Why is Knoxville called the 'Scruffy City'? From insult to fond nickname | Know Your Knox

Keenan Thomas, Knoxville News Sentinel
Updated ·2 min read

How did Knoxville get the nickname "Scruffy City?"

The first instance of the phrase was used to trivialize the town prior to the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville.

On Dec. 29, 1980, the front page of The Wall Street Journal featured an article written by Susan Harrigan headlined "What If You Gave A World's Fair And Nobody Came?"

The article questioned and criticized the decision to let Knoxville host the World's Fair. Harrigan wrote about Knoxville's image, the hesitancy of corporations and countries to attend and the event's organizers.

A few paragraphs in, the fateful words appeared.

"Nevertheless, with visions of international exotica dancing in their heads, leaders of this scruffy little city of 180,000 on the Tennessee River are churning out breathless press releases comparing Knoxville to such previous world's fair hosts as Paris or New York," Harrigan wrote.

Knoxville historian Jack Neely pointed out that the piece wasn't the only article criticizing Knoxville and the World's Fair. Publications that piled on included Time, Newsweek and even The Tennessean in Nashville.

But out of all the negative press, "scruffy little city" stayed on Knoxville's mind.

"The phrase became widely known almost immediately, infuriating some, and was on T-shirts during the World's Fair," Neely wrote in an email.

The 'Scruffy City' pulls off a World's Fair after all

A cropped version of the front page article that ran in The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 29, 1980. In the first paragraph under the subhead, reporter Susan Harrigan wrote "scruffy little city" in her article about Knoxville. The city took the insult and made it a nickname. The page was accessed using microfilm available at Lawson McGhee Library.
A cropped version of the front page article that ran in The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 29, 1980. In the first paragraph under the subhead, reporter Susan Harrigan wrote "scruffy little city" in her article about Knoxville. The city took the insult and made it a nickname. The page was accessed using microfilm available at Lawson McGhee Library.

The fair wasn't a disaster. It attracted more than 11 million visitors, gave Knoxville the Sunsphere, introduced Petro's Chili & Chips and made a profit of a whopping $57. Fair officials created commemorative buttons afterward that read "The Scruffy Little City Did It," according to World's Fair Park history.

Knoxville took Harrigan's insult and transformed it into a moniker, wearing it as a badge of pride. Several businesses named themselves using the phrase, including Scruffy City Hall and Scruffy City Construction. T-shirts and apparel display the phrase.

Scruffy City has become a part of Knoxville's identity.

The quest to find that first usage of 'Scruffy City'

Oddly enough, I could find mention of the phrase being plastered across the front page of The Wall Street Journal, but I could not locate the article itself online. There weren't any photos of it, the newspaper's digital archives didn't go back that far and no one I contacted had it off-hand.

It's not that I didn't believe it was written. I just wanted to see the article for myself.

Onlookers watch preparations at the site of the World's Fair in Knoxville in April 1982, the month before the fair opened. Despite the skeptical tone of a Wall Street Journal article that scorned "this scruffy little city" as an unlikely host for such an event, the fair was later deemed successful - and it left Knoxville with the iconic Sunsphere as a landmark and the "Scruffy City" nickname.

In order to find this elusive article, I took a trip downtown to the Lawson McGhee Library. I was able to do what every journalist dreams of doing: searching through microfilm of old newspapers, where I found that first mention of Knoxville as the "Scruffy City!"

Remember to stay scruffy, Knoxville.

Know Your Knox answers your burning questions about life in Knoxville. Want your question answered? Email knowyourknox@knoxnews.com. 

The front page of The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 29, 1980. Reporter Susan Harrigan wrote "scruffy little city" in her article about Knoxville and the World's Fair. The archived paper was accessed using microfilm available at Lawson McGhee Library. Aug. 11, 2023.
The front page of The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 29, 1980. Reporter Susan Harrigan wrote "scruffy little city" in her article about Knoxville and the World's Fair. The archived paper was accessed using microfilm available at Lawson McGhee Library. Aug. 11, 2023.

Keenan Thomas is a higher education reporter. Email keenan.thomas@knoxnews.com. Twitter @specialk2real.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Why is Knoxville, Tennessee, called the 'Scruffy City'?