Mocs Mark Wharton Wins Prestigious Athletic Director’s Award

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Mark Wharton’s leadership of the Mocs athletic department has not gone unnoticed.
UTC announced Monday that Wharton has won the Cushman and Wakefield Athletic Director of the year Award. He’s one of four AD’s on the FCS level to receive the prestigious honor.

Mark Wharton admits he was surprised to be named one of the top athletic directors in America.
Reporter:”Were you even aware you were nominated for this award?”
Said Wharton:”I was not. I was not. It was humbling because you look as a young administrator when I started going up. You see the names of those athletic directors that you aspire to be or want to be. Now to have a name on it. It’s kind of. Either I’m old or part of that we’ve done some things right.”
During his six seasons on the job, the Mocs have won SoCon titles in five different sports, and UTC athletes have done well in the classroom with a 91 percent graduation rate in 2022.
Said Wharton:”I just think at the FCS level this is the best FCS job in the country. You look at the town, the city, the resources. I just love coming to work everyday. Having the opportunity. We joke from eight to nine in the morning, you can come to my office, and there’s five or six people sitting down talking about random stuff. Very random stuff.”
I think that’s called shootin’ the bull.
In the end, Wharton hopes he shoots’em straight in UTC athletics.
Said Wharton:”And the coaches can tell you that I rarely say no. Say gimme time.”
Reporter:”Is that your slogan? Gimme time?”
Said Wharton:”Yeah gimme time. And usually it works. I mean so. It might be a year or two years, but most of the time we’re able to get it done.”
Get’r done. That of course is the ultimate goal.
Said Wharton:”That’s the hard part. Keeping it at the top. It doesn’t always work, but we are going to keep choppin’ wood and make it happen.”