
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 you're like me, you may have often begun to feel as if you're NBA superstar Chris Paul in those television commercials with Jake of State Farm. Something's always about to go wrong. Disappointment is always just around the corner. Our lives are now always half-empty, if not three-quarters so.
by Mark WiedmerSometime this afternoon, the 12-member Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association Board of Control will gather at Murfreesboro's Siegel High School to hear an eligibility appeal from a South Pittsburg High School student who the TSSAA banned a week ago from all athletic competition at the school for a full year for what was termed an "improper benefit."
by Mark WiedmerTake undefeated and overall No. 1 seed Gonzaga out of the mix, and every team in college basketball has been up and down for one reason or another this season.
by Mark WiedmerFor all that is slowly being regained, so much more has been lost the past 12 months, including whatever your normal was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
by Mark WiedmerAdam Dukes wasn't searching for a new documentary film project the first time he attended a Chattanooga Football Club game at Finley Stadium several years ago.
by Mark WiedmerLast year, the pandemic wiped out the NCAA tournament. March Madness will soon return, but the coronavirus could very well have an impact on the 68-team event's outcome.
by Mark WiedmerWith the federal government about to write $1.9 trillion worth of checks, perhaps discovering the University of Tennessee football program is going to pay one Kevin Steele close to $900,000 NOT TO WORK isn't that big a deal.
by Mark WiedmerThe story first appeared on CNN's website Tuesday morning.
by Mark WiedmerWhen the University of Kentucky visits Ole Miss tonight for a 9 p.m. Southeastern Conference basketball game on ESPN, the Wildcats will do so as college hoops' all-time winningest team.
by Mark WiedmerThey were everywhere Sunday afternoon at the WGC-Workday Championship at The Concession, all these PGA Tour golfers dressed in red shirts and black pants.
by Mark WiedmerThere was no blueprint for any of this.
by Mark WiedmerAnother day, another downer.
by Mark WiedmerThe words rolling off Tennessee men's basketball coach Rick Barnes' lips on Saturday afternoon weren't exactly string music to citizens of the Big Orange Nation.
by Mark WiedmerThursday's icy dawn surrendering little of its bite later in the day, local women's basketball treasure Grace Keith was mustering scant enthusiasm to attend that night's epic clash between second-ranked South Carolina and the No. 21 Tennessee Lady Volunteers in Knoxville.
by Mark WiedmerThe beauty and beast of the Southern Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments has always been that only the winner is assured of a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
by Mark WiedmerLet's take the high road here.
by Mark WiedmerLorraine Potter was the most loyal and passionate coach's wife and mother imaginable, and McCallie football players were among those who benefited from such devotion.
by Mark WiedmerMeigs County senior offensive lineman Malachi Hayden thought he was doing all the right things last summer and fall to land a college scholarship from a Football Championship Subdivision program.
by Mark WiedmerMy esteemed colleague Jay Greeson first broached the idea in his Tuesday morning "Five at 10" internet column for this paper.
by Mark WiedmerWill the real University of Tennessee men's basketball team please stand up?
by Mark Wiedmer