Sumner County native and Tennessee Tech University junior Jameson Wharton is making an impact as a standout student-athlete for the Golden Eagle football team, but it’s his efforts off the field that are forming the greatest difference in others’ lives.
When the Hendersonville High School graduate was 10 years old, his beloved Aunt Susie lost a valiant battle with ovarian cancer. Wharton, now 20, still remembers the special bond they shared.
“My Aunt Susie was the type of woman, she would walk in the room and light up the room,” Wharton recalled on a recent episode of Tech’s “College Town Talk” podcast. “She was a family woman, she was a retired schoolteacher, she did a lot in the community … [she] was just someone I could go to, I could talk to.”
After his aunt’s passing, Wharton knew that he wanted to turn his grief into action that would help others. With his family’s help and support, the then-elementary school student launched “Football for the Cure,” an annual flag football event to raise money for the American Cancer Society and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
“I didn’t want anyone else to feel what I was feeling,” Wharton explained. “I was like, ‘maybe I can help make a difference.’”
The event started off small, attracting between 10 to 15 participants in its first year. Today, Football for the Cure is a beloved Sumner County tradition that has attracted hundreds of participants and raised thousands of dollars over its 11-year history. The 2024 event, held in late October in Hendersonville, brought in 70 registrants and benefited two young Sumner Countians battling cancer diagnoses.
Some of Wharton’s fellow Golden Eagle football players, including defensive backs Bertin Placide and Timothy Jones, even showed up to help make the event a success.
“It meant the world to me to have some of my teammates out there just showing love and showing the community what Tennessee Tech brings to the table,” said Wharton. “Getting that support was huge to me.”
For Wharton, the help of his teammates at this year’s Football for the Cure is part of a broader sense of welcome and community he has experienced since transferring to Tech at the start of the semester.
“I feel like I moved here, and I just got welcomed into the city immediately,” said Wharton. “As soon as I committed here, I had people from Cookeville texting me, hitting my phone telling me, ‘You’ve got to try out this spot’ … I’m surprised I never even knew how great of a town Cookeville was until I moved here.”
His arrival at Tech comes as the university’s football program is experiencing a resurgence led by the recent hire of Head Coach Bobby Wilder and a soon-to-be-built new westside stadium.
“You can’t talk about Cookeville or Tennessee Tech without mentioning Coach Wilder,” said Wharton. “He is a real genuine person and that’s why he’s got so many recruits coming into Tennessee Tech. So many guys in the transfer portal wanted to come play for him. He’s just a visionary.”
Wharton adds that the team’s forthcoming stadium and the plans to build a dedicated Football Operations Center are all part of “a lot of good things going on behind the scenes.”
“Honestly, it shows how invested everybody is in making this a top-tier football program,” he explained.
Inspired by role models like Coach Wilder and the fulfillment he has gained through interacting with young athletes each year at Football for the Cure, Wharton is pursuing an interdisciplinary studies degree at Tech with an emphasis area in coaching.
“All the glory goes to God, because he’s the one that made my path to get me to Cookeville,” Wharton concluded.
Listen to Wharton’s full “College Town Talk” podcast interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, YouTube and other platforms.
Subscribe to our Newsletter!
