Football Game Benefiting Martin Family

On Friday night Raymond James Stadium will play host to the Stump Martin Memorial Senior Gridiron Showcase.

The football showcase will display the talents of recent graduates from Northwest Georgia and the greater Chattanooga area. Player introductions are scheduled for 7:15 p.m., with kickoff at 7:30.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for high school students who show a valid school ID. Children under 10 will be admitted free. Parking at the event is $3, and concessions stands will be open with proceeds going to the Martin family.

Martin, a former sportswriter for the Chattanooga News-Free Press and Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of East Ridge, passed away on May 10 after an extended illness.

He hosted a popular sports television show and for more than a decade orchestrated the Stump on Sports Tennessee-Georgia All-Star Football Classic.

Pioneer football coach Tim James is serving as the director of this year’s event.

“I knew Stump for 30 years and he did more for high school sports in this area then just about anyone,” James said. “As an athletic community, we owe a debt to him and this is just a small way to pay him back for what he did for high school sports in this area and help keep his memory alive.”

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.

About Dick Cook

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