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.
It has to end this way, doesn't it?
by Mark WiedmerThe Frances B. Wyatt Center on Colville Street will be quieter and less entertaining than normal this Christmas Eve afternoon.
by Mark WiedmerNoticed the newest Associated Press college basketball poll, the one released Monday afternoon?
by Mark WiedmerWe want the difference in winning and losing in the National Football League to be complicated because pro football is complicated, filled with options on top of options for every play, of which there may be hundreds in a given playbook.
by Mark WiedmerGet used to this, Tennessee.
by Mark WiedmerIt may have been the first time such words have ever been uttered about the Tennessee Titans offense, at least since the franchise moved from Houston to Memphis to Nashville and changed its name from Oilers to Titans.
by Mark WiedmerThe Classic 150 group calls its premier fundraiser each year a "Toast of Champions."
by Mark WiedmerHowever much it sounded like sour grapefruit — after all, Alabama is facing Michigan in the Citrus Bowl — Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban had every right to express his opinion on Sunday that "We have made everything about the playoffs in college football."
by Mark WiedmerYou don't need to see the world through Big Orange-tinted glasses to believe the Vols may just be getting started under Jeremy Pruitt and his staff.
by Mark WiedmerGeorgia's Bulldog Nation no doubt wants its 37-10 Southeastern Conference championship game loss to LSU on Saturday to be about talent, or lack thereof.
by Mark WiedmerGeorgia vs. LSU SEC championship game results as they happen.
by David Paschall and Mark WiedmerAlmost to a man, the McCallie Blue Tornado said this resounding victory was unexpected.
by Mark WiedmerNearly 40 years later, Jim Higdon still remembers the Santa Train visiting his house.
by Mark WiedmerUniversity of Tennessee at Chattanooga power forward Stefan Kenic was walking to class eight days ago when he got a message to meet with third-year Mocs coach Lamont Paris.
by Mark WiedmerWell, we're finally here.
by Mark WiedmerIt was one of those plainspoken, blatantly honest comments that second-year Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt so often delivers if you're paying close enough attention.
by Mark WiedmerTennessee vs. Vanderbilt college football game results as they happen.
by Mark Wiedmer and Gene HenleyIt wasn't as if Steve and Teri Fitzgerald were getting low on mouths to feed and bodies to clothe and shelter that summer of 2013.
by Mark WiedmerIn some ways, Thursday will dawn no differently than most other workdays for Howard School football coach John Starr.
by Mark WiedmerAnd then David Jean-Baptiste dribbled the ball off his knee and out of bounds.
by Mark Wiedmer