin and Memphis; the UT Institute of Agriculture with a presence in every Tennessee county; and the statewide Institute for Public Service. The UT System manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory through its UT-Battelle partnership; enrolls about 58,000 students statewide; produces about 13,000 new graduates every year; and represents more than 445,000 alumni around the world.