John Murphy, left, talks with Brandon Born, center, and Mary Tinkler during a reception at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to honor Murphy and his wife, Renee Haugerud in February 2009. The couple contributed $2 million to the university to be used to create a global finance center and help the football program.
Writer: Long before Mike Royster became an assistant athletic director at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, he was a student going to school on a scholarship given to him by then-football coach Joe Morrison, now deceased.
As soon as Royster arrived on campus in fall 1974, Morrison took him to meet Mary Tinkler.
"Her office was in the old Quonset hut," he said of the athletic department's humble barracks-style headquarters at the time. "Coach Morrison told me, 'If you'll listen to her, if you do what she says, you'll graduate.'
"And I did. I took some weird classes, but I graduated. Like Coach said, those who listened to her got through. Those who didn't, didn't."
They gathered at Hamilton Funeral Home on Friday night and at the Rivermont Presbyterian Church on Saturday morning to get through the tough task of saying goodbye to Mrs. Tinkler, who died last Monday at the age of 84.
Having presided over the academic paths of Mocs athletes from 1970 through 1998, she touched thousands of lives. And this being the age of social media, a lot of those young men and women posted tributes to her long before her visitation or funeral.
Former football player Welton Ellison, a four-year letter winner from 1977 through 1980, wrote: "While at UTC she was very kind and understanding of my school issues and concerns. If not for this one-of-a-kind person and my tutor I'm not sure I would have graduated."
Chris Helms (1991-93) posted on Facebook: "She may have been the most influential person in my life. She was a legit legend. I loved her like a mom."
Posted Mark Rowe, who lettered in 1996: "If you were a Chattanooga Moc, you knew Mary T., and if you were a Mocs student-athlete, she probably had a huge part in your diploma. Early on I resented the study halls and mandatory tutoring sessions, but as I got closer to graduation, I realized how important her role was in my education (classroom and other)."
Wrote Kareem Robinson (1994-97): "Oh, my, she was the backbone of our football program."
But as glorious as those tributes are, Mary Crawford Tinkler wasn't only the school's first academic advisor for athletes or a founding member of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletes. During her youth in Arab, Alabama, she showed Tennessee Walking Horses, played the saxophone and was Arab High's homecoming queen.
She graduated from Vanderbilt in 1955, then married John Tinkler a year later. They both earned master's degrees from Florida, then attended Stanford for doctoral studies. Because the UT system would not allow her to teach in the same English department as her husband when it took over the University of Chattanooga in 1969, she wound up in athletics, a lucky break for all she shepherded toward degrees.
Still, away from work, she was a Renaissance woman in every respect. She greatly enjoyed playing bridge. Rivermont Presbyterian pastor Lina R. Hart spoke of her love for "teacups and flowers" and making sure her children understood the importance of "writing thank-you notes" and "the perils of drinking." She was known to host parties for the football team. complete with cupcakes she'd baked in the shape of footballs. She also had a fondness for puzzles and solitaire.
Liz Clark Grant, whose mother Carole was also a student at Vanderbilt when Winkler was there, said of the entire Winkler clan, including daughter Cate Mueller, son Michael and Cate and Dan's children: "That's the smartest family I've ever been around."
Indeed, when former UTC chancellor Fred Obear was asked about Tinkler, he replied, "Whatever Mary recommended I do for a student-athlete, I did, and she was never wrong. She was tough on the right ones and soft on the right ones."
Added Ruth Obear: "She was a quiet lion."
If there was a prevailing reason why she had such a touch, it might have been in what Hart said when Cate and Michael were asked the theme for her homily should be. Instantly, in unison, they exclaimed, "Love!"
Joe Petosa was an All-Southern Conference lineman for the Mocs under Morrison in 1977 and 1978 who had come to UTC from the Northeast, like so many other players during that time, including Doug Elstad, Dwight Hamby, Jim Johnson, Pete Pullara and Jim Schoepher. Forty years later, that group still gets together every Super Bowl weekend.
Petosa was also instrumental in forming the Mary Tinkler Scholarship Fund.
"But whenever those guys have come to Chattanooga," said Petosa, who lives in Hixson with his wife Karen and worked for decades in TVA's nuclear program, "the first two people they wanted to see were Mary Tinkler and Mike Royster. She loved everybody."
Asked a favorite Tinkler story, he recalled handing her a red ink pen one day.
"I told her, 'This is for all the red ink I know you've used up correcting my papers,'" he said with a smile.
Wrote Rowe: "If heaven has an athletic department, she is up there organizing tutoring sessions and encouraging the athletes to finish strong."
Friday's visitation drawing to a close, someone asked Cate if she had learned anything the past week she didn't already know about her mom.
"Apparently one athlete called her Mary one time instead of Mrs. Tinkler," she said. "My mom told him, 'You don't get to call me that until you have a diploma in your hand.'"
On Friday night and Saturday morning, "Mary" was heard far more often than "Mrs. Tinkler," as one might expect of a quiet lion who could be the backbone of the UTC football program while being loved like a mom.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.