The 71st Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration certainly has a Southeastern Conference feel to it.

The Coach, named after former Alabama football Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, won the A Division of the aged stallions class Saturday night.

Rowdy Rev, ridden by a trainer wearing an orange and white checkerboard tie that resembles the end zones at Tennessee's Neyland Stadium, triumphed in the B Division.

John Allan Callaway, 31, of Shelbyville rode The Coach to victory wearing entry number 323, the number of victories for Bryant. The Coach's owners ordered 2,000 houndstooth caps with the horse's name scripted in crimson across the front to pass out to fans for next Saturday's championship.

Bill Bobo of Shelbyville, a longtime Tennessee fan, rode Rowdy Rev to victory. He breeds bluetick coonhounds, the breed of the Volunteers' mascot, Smokey IX.

"We're just Tennessee fans," Bobo said. "I've listened to them on the radio back when Johnny Majors was playing. My dad was in East Tennessee for 10 or 15 years and that's Tennessee country up in there, so we've been raised up Vol fans." Bobo, 62, has football season tickets, but can't make it to all the games. But he always tries to be there for the Alabama game the third week in October and the Florida game. Co-owner Bob Kilgore of Tuscaloosa, Ala., named The Coach, but there is a third SEC sub-plot: Callaway is a Georgia fan.

Bobo and Callaway's training barns are located about two miles apart on Highway 41A in Shelbyville.

"John Allan's my neighbor," said Bobo, who won the 2003 title aboard The Whole Nine Yards. "We're right down the road from each other. John Allan is one of the top young trainers in the business and he's riding a great horse, so it's going to be tough going back."

John Allan's father, Allan, rode Pride's Jubilee Encore to the 2001 championship. "Bill Bobo is a great horse trainer who has done good all his life," John Allan Callaway said. "He's one of the idols that you do look up to." Only 12 of the 33 stallions entered in the aged stallions class competed.

A Division runner-up Watch It Now and third-place finisher Cadillac's Bum both made strong showings. The Golden Sovereign took second in B Division, followed by Puttin' Cash on the Line in third.