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.
If this four-man University of Tennessee quarterback competition that's about to begin was being decided by a video game, redshirt sophomore Brian Maurer is pretty sure he knows who would win.
by Mark WiedmerIt should have been different. After all, this was Hank Aaron Weekend at Truist Park, the Atlanta Braves honoring the greatest player in their history a few months after his death.
by Mark WiedmerHope. Isn't that what the start of every sports season brings us, especially football?
by Mark WiedmerThe pain in former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga golfing great Derek Rende's voice late Tuesday afternoon was obvious, yet sadly familiar.
by Mark WiedmerCheck the roster of the 2016 United State's men's basketball team that won Olympic gold and you'll find such names as Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Paul George, All-Pros all.
by Mark WiedmerForty-two years.
by Mark WiedmerChange is almost always hard. Yours truly is still coming to grips with the fact that the Earth is apparently round instead of flat. It's so much more comfortable for some of us when everything stays the same.
by Mark WiedmerIt's easy to grow cynical about the future of big-time college athletics, especially Power Five conference football and men's basketball.
by Mark WiedmerIt was the summer of 1974. Beverly Narrimore had just graduated from Hixson High School and was working in her parents' bait and tackle shop, selling worms, when she got a phone call from Grace Keith.
by Mark WiedmerIs everybody still so sure we have this vicious virus where we want it? Is no one concerned those bold predictions of full football stadiums this fall and packed college basketball arenas next winter may yet come a cropper?
by Mark WiedmerNCAA president Mark Emmert has finally thrown in the towel. Or is it the white flag of surrender?
by Mark WiedmerLet's begin the story of Baylor eighth-grade golf sensation Carlee Rogers on June 17.
by Mark WiedmerAs John Shulman was preparing his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball team to face Wake Forest and point guard Chris Paul in the opening round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament, he noticed one thing never changed as he watched Demon Deacons game tape.
by Mark WiedmerIn the end, the Atlanta Hawks' 2021 playoff run was like every single one that had come before it since the franchise moved from St. Louis to the Big Peach in 1965: It ended without a trip to the NBA Finals.
by Mark WiedmerAsk most folks about their preferred paths to spiritual enlightenment and soul cleansing, and you'll hear of everything from yoga, to meditation, to a day at the spa. Then there's Sergio Bianchini.
by Mark WiedmerJim Reynolds, the ageless voice of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs, doesn't remember the exact year.
by Mark WiedmerThe Fourth of July doesn't officially arrive until Sunday.
by Mark WiedmerIt just could be the confidence boost the Atlanta Braves need to start a prolonged winning streak.
by Mark WiedmerPersonal freedom. We all want that, right?
by Mark WiedmerThe NBA's Eastern Conference finals. Also known as the place dreams go to die if you're the Atlanta Hawks - or at least the version of the Hawks that moved from St. Louis to the Big Peach in 1968.
by Mark Wiedmer