Brentwood, Tenn. –On Thursday the Ohio Valley Conference announced that Chris Brinkley, radio voice for the University of Tennessee at Martin, has been named the winner of the 2018-19 OVC Media Award which is given to a media member who exhibits the highest commitment to covering the OVC.
The awards were established in 2010 as a way to recognize the media members who provide publicity for the Conference, its member institutions and intercollegiate athletics, perform their jobs in a fair, consistent and accurate manner, provide all-around coverage for a variety of sports and demonstrate the ability to go above and beyond their normal beat or job description.
“The OVC has a lot of great stories to tell and we are fortunate to have an outstanding group of media covering our schools, which was evident in the great candidates we had for the awards again this year,” said Kyle Schwartz, OVC Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Communications. “It is great to have an award that recognizes media members who have made significant contributions in covering the OVC and its member institutions.”
Brinkley is entering his 20th season at the helm of broadcasting Skyhawk athletics in 2019-20. He serves as the play-by-play broadcaster for men’s basketball and color commentator for football and women’s basketball and has hosted live postgame coaches show after each home basketball game. He now serves as UT Martin’s talent coordinator for its ESPN+ broadcasts while also serving as the primary play-by-play broadcaster for all sports.
Brinkley hosts the “Skyhawk Talk” weekly coaches show from August through March with an assortment of head coaches, student-athletes and athletics department staff members as his guests. He also has served as the host for the “Jason Simpson Show” and the “Kevin McMillan Show”, a video coaches show which recapped the previous opponent and previewed the upcoming opponent. He devotes at least one entire segment each show addressing team and individual performances from around the OVC.
Brinkley also hosts “Squawk Talk,” a live pregame show during home football games that involves an extensive scouting report on the opponent, fan interaction and other interviews with guests while capturing the spirit of a college football game day. The show has become so popular that several hundred UT Martin fans – as well as opposing fans – will tailgate just outside the main entrance of Hardy Graham Stadium to see what Brinkley and his guests have in store for the upcoming game.
In addition, Brinkley serves as the event emcee for all athletics functions at UT Martin. That includes NCAA Tournament selection show viewing parties and OVC Tournament banquets that are held on campus, as many opposing coaches and OVC administrators have remarked that Brinkley’s energetic and entertaining dialogue was the key in making the event a success.
Brinkley has recently envisioned plans for an “Around the OVC” podcast which would allow listeners to learn the ins and outs of each of the 12 OVC towns. Brinkley envisions conversations with school representatives about the highlights and history of each town that they have encountered during their yearly travels to each destination.
Brinkley also volunteered at the 2014 NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four hosted by the OVC in Nashville, serving as a media host during the four-day event at Bridgestone Arena. He followed that up by serving as a media relations assistant at the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Sweet 16/Elite 8 rounds at FedEx Forum in Memphis.
Away from the athletics forum, Brinkley spent 20-plus years hosting the “Good Times in the Morning” radio show at WCMT 101.3 FM in Martin, where he often kept local listeners informed of the latest OVC news and notes. He currently serves as an adjunct professor in the UT Martin department of communications as well as the department of health and human performance. He also is an accomplished narrator of audiobooks, as he has provided the voiceover work for over 200 different projects in the last three years alone. That includes a “D-Day in HD” documentary that aired on the History Channel in June 2014.
