Joe Biddle, former Tennessee sports columnist, dies at 78

A former Tennessee sports columnist and radio personality has passed away. Joe Biddle, who wrote for the Nashville Banner and The Tennessean over his career, passed away Wednesday after a battle with dementia, The Tennessean announced.

Biddle, 78, started his writing career in 1971 with the Johnson City Press Chronicle before working for the Daytona Beach News-Journal from 1972-79. That’s when he started covering college football and basketball, as well as the Daytona 500 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Then, Biddle moved back to Tennessee to work for the Nashville Banner from 1981 until the paper shut down in 1998. He went from writer to sports editor and columnist during his time at the publication and made a name for himself picking college football games against readers. “I Beat Biddle” became a popular contest and the winners received a bumper sticker with the phrase on it.

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Once the Banner shut down, The Tennessean hired Biddle as a columnist and he worked there until 2011. From there, he worked at the Williamson Herald and WRKN-2 to finish out his career.

All told, Biddle covered 31 Super Bowls, 31 Final Fours, 30 Masters tournaments, 12 World Series, two Summer Olympics, a Ryder Cup and several college football national championships and bowl games. One of those World Series trips came in 1989 when he got trapped in the press box during the famous earthquake as the Oakland Athletics took on the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park.

Once he finished his writing career, Biddle became involved with WWTN-FM, where he co-hosted “SportsNight,” the station’s afternoon drive show alongside host George Plaster. That show became Nashville’s top-rated show for years, according to The Tennessean, and Biddle’s impersonation of former Tennessee coach Johnny Majors became popular with listeners.

In fact, Majors told Biddle people thought they sounded alike, but he didn’t hear it. However, he had a slight grin on his face when he said so.