What's up with all the Bs?

Not too long before I retired, my administrative professional said something to me that I have not been able to get out of my head. She observed that every one of the standard issue Tennessee license plates she had seen all featured the letter B.

Since she said it, I keep looking and, yep, every one I've seen has a B.

But before we take a deeper dive into this alphabetic mystery, a bit of historical information. Tennessee cars have sported a variety of license plates over the years. The one I remember from childhood was very plain -- black letters on a white background.

I have this one from my dad (ca. early 1970s) hanging in the K4KYN ham shack. It features a small outline of the state at the top. Earlier versions were actually stamped out in the quadrilateral pologon shape of our state.

A recap of the years:

• In the early 80s, we had one featuring blue and green text on a white background
• In the later 80s and 90s, the TN plate featured blue and red text on a white background
• With the dawning of a new millennium, TN's plate featured a sun rise
• In the 2010s, our plates had a greenish background

And that brings us to the present. The new "B for Blue" plates debuted in 2022.

I saw one UT Vols patriot railing online against the new blue license plates. The person argued that, as Tennessee's flagship institution's main color is orange, so should be the plates. 

One one hand, as alum, I can admit it might be nice to see a little orange around town, ahem. On the other hand, it is not completely representative of the entire state.

You can't win guys like this over with logic, but I almost wanted to point out that most TN public institutions feature blue as a signature color and, thus, if you want to follow his logic, the aggregate enrollment of blue universities far outpaces orange ones.

By the latest numbers I was able the find online (just using four year public schools...so not including community colleges OR private universities and colleges), it's almost 2:1 blue. 

But I digress. 

Today, I'm not really focused on hues but rather clues. Why do the standard issue license plates have a B in them? What's up with all the Bs?

• We have had a number of B-surnamed Governors. Is it a shoutout to them?
• Is the license plate artist Ben, Brenda, Berniece or Bob?
• Is it as simple as "B for Blue"

I spent a good amount of time poking around the internet to find an answer and you know what answer I found? People simply don't know.

I couldn't find a definitive answer on tn.gov page. A few people online opined that the buzzing b's are a result of the plates being given in sequential order and the state doesn't start license numbers with vowels. Others said "I don't know."

I think that is the best answer: I don't know. 

So, if anyone has a definitive answer, please write in to #CoachJeff or send in a comment so we could share with the others. And in the meantime, I'll just keep counting cars.

JG