College Football

Tennessee Volunteers football team tours combat ships at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville

By Ryan Nelson, Action News Jax
By Ryan Nelson, Action News Jax

MAYPORT, Fla. — The Tennessee Volunteers football team is in Jacksonville for the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, where they’ll take on the Indiana Hoosiers on Thursday.

On Monday afternoon, the team toured two littoral combat ships at Naval Station Mayport.

Players arrived by the busload before making their way to a base dining hall for a barbecue lunch. After lunch, they made their way back to the buses to tour the USS Billings and the USS Indianapolis.

“I just want to learn from the people who really do it for a living, the professionals,” said Tennessee long snapper Riley Lovingood.

Lovingood tells us this is the first time he’s visited a naval base, and it’s a day he’s been waiting for.

“I know my grandfather, he was on a destroyer for World War II. And so that ship has always been in my bedroom,” Lovingood said.

When he was young, he tells us his grandmother gave him a picture of the destroyer his grandfather was on during World War II.

Action News Jax was there as Lovingood and dozens of Tennessee football players made their way onto the USS Indianapolis for an inside look.

“I look forward a lot to meeting soldiers, naval men, naval women, getting to say thank you. That’s something that’s huge for me. Also, getting to see the inner workings of the ship,” Lovingood said.

Tomorrow, the Indiana Hoosiers football team will get the Mayport ship tour experience.

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