Category: Sports

The Titans selected North Carolina State defensive lineman Larrell Murchison in the fifth round of Saturday’s NFL Draft.

Murchison (6-2, 298), selected with the 174th overall pick, said he’d ready to go to work.

“They told me that I can play all along the defensive front – from five technique to zero technique – and they like that part of my game where I am versatile and can help any way that I can,” Murchison said of the Titans. “I am just trying to fit in any way I can. Whatever role they give me to play, I am ready to show I can do it.”

Murchison is ready to work under Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.

“I am very familiar with Mike Vrabel, and I know he’s a defensive-minded coach,” Murchison said. “I was very honored to speak with him, and I am very honored to be in Tennessee. I am just ready to work. Whatever they ask me to do, whatever he asks me to do, I am ready to follow it and do what I am supposed to do.”

Titans General Manager Jon Robinson said the team likes Murchison’s style of playing, and his versatility.

“We really liked Murchison there,” Robinson said. “Vrabel and I talked this morning and he’s the guy he had kind of circled in his notebook and he was the last guy I looked at when I closed my computer up last night to go to bed. We weathered 67 picks there with him and we fortunate enough to get him.”

Murchison earned second-team All-ACC honors as a senior when he was in on 48 tackles, 12 tackles for a loss, and seven quarterback sacks. He was named the ACC defensive lineman of the week for the second time in his career when he had 3.5 sacks at Florida State.

In two seasons at N.C. State, Murchison recorded 11 sacks while starting all 25 games he played in.

During his junior season, Murchison earned the team’s Cary Brewbaker Award for Defensive Lineman of the Year, as well as the Alpha Wolf Rising Award, which is given to the Most Improved Player.

“I feel like rushing the passer, I can cause penetration,” Murchison said. “And I feel like stopping the run, I can be an anchor down there if you need me to take on double-teams. Anywhere on the defensive front they need me to play, I feel I can play it.”

The Titans are looking to bolster depth and production on the defensive line after saying goodbye to a pair of defensive linemen off of last year’s team – Jurrell Casey and Austin Johnson. Casey, a third-round pick in the 2011 draft, was traded to the Broncos last month while Johnson signed with the Giants.

Murchison was impressive at the NFL Combine, when he did 29 reps in the bench press and posted a 29-inch vertical leap while measuring a wingspan of 79 3/8-inches.

Murchison also played in the Reese’s Senior Bowl, and he was listed as one of “14 prospects who made money in Mobile” by The Athletic.

Described as a “high motor” player, Murchison said he’d ready to deliver while living his childhood dream.

“My teammates are my family, my coaches are a part of my family,” Murchison said. “I play for them. So, when you think of high motor I am playing for my guys and I am playing to win. … Running to the ball, taking the ball, that means everything to me.

“And when I think about how far I came down this journey, from where I started, and now to being drafted to the Tennessee Titans, it means everything. It has been a long road but I always kept the faith along the way. Now I am ready for whatever is next.”

Quarterback Cole McDonald has spent a good part of his life idolizing Hawaii native Marcus Mariota.

Now, he’s headed to Nashville to compete for a roster spot on Mariota’s former team.

The Titans on Saturday selected the former University of Hawaii quarterback in the seventh round (224th overall) of the NFL Draft.

“Playing in Hawaii, I mean Marcus is the man. And when I say the man, he is the man,” McDonald said of Mariota, who played five seasons with the Titans. “Even before I knew I was going to play for Hawaii or anything, I idolized Marcus, his style of play and how he approached the game and what he brought to it.

“Moving forward, hopefully I get some love from Hawaii and even though Marcus was there before me, (hopefully) I can fill those big shoes he left behind. To come to a place he just left, it’s pretty cool.”

McDonald said he’s met Mariota, now with the Raiders, several times and watched film with him. Mariota has given him advice over the years, he said.

The 6-foot-3, 218-pound McDonald finished his career at Hawaii fourth on the school’s passing yards (8,032) and passing touchdowns (70) lists. McDonald, who is from La Mirada, California, completed 61 percent of his throws at Hawaii.

In 2019, McDonald completed 63.8 percent of his attempts for 4,135 yards and 33 touchdowns.

He ranked No. 3 nationally in passing yards, No. 6 in total offense (322.7/gm), No. 7 in passing yards per game (295,4), No. 8 in passing TDs, and No. 9 in points responsible for (242). McDonald threw for a career high 493 yards and accounted for five touchdowns – four passing and one rushing – in UH’s SoFi Hawai’i Bowl win over BYU.

But he knows he needs to improve to have a chance of sticking at the next level.

McDonald will compete with returning quarterback Logan Woodside for the back-up spot behind starter Ryan Tannehill.

Woodside started last year’s preseason finale against the Bears and played the entire game. He finished the night completing 17-of-29 passes for 212 yards and two touchdowns, good for a passer rating of 104.4.

In four preseason contests in 2019, Woodside completed 46-of-76 passes for 539 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer rating was an impressive 99.6.

“We’re not going to set the roster to 55 today, on the third day of the draft,” Titans General Manager Jon Robinson replied when asked if the team might add yet another QB to compete at some point. “But (McDonald) is a guy that has good size, really good athleticism. He ran fast, he moves around, has really good arm strength. We spent quite a bit of time with him in the process getting to know him a little bit and developed a good relationship with him. We felt like from a tools standpoint he was a guy we’d like to work with.”

McDonald said he’s ready to compete, and he wants to learn from Tannehill, the quarterback who replaced Mariota as the franchise’s starter.

“I’ve only heard great things about Ryan, how great of a person he is, how great of a leader he is,” McDonald said of Tannehill. “And ultimately, he wins games, like you saw last year. To be under him, it is going to be an awesome learning experience – I am going to be asking a lot of questions, picking his brain, taking a lot of mental reps behind him and ultimately just trying to get prepared as much as I can to be ready when my name is called.

“I am super-stoked to be a part of the team, to be a part of the organization. And I want to help in any way I can.”

McDonald said he talked with Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and quarterbacks coach Pat O’Hara a few times on Facetime during the pre-draft process, and he felt the conversations were solid.

He’s looking forward to heading to Nashville as soon as the NFL’s offseason restrictions due to the coronavirus are lifted.

“I have never been to Nashville, Tennessee, but from what I have heard from everybody, I hear it’s just a wonderful place, with great people, and the environment is amazing,” McDonald said. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to meet everybody and be a part of that culture.”

New Titans defensive back Chris Jackson isn’t sure what position he’ll play in the NFL, but he knows this: He’s ready to compete.

The Titans selected the Marshall defender in the seventh round (243rd overall) in Saturday’s NFL Draft.

Jackson played mainly at cornerback at Marshall, but he could compete in a number of positions with the Titans, including nickel and safety.

“Today, I was overfilled with joy,” Jackson said after being picked. “I am just happy to be a Titan. I am just truly happy to be a Titan.”

Jackson (6-0, 186) ended his four-year career at Marshall as one of the school’s most decorated defensive backs. He finished his career with 48 career starts, No. 14 all-time at Marshall.

He also ranks No. 1 in Marshall history in passes broken up with 45, and he ranks No.2 in program history in most passes defended (interceptions and passes broken up combined) with 52.

As a senior, Jackson started 12 games and he was named first team Conference USA after recording 25 tackles with one interception and a team-high 11 pass breakups.

“Any team that picked me, I just wanted to get there and contribute any way I can,” Jackson said. “I expect to do whatever the coaches need me to do – if that’s playing corner, if that’s playing safety, if that’s playing every snap on special teams. I feel like either position suits me well. Whatever the coaches need me to do, that’s what I plan to do.

“It is not what I want, it is whatever helps the team win on Sundays.”

In addition to his work in the secondary, Jackson will have a chance to earn an opportunity on special teams.

Jackson said he received a lot of interest in the draft process, and he said a lot of teams inquired on Saturday about signing him as an undrafted free agent if he didn’t get picked.

After trading away one of their seventh-round picks (for Kansas City’s sixth-round pick in 2021), the Titans snagged him.

“He was really productive, a really athletic guy,” Titans General Manager Jon Robinson said of Jackson. “And he is a versatile guy, and he has really good production. I think he has seven picks in his career, so he finds the football. He ran well. He’ll mix into the group and try and carve out a role for himself. He has played a couple of different spots and we’ll see how much he can handle, and see where he fits in in the pecking order of that group. We look forward to working with him.”

The Titans selected Georgia tackle Isaiah Wilson with the 29th overall pick in Thursday night’s NFL Draft. Thunder Radio brought you all the action as part of the Titans Radio Network. Wilson was a former 5-star recruit in the 2017 class. The Brooklyn-native enrolled in Athens at 6’6 350 pounds, making him one of the most intriguing offensive line prospects from the jump. 

The red-shirt sophomore decided to declare for this year’s draft early and now he will join a long line of Georgia offensive lineman in the NFL. The 6-foot-6, 350-pound mountain of a man is originally from Brooklyn, New York, and he exited high school as the nation’s No. 16 overall prospect and the No. 5 offensive tackle for the class of 2017, according to 247Sports Composite Rankings.

After redshirting in 2017, Wilson started all 14 games at right tackle in 2018, leading to his selection to the 2018 Coaches Freshman All-SEC team. He battled an injury from time to time in 2019 but still managed to play in 11 games, starting in 10 of those.

Wilson played 25 games at Georgia and was named to the  Football Writers Assn. of America Freshman All-America Team as a red-shirt freshman and in 2019 was named to the Associated Press All-SEC 2nd Team.

The Titans are scheduled to make two more picks on Friday – one in the second round (pick No.61) and one in the third round (No.93). On Saturday, the Titans are scheduled to make four picks – one in the fifth round (No.174) and three in the seventh round (No. 224, No. 237, No. 243). Thunder Radio will once again bring you the Titans Radio Network broadcast on Friday night. Our live coverage will begin at 6 PM.

Braves manager Brian Snitker recently received a text from Bobby Cox’s wife, Pam, that read, “Bobby wants to know when the [heck] are you going to start playing baseball?”

You can almost see the somewhat ornery smile Cox may have shown when he decided to send this message, knowing there was still too much uncertainty to determine when the season might begin. But at the same time, this text provided more reassurance that the stroke Cox suffered last year has done nothing to diminish his love and passion for baseball.

“I know baseball would give him something to look forward to, to watch those games,” Snitker said. “I would go visit him about once a week last year, and you knew he was keeping up with what was happening. I remember one time after Max Fried had a good game, Bobby talked about it the next day and I left there thinking, ‘God, he watched every pitch and saw things a lot of other people might not have.’”

Unfortunately, the quarantine lifestyle necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has prevented Snitker, Roger McDowell, Terry Pendleton, Eddie Perez and others from continuing to regularly visit Cox, who is at his suburban Atlanta home as he continues to recover from that stroke on April 2, 2019.

“Before I went to Spring Training, I went to Bobby’s, and Snit came over about an hour later,” Pendleton said. “We’re just sitting there talking about things and Pam says, ‘Terry, I’ve got a question for you.’ I was like, ‘What’s up, Pam?’ She was like, ‘Has Bobby ever gotten after you about something?’ I was like, ‘Uhhh, yes.’”

At this point, Pendleton refers back to May 28, 1993, when he walked off the field during a game in Cincinnati because Marvin Freeman had not thrown at the Reds’ Tim Belcher, who had hit Deion Sanders with a pitch in the top of the seventh inning.

“You have to remember, to get to the old clubhouse in Cincinnati, it was a long walk up those stairs,” Pendleton said. “Skipper wore my butt out the entire way up those stairs. It was the longest chew out I’ve ever had. I don’t think my mom and dad ever wore me out as long as he did that night. When we got in the clubhouse, he wore my butt out for another 10 minutes and then he said, ‘Now, this is over. Neither of us is speaking to the press or anybody else about this again.’ To him, it was over — and it was. That’s why coaches, players and everybody loved Bobby.”

Calculated combustion
On his way to racking up a Major League-record 158 ejections (161 if you count the postseason), Cox proved that he could be quite fiery when he felt it was necessary. Perez’s first introduction to this occurred during the early 1990s, when he was informed that he was coming over from the Minor League side to serve as an extra in a Spring Training road game played in Fort Myers, Fla.

Instructed to wear pants and a collared shirt, Perez wore black jeans because he didn’t own khakis or dress pants. Cox said it was fine after being informed during the team’s 2 1/2-hour trip from West Palm Beach, Fla. But when the Braves lost that day, he unloaded in a postgame tirade directed toward Sanders, David Justice and Dwight Smith, who had worn shorts and T-shirts.

“Bobby got everybody in the clubhouse and started cussing,” Perez said. “He said, ‘If you didn’t wear dress pants, you owe me $500.’ This is the first time I’ve met Bobby, and I’m looking at my pants and I was scared. But he came back out and said the rookies didn’t have to worry about paying the fine. The next day, when some of the guys brought the money to the office, Bobby said, ‘What is this for? I don’t remember nothing. Get out of here.’”

Influencing the atmosphere
Along with having a good feel for when the time was right to deliver a message in a heated manner, Cox also had the ability to maintain a sense of calmness. Snitker was reminded of this on Aug. 4, 2007, when Octavio Dotel surrendered a grand slam to Garrett Atkins in a 6-4 win over the Rockies.

“I’m sitting there raising hell and cussing, and he’s sitting there like there’s something wrong with me,” Snitker said. “He was like, ‘No big deal, we’ll just go on to the next thing.’ That’s the way he was during games. We were still winning. He had things under control. And he wanted his players to feel the same way.”

After becoming Cox’s third-base coach during that 2007 season, Snitker quickly realized the players weren’t the only members of the organization the loyal manager regularly protected.

“I’d get somebody thrown out and I’d say, ‘Man, I screwed up there,’” Snitker said. “He’d say, ‘No, you didn’t.’ That was the greatest throw I’ve ever seen or [the player] wasn’t running hard. It was never my fault, even though I knew it was.”

‘It’s OK’
Snitker still laughs about the day former Braves coach Glenn Hubbard approached him and asked, “How do you always get invited to dinner?”

“I said, ‘Haven’t you figured this out yet?’” Snitker said. “If [Cox] sees you, he’ll invite you. I told Hubby, ‘Why do you think I sit there and drink coffee every morning in his office?’ Whenever I get the invite, I say, ‘I’m in,’ and then I leave.”

One of those meals away from the stadium created a running joke between Cox and Perez whenever they would dine together over the final few years of Cox’s managerial career.

“Eddie orders this real nice bottle of wine, has it decanted, and he really wants to impress Bobby,” Snitker said. “Bobby comes in about 20 minutes later. Eddie pours him a glass and says, ‘What do you think?’ Bobby just shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘It’s OK.’ But if Bobby had known Eddie was trying to impress him, ‘He’d have likely told him it was the greatest bottle of wine ever.’”

What Snitker didn’t know was that Cox was simply reacting to what Perez had done a year or two earlier.

“Bobby bought this nice bottle of wine and he put it in the decanter thinking I was going to say, ‘Bobby, this is great,’” Perez said. “When I drank it, I said, ‘It’s OK.’ He was like, ‘What do you mean, it’s OK?’ So anytime after that when we went to dinner, every time I’d pour him a glass, he’d say, ‘Eddie, this wine is just OK.’”

Now, as Cox anxiously hopes for the resumption of baseball, his many friends are looking forward to the chance to once again spend time with the man who had the pleasure of playing with Mickey Mantle, managing four Hall of Famers in Atlanta and seemingly having fun every step of the way.

“We were on a train one time as he told stories and I was thinking, ‘God, we’re on a train like this with the ultimate baseball guy,’” Snitker said. “It was a really cool, special time. I don’t even remember where we were going, but I know nobody wanted to get there. They just wanted to keep riding and listening.”

After beating Columbus Crew SC in an all-eMLS showdown, Doolsta is back to represent Nashville SC in another virtual version of a postponed match.

Nashville SC eMLS athlete Cormac “Doolsta” Dooley will take on D.C. United’s Mohamed “KingCJ0” Alioune Diop this Friday at 7 p.m. in a EA Sports FIFA 20 clash presented by Hyundai. The match will be streamed live on Nashville SC’s Twitch, Facebook and Twitter.  

Here are all of the details on how you can get your soccer fix this Friday night:

The Basics

Competitors: Cormac “Doolsta” Dooley (NSH) vs. Mohamed “KingCJ0” Alioune Diop (DCU)
Venue: EA Sports FIFA 20
Time: 7 P.M. CT
Stream: Nashville SC Twitch, Twitter and Facebook

Format

Doolsta and KingCJ0 will face off over two legs, with the winner decided based on aggregate score. They will be using rosters built using the FIFA Ultimate Team tools. Both squads will wear their respective club’s jerseys, as Nashville SC’s jersey was recently added to the Ultimate Team mode.

Roster Rules

Normal FIFA Ultimate Team roster rules apply, with the additional caveat that each gamer must build their rosters with 10 club players and one Icon card.

Tale of the Tape

Doolsta joined Nashville SC for the 2020 eMLS season after completing a sweep of all three eMLS events in 2019 with the Philadelphia Union. Before this season was put on hold, Doolsta performed well with a quarterfinal finish in eMLS League Series One Philadelphia. After an early exit at eMLS League Series Two Portland, Doolsta found himself in 10^th place in the eMLS standings. Meanwhile, KingCJ0 was having a solid year on the eMLS circuit, landing in 12^th place before the season was paused. He was preparing to enter the Last Chance Qualifier at eMLS Cup with a first-round bye. At eMLS League Series Two Portland, Doolsta and KingCJ0 drew 2-2 in a hotly-contested match.

Tuesday, April 21^st was supposed to be Senior Night for the Coffee County Lady Raider softball team.  Before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the remainder of the season, the Lady Raiders were set to honor their 3 seniors before taking on Franklin County.  On Tuesday night, Coach Brandon McWhorter organized a Senior Night event for Gracie Pippenger, Sarah West and Ashley Evans and their parents. Coach McWhorter received approval to allow our seniors and their parents on the field to celebrate what would have been senior night.

Coach McWhorter described it as this: “This was not your typical senior night, but we made do with what we could.  This group of seniors has so much talent and will now always play the “what-if” game.  They have also had so much taken away from them this year.  I was very thankful to our administration for allowing us to do this one last thing with them to honor and celebrate this incredible group.  This will definitely be a senior night they will never forget.”

Column by Karissa Niehoff, Executive Director of the National Federation of State High School Associations and Bernard Childress, Executive Director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association.

As you know, the coronavirus epidemic has caused havoc in virtually every corner of our community and in lots of different ways.

One group that has been negatively affected in an unexpected way consists of the seniors who are graduating from high school this year. For many, their proms have been cancelled; their diploma will not be awarded to them in front of classmates and family; and their high school careers will end without the usual parties, open houses, handshakes, hugs and tears.    

This is especially true of the area’s student-athletes who are seniors and normally participate in a spring sport. Not only are most of these seniors missing out on prom and graduation activities, spring sports have already been cancelled in many states, and according to the NCAA, 97 percent of them will never play an organized sport again. It’s part of the coming-of-age process that, in reality, is poignant and impactful not only for the students themselves, but also for their families.

With this in mind, please consider sharing the attached op-ed piece with your readers and followers. It will be a meaningful way to celebrate the students who are the future leaders of our community, recognize the fact that, unlike most of us, they won’t have the opportunity to bask in the glory of being a graduating high school senior, and send them on their way with a pat on the back.

https://tssaa.org/article/despite-circumstances-lessons-from-athletic-participation-endure

Thank you for sharing this important message. It’s a gesture that will be very meaningful to your readers and followers. As always, I am available to provide additional insight or answer questions. I would welcome your call or email.

Sincerely,

Bernard Childress, Executive Director
TSSAA

One year ago, more than 600,000 spectators packed Nashville’s Lower Broadway and the adjacent avenues to witness the 2019 National Football League Draft in all its glory.

One year later, our world looks vastly different with COVID-19 in play, but the NFL will still be welcoming their next wave of stars into the League this week – and Predators brass will be taking notes.

Preds General Manager David Poile isn’t necessarily interested in how many quarterbacks are taken in the first round. Instead, he’s curious as to how things will function with NFL general managers, coaches and scouts all residing at home and set to make picks virtually. The NFL’s Draft was scheduled to take place in Las Vegas in the coming days, but the coronavirus pandemic has forced the league to make other arrangements.

That may indeed be the case for the NHL at some point this summer – or fall. Whenever the League is able to reschedule its 2020 draft, an event originally supposed to take place this June at the Bell Centre in Montreal, it too may need to be done remotely.

While it’s too soon to say with any degree of certainty what the NHL Draft will ultimately look like in the months to come, the likelihood things will be different than the norm is high. Therefore, Poile, Predators Assistant General Manager Jeff Kealty and the rest of Nashville’s staff will no doubt be intrigued by their NFL counterparts.

“I certainly want to learn as much as I can about that,” Poile said of the NFL’s upcoming draft process. “We have a pretty good relationship with the [Tennessee] Titans and [General Manager] Jon Robinson, [Head Coach] Mike Vrabel, and when their draft is done and we know what we’re going to do, I certainly will reach out to them to see what they did with their scouts and their player personnel, all of those type of things.”

Poile and Kealty do have a somewhat similar situation to build from if necessary, at least from a hockey standpoint. Back in 2005, the NHL and NHLPA officially agreed to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement on July 22 to end a year-long lockout. Less than 10 days later, the League held the 2005 draft from a hotel in Ottawa, a vastly scaled-down version compared to the usual format.

“It was a lockout that carried all the way into the summer, and when you finally came to the resolution at some point in July, the next thing you know, you’ve got to hold the draft a week or two later,” Kealty recalled. “It very well may be something like that, so we’re going to prepare as best we can for that. We’re in that process right now, we’re going through the paces a little bit… and kind of just trying to have a gradual build. So that way… when the Draft does take place, we’re prepared for it, but it’s kind of touch and go at this point… But we’re going to have the list ready to go and have a plan in place.”

As of now, that plan will include one selection in the first round and two picks in both the second and third rounds, an enticing scenario in what many are calling one of the deeper drafts in recent memory. However, another challenge brought about by the cancellation of current seasons all across junior hockey is the inability for scouts to get final in-person looks at players who have been generating buzz.

“The biggest challenge right now is time lost, so to speak, in terms of viewing, getting your last viewings in on guys,” Kealty said. “But, we have a really experienced staff here…and we had our viewings over the course of the year, and now with the video work that we’re able to do, our [Amateur Scouting Video Coordinator] Nick Lubrano is really hard at work trying to supplement a lot of the games we might have missed when scouting the rest of the season. It’s not an ideal situation, but we’ll be able to fill the gaps as best we can, as well as we can.”

What’s clear in all of this is the need for adaptation and flexibility, just like so many in their everyday lives right now. And regardless of when the 2020 Draft takes place, how many people will be in the room or how many buttons will need to be pressed to make a selection, the Predators are well into their preparations.

“Our scouts are looking at all the players that we have interest in…and whether we have somebody rated in the fourth or fifth round doesn’t matter,” Poile said. “What matters is if we’re interested in them. We’ve probably crossed off players that are going to be taken in the start of third or fourth round just because that’s not the type of player that we want. The concentration is on guys that we really want… We’re very confident we’ll be fine, and I think this is probably a good exercise for [our scouts] to do it. They know a lot about most players, but again, watching guys on a little bit more video than maybe traditionally, I think this could be a real good mix for our scouting staff.”

With five picks in the first three rounds, finding the next Roman Josi or Viktor Arvidsson is certainly possible. So, whether those names are called two months from now or six, it’s difficult to hide the excitement.

“We’ve talked about that a lot internally, and we haven’t had that situation in quite a while,” Kealty said. “As a staff, everybody is really excited about the opportunity to produce in terms of restocking the cupboard. That’s our goal here… We had a full draft last year…so we’re climbing our way back in terms of rebuilding our pipeline… We still believe that we’re in that competitive state, and to keep going along that path, you always need to have good players that are coming up within the system. We feel like with this draft we can really add to that, but it’s going to be different because we’re not quite sure when that draft is going to be yet. But the preparations will be there, and I think it will be a good showing.”

SAM KERR, Murfreesboro Softball Association
After graduating from Murfreesboro’s historic Central High School, Sam Kerr enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University, where he graduated with majors and minors in Agriculture, English and Physical Education.
But it’s the enlightenment and experiences Kerr recalls outside of the classroom that he carries with him today.
“I went to college in a very turbulent time, and I learned a lot more out of classroom than in the classroom,” said Kerr. “I saw flag burnings, protests, civil rights violations, and it was just a very turbulent time in our history. It was a wonderful experience in college, but there was definitely pain with it.
“I drug it out over five years, because I had to work my way through school. I was an only child and my father had died when I was in high school.”
After six years of teaching at Nashville’s former Tennessee Preparatory School, Kerr transitioned to a distinguished career with the City of Murfreesboro, where he retired in 1991 after first becoming a part-time City employee in 1958.
A gifted baseball player in his day, Kerr transferred that passion from the baseball diamond to the softball field – after also logging time officiating other sports as well.
“I started with basketball and football for many years, and I’m now the state supervisor for softball in Tennessee,” Kerr said. “My parents were older parents when I was born, and they taught me to stay with things that I started. I enjoyed sports, and I had great help along the way, like Jack Deere, and he was a role model that I wanted to be like. I stayed with him for a long time.”
Kerr also credited a loving wife who never complained about all those nights away from home – especially the football Fridays that could have been date-nights.
“My wife, Nelda Nolen, from Houston, was very supportive of it,” said Kerr, who logged work in six softball state championships before he transitioned into an assigning role. “We never had any disagreements about it, and when you’ve worked 50 years of football, you’ve been away from home 500 Friday nights plus many playoffs, many bowl games. I was blessed. I was around good people, good training and the organization was very good to me. I started with A.F. Bridges, also worked with Ronnie Carter, Gil Gideon and a good one now with Bernard Childress. I love it.”

DOYLE LOWE, Murfreesboro Softball Association
Doyle Lowe began high school at Murfreesboro Central, but he graduated from nearby Smyrna High School after spending his final two years at the school.
The reason? A competitive drive and love for athletics that has since burned for several decades.
“I went to Murfreesboro Central High School, and the coach said I was too small to play basketball,” Lowe said. “Well, my sophomore year I started to grow and went to and played basketball at Smyrna and graduated from there in 1964.”
Before the end of the decade, Lowe had begun to officiate high school football games for the Tullahoma Football Association. By 1972 Lowe had added basketball officiating to his duties, which also included a full-time career with the State of Tennessee in its engineering/surveying department, a post Lowe held for 46 years before his retirement.
“I’ve enjoyed doing it, and I’ve kept in shape and gotten exercise,” Lowe said. “And you’ve got some officials, it goes to their heads. I’m there for the players, I want to help them out and talk to them. If it’s basketball, talk to them, tell them get out of there rather than have to call three seconds. It’s their game, not mine. I don’t want to be a showboat or anything. I want to do a job and be there for them. That’s it.”
Kerr praised Lowe as a stalwart in their association.
“Doyle Lowe has been one of the finest I’ve worked with,” Kerr said. “He never complained. He showed up and did his job.”
Lowe points to a variety of fond memories from his times officiating and umpiring, including a Portland-White House playoff football contest and a Warren County-Father Ryan showdown.
Mostly, though, he remembers the people and just a desire to help young folks on their way in life.
“I enjoyed working with Mr. Ronnie Carter and Gene Beck, too,” Lowe said. “They were good men to work with.
“But I just tried to do my best for the kids and the coaches. If I missed a call, I was really upset. I just wanted to be honest out there and make it about the kids and the coaches. It was always their game.”
TSSAA is proud to recognize these three outstanding individuals for their decades of service to the member schools and student-athletes.