Tennessee Tech Golden Eagle football player raises money for cancer research
Tennessee Tech junior Jameson Wharton speaks to the crowd at the 2024 Football for
the Cure, an annual event he started 11 years ago to raise money for cancer research.
Photo by Christina Moore.
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 Sumner County native 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.
From left: Tennessee Tech Golden Eagle football defensive backs Jameson Wharton, Timothy
Jones and Bertin Placide at this year’s Football for the Cure event. Photo by Christina
Moore. 
Jameson Wharton speaks as he is flanked by the two young Sumner Countians who will
benefit from the funds raised at this year’s Football for the Cure event: Liam (left)
and Jason (right). Photo by Christina Moore.
“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.
And while Wharton’s philanthropic efforts have landed him well-deserved praise – including
a recent story on the Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN News 2 – he is quick to give the credit to a
higher power.
“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.
