
Mark Wiedmer started work at the Chattanooga News-Free Press on Valentine's Day of 1983. At the time, he had to get an advance from his boss to buy a Valentine gift for his wife. Mark was hired as a graphic artist but quickly moved to sports, where he oversaw prep football for a time, won the "Pick' em" box in 1985 and took over the UTC basketball beat the following year. By 1990, he was the newspaper's lead sports columnist, a title he still holds today after a couple of Tennessee Sports Writer of the Year awards and a box full of other honors. He joined the staff of the Chattanooga Times Free Press when the Free Press and Times merged in 1999. Mark hails from Hopkinsville, Ky., and graduated from Centre College. Contact Mark at 423-757-6273. or mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.
By the time you read this, the Atlanta Braves will be one game past the midway point of the 2022 season, having either won or lost Tuesday night's game against the St. Louis Cardinals inside the Braves' Truist Park.
by Mark WiedmerThe SEC Network's resident genius and truth teller Paul Finebaum first suggested the doomsday scenario for college football as we've long known and loved it late last week, just after news broke of Southern Cal's and UCLA's intentions to bolt the Pac-12 for the Big Ten.
by Mark WiedmerIndependence Day. July 4th. We think they're one and the same. One of the greatest, if not the greatest sportscaster of all time, Vin Scully, begs to differ, however.
by Mark WiedmerIs all this money worth it? Are parents really going to be rewarded with four-year athletic scholarships that make yearly five-figure financial outlays pay off by the time college rolls around?
by Mark WiedmerWhen he was first named the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's athletic director in the late summer of 2017, it didn't take Mark Wharton long to pinpoint what his department most needed if it intended to compete for Southern Conference sports championships.
by Mark WiedmerAlmost everywhere you look, you see a deeply divided America these days.
by Mark WiedmerThe juggernaut that was the University of Tennessee baseball team for so much of these past four months had to be shaking its collective head in anger and frustration Sunday evening.
by Mark WiedmerRegrets. We all have them.
by Mark WiedmerTwo days before she was to graduate from Vanderbilt in the spring of 1980, Teresa Lawrence was working out in the school's weight room when Emily Harsh, VU's women's athletic director at the time, asked her what she was going to do for a career.
by Mark WiedmerDo you have a daughter? And if you do, does she participate in sports on a competitive level?
by Mark WiedmerA few minutes after the Atlanta Braves' impressive 6-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sunday afternoon, Bally Sports analyst and former Braves pitcher Peter Moylan made the following observation:
by Mark WiedmerSharon Fanning-Otis refuses to identify the guilty party. Nor will she give up the name of the institution of higher learning the neanderthal administrator worked for. But she has never forgotten the words or the sentiment connected to them.
by Mark WiedmerBy midnight Thursday night, the National Basketball Association will either have a new champion or a seventh and deciding game on tap for Sunday evening.
by Mark WiedmerHenry Dickerson needs our prayers.
by Mark WiedmerIt was the late U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt who once described his ideal foreign policy as one that would "speak softly and carry a big stick."
by Mark WiedmerWhen this country quite rightly celebrates the 50th anniversary of Title IX on June 23, one could understand if former Notre Dame High School and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga baseball pitcher John Sellman might be less than thrilled to honor the occasion.
by Mark WiedmerThe post appeared on a University of Georgia parents Facebook page a couple of weeks ago. The mother of a UGA student wrote: "My daughter had to go all the way to Italy to meet Stetson Bennett."
by Mark WiedmerThe Atlanta Braves had won 11 of their last 17 games heading into Tuesday night's visit from the Oakland A's.
by Mark WiedmerAs Swing Ding partners Garth Brown and Trey Moore approached Lookout Mountain Club's 18th tee box late Sunday afternoon - their championship match against the father-son duo of Jim and Max Markley all tied up with one hole to play - there was no way the 63-year-old tournament wasn't going to have both a history-making and feel-good finish.
by Mark WiedmerWhy can't we all be a little more like Jason Russell?
by Mark Wiedmer