Donors flood South Knox Elementary with Tennessee Vols football tickets

Donors were still delivering tickets to Saturday's University of Tennessee football game right up to the final bell Friday at South Knox Elementary School. 

On a whim, earlier this week, principal Tanna Nicely decided to invite ticket holders who don't plan to attend the game to donate their tickets to students at her school. She sent out a tweet on Halloween.

The response was overwhelming.

The school has collected more than 250 tickets. It has only 160 students.

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"It’s really taken on a mind of its own, and we've received such an outpouring of support and well wishes, and it’s really been such a wonderful week for our school and our city," Nicely said.

The plan came about after Nicely heard that fans were burning tickets and orchestrating an #EmptyNeyland campaign in a bid to oust coach Butch Jones after a disappointing season so far. The Vols are 3-5 after last weekend's down-to-the-wire loss at Kentucky.

The move worked. A local television station picked up the story and people began re-tweeting Nicely's request.

Tickets have arrived from nine different states, many of them in overnighted packages. Others have brought their tickets directly to the school. The majority of the seats are in the lower level Nicely said. 

When they arrive, she asks donors to leave their information so that students can write "Thank you" notes next week. She has organized the tickets in the office from section A to XX.

"It's a logistical nightmare," she joked.

As parents come into request tickets, she finds out how many they need and then searches for seats close to each other. Nicely and her husband donated four tickets of their own.

They've also handed out 30 parking passes. Additional tickets have arrived for the Vanderbilt game and the LSU game, she said.

After the last bell on Friday, the school plans to send any leftover tickets to nearby South-Doyle Middle School, where parents there can request seats when they pick up students.