NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tennessee Sports Writers Association announced its newest members of the TSWA Hall of Fame on Thursday, including Tommy Bryan (Lebanon), Teresa Walker (Associated Press) and Mark Wiedmer (Chattanooga). The three individuals will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 9, 2020, at Cumberland University.
Tommy Bryan – Lebanon
A 43-year veteran of the newspaper industry and founding member of the TSWA, Bryan is a 1975 graduate of Lebanon High School. He graduated from then Cumberland Junior College in 1977 and worked in sports information at Cumberland, Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee and Trevecca Nazarene. Bryan started writing for the Lebanon Democrat in 1977 as a sports writer until switching to news beat writer in 1979. He became owner and publisher of The Wilson World newspaper in 1981 through 2003, overseeing daily operations, front page design while also working as sports writer and news editor. He hosted numerous sports talk shows on WANT-FM and has served as master of ceremonies at athletic-related events for 40 years. He has been the voice of the Lebanon High Blue Devils for more than 33 years and Cumberland football for more than 10 years. He's also responsible for online content and social media outlets for Main Street Sports, a group of eight weekly newspapers, for the past six years. A founding member of the Lebanon-Wilson County Sports Council, Bryan was inducted into Cumberland's Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.
Teresa Walker – The Associated Press
A native of Homestead, Fla., Walker is a two-time Tennessee Sportswriter of the Year and won an APSE for feature writing in 2015 for a story from the Masters. A graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in June 1987, she went to work as a news reporter for The Daily Times in Maryville. She covered one high school football game and wrote one sports column and a feature on Hoosier racing tires while mostly covering education, courts and the police beat. Hired by the Associated Press in Nashville in December 1989, Walker wrote college football and basketball games from around Tennessee by phone for the first two years. She became Tennessee sports editor in June 1992 and has covered five Olympics, three Super Bowls, a handful of Southeastern Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, several NCAA Tournaments and regional finals and the 2014 Women’s Final Four in Nashville. She covered the relocation of the NFL’s Houston Oilers between 1995 and 1997, taking over as beat writer upon the team’s arrival in Nashville in July 1997. Walker became one of the AP’s Pro Football Writers helping cover the NFL in 2014 and is the first president of the Pro Football Writers Association’s Nashville chapter. She also is a past president of the TSWA. She has covered the NHL’s Nashville Predators, including the 2017 Stanley Cup Final; Vanderbilt football, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball; the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies and the Memphis Tigers.
Walker becomes the first female sports writer selected for the TSWA Hall of Fame and only the third female elected by the association. The other two, June Stewart and Debby Jennings, are both from the Sports Information field.
Mark Wiedmer – Chattanooga Times-Free Press
A native of Hopkinsville, Ky., Wiedmer has spent 35 years at the Times-Free Press after starting as a graphic artist. He was so poor on his first day at the paper, Valentine’s Day of 1983, he borrowed money from his new boss to buy his wife a Valentine gift. Wiedmer transitioned to writing after filling in for a co-worker who became sick while covering a district baseball tournament. Within two years, Wiedmer took over the UT-Chattanooga basketball beat and has been a columnist since 1987. Over that time, Wiedmer has been a two-time TSWA Sports Writer of the Year, won several Green Eyeshade Awards, a few Football Writers Association honors and totaled more than 75 total writing awards. He covered 28 straight Final Fours between 1988 and 2015, as well as two Super Bowls, six Masters, 14 Kentucky Derbies, one Olympics, two U.S. Opens and two PGA championships. He's also covered 31 Area 4 Special Olympics in Chattanooga.