It was just two weeks ago on May 21st, I wrote a column wishing former Tennessee head coach Johnny Majors a happy 85th birthday. This morning I found out Coach had passed away. I was immediately saddened upon hearing the news because I respected him as much as I respected anyone I ever met. I have a lot of personal memories of Coach Majors, and I offered some of them in that previous ... (click for more)

In a surprise announcement by Dover Motorsports, Nashville Superspeedway in Wilson County will reopen in 2021 and its race schedule will include a race from NASCAR’s premier Cup Series. The Cup Series hasn’t competed in the Middle Tennessee area since 1984, when the last Cup race ran at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. A “very tentative” date of June 20, 2021 has been set for ... (click for more)

Friends of the Festival, the nonprofit organization behind Chattanooga’s premier music festival Riverbend, has made the decision to cancel this year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Friends of the Festival is unveiling new plans to continue to deliver music to the city’s riverfront in light of the new realities brought on by the pandemic. In what would have ... (click for more)

City Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod on Tuesday night made an impassioned plea for an end to black on black crime. She did so after a recent Chattanooga murder left her granddaughter without a father. Councilwoman Coonrod spoke strongly in favor of protests against police brutality, but said there was no place for violence or destruction as part of that movement. Other black ... (click for more)

Since its inception, Friends of the Festival seemed bound and determined to make Riverbend a national event, ignoring the opinions of many Chattanoogans. Riverbend started as a local event drawing on the tastes and desires of local citizens yet has devolved into an outrageously expensive, super-crowded two-week-long free-for-all. Riverbend has drastically deviated from its original ... (click for more)

By ordinary standards it might be best described as one of life’s worst 1-2 punches, a pair of hard, personal blows that drop you to your knees. True, each devastating blow was uncommonly back to back. But, no, when I learned Wednesday morning that college football icon Johnny Majors had died just some 48 hours after another legend, Auburn’s Pat Dye, it was as though I’d been hit ... (click for more)