Sports Director Marshall Hughes has been at WATE since 2016.
He was born in Macon, Georgia but grew up in Houston, Texas. Marshall found a love for sports at an early age, particularly baseball and football. He’s an avid fan of the Astros, Rockets, and Texans in his hometown. Marshall played baseball and football from kindergarten through high school, where he was voted a team captain on the football team. He went on to play linebacker at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.
Marshall’s first newscasts were at his high school, where he read the morning announcements on a daily basis. While playing football, he continued his dream of sportscasting at Harding. The 2012 Communications Student of the Year worked as a sports anchor for the University’s ‘TV16’ newscasts and as the sports editor for ‘The Bison’ newspaper. Marshall was voted TV16 Student of the Year and ‘Best Bison Reporter’ in his senior year.
Marshall came to Knoxville from Midland, Texas, where he covered a wide range of sports for over three years, maybe none more important to the area than high school football under the Friday Night Lights. He also covered the 2013 NBA Finals in San Antonio, Dallas Cowboys Training Camp in Oxnard, California and Texas Tech’s 2014 run to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. While working in the Midland-Odessa market, Marshall earned two first-place awards from the Texas Association of Broadcasters.
He continued that success in Knoxville, winning first place for Sports Reporting in 2017 and 2018 by the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists. Marshall has covered the most attended college football game in history at the Battle at Bristol, USA Cycling Pro Road and Time Trial National Championships, Bassmaster Classic and the Nashville Predators’ run to the Stanley Cup Finals. But what keeps Marshall busiest on Rocky Top is what’s happening on Rocky Top. If he’s not at the office, there’s a good chance he’s on campus covering the Tennessee Vols.
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