Tennessee Sports Renaissance Man is a new-age newsletter and blog covering the Tennessee Volunteers. Each day, Chase Thomas (‘22 University of Tennessee-Knoxville alum) writes various columns, features, and other pieces on the Vols. In addition to his written work that you will find here at SRM, Chase hosts a daily Tennessee Vols sports podcast called The Chase Thomas Podcast that features all kinds of great Tennessee Vols media members, current Vol athletes, VFLs, and much more. Chase was also the host of ‘The Chase’ on FANRUN Sports Radio & FOX Sports Knoxville every weekday from 1:00PM-3:00PM EST on WKGN 105.7FM & 1340AM before departing in September 2025.
Chase Thomas is…The Sports Renaissance Man
Who Is Tennessee’s Sports Renaissance Man?
My name is Chase Thomas, and I’m the Founder & Publisher of SRM and the host of The Chase Thomas Podcast.
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The Chase Thomas Podcast
“Chase Thomas is one of my favorite up-and-coming guys in sports media. He covers a little bit of anything and everything in the sports world, a 2017 sports renaissance man.” - Brandon Anderson
I am originally from Stone Mountain, GA. (Parkview forever!) I graduated from the University of North Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism in 2015. I would later graduate from the University of Tennessee with a master’s degree in Strategic & Digital Communications as well in 2022.. Along with my duties here at SRM, I host Knoxville’s No. 1 daily independent Tennessee Volunteers podcast — The Chase Thomas Podcast.
From North Georgia to Tennessee, it was always meant to be for me.
(Here’s a photo of me in a vintage North Georgia sweater below in the early ‘90s at a Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt game on the field at Neyland Stadium.)
What Is SRM Varsity?
In addition to all of my Tennessee Vols writing and podcasting, I also love to write and podcast about high school football here in East Tennessee and beyond.
If you’re a longtime reader or listener of mine, you’ve likely read or heard lots of high school football coaches appear on my program or blog. If you’re a fan of my local preps coverage, I highly recommend that you subscribe specifically to this section of the newsletter.
Essentially, if you’re not a Vol fan here in the East Tennessee market, but you are a fan of high school football then SRM Varsity may be something you want to subscribe to.
Why Subscribe to SRM?
This is both important and weird for me to have to answer, but it is also something I should be able to answer if I want you, the reader and listener, to want to read and listen more and keep up with me.
As a Stone Mountain native, I grew up racing to the driveway to check Georgia high school football scores and read sports pieces early on Saturday mornings in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution along with the local Gwinnett Daily Post. I grew up around elite high school football, and my love for sports and sportswriting only grew from there. I memorized everything there was to know, or so I thought, about sports from the time I was around seven years old to the time I attended the University of Georgia’s journalism camp before my senior year of high school where a fellow journalism camper referred to me as a “walking sports encyclopedia”, but not in a complimentary way I would later learn. I struggle to exist without a firm handle across all major sports. Whether it’s Friday Night Lights in East Tennessee or the Los Angeles Lakers, I like to stay on top of it all. I have to. It’s all I know.
This.
This thing.
This writing thing.
This is all I've ever wanted to do. Write professionally. I’m both too old to dream and too young to quit. I can’t imagine chasing anything else. I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else. Writing makes me happy. Typing on this keyboard on a blank canvas makes me happy. Talking into a microphone for a podcast makes me happy.
In this publication, I promise I will write daily about the Tennessee Volunteers, and I will do my damndest to write well. This is a completely different kind of Tennessee Vols publication, and I hope you will come along for the ride.
Best,
Chase
