Marty Lowe, a former all-state quarterback at Red Bank High school, died earlier this week.
Lowe, who had been diagnosed with kidney cancer, was 54.
In 1990, Lowe became the second player from the Chattanooga area and the first from Hamilton County to win the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s state Mr. Football award. He did so in Class AAA, which was the TSSAA’s highest classification at the time.
Andy Kelley, a star quarterback at Rhea County and then the University of Tennessee, was the area’s first player to win the award in 1986.
Led by Lowe, running back Gerald Ware, receiver Cory Simpson and kicker John Becksvoort — a quartet of players who signed with programs competing in the highest level of NCAA Division I football — Red Bank’s 1990 team finished the regular season unbeaten and climbed to a No. 12 national ranking in the USA Today high school poll before being upset by Cleveland in the first round of the state playoffs.