Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt of FanHouse writer Clay Travis' "On Rocky Top," available today in bookstores and at Amazon.com. On the afternoon of Sunday, November 2, 2008 Mike Hamilton phones Volunteer Coach Phillip Fulmer on his cell. Hamilton asks Fulmer to meet him in his office at Stokely Athletic Center. The two never meet on Sundays. Fulmer arrives and they talk for an hour sitting across from one another at Hamilton's brown conference table. On the floor of the office sit pictures waiting to be hung commemorating great wins, including the 1998 national championship game, from Volunteer football seasons past. During their conversation, Hamilton lets Fulmer know that he's being fired.
Although, Fulmer is not surprised by Hamilton's decision, he does not take it sitting down. Later, Fulmer will describe how he argued to keep his job. "I said, 'Mike, this is when we hunker down and go to war and fight, you know, if you've lost ten percent of the people coming to the games, they'll come back if you win.' And I felt like I deserved, with the length of time I'd been there and all that I'd accomplished, that I needed a year to get it fixed and then make a decision if it didn't work."
On Rocky Chat Transcript: Clay Travis Talks Kiffin, Fulmer, SEC Football
Tampa Bay Lightning prospect 
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