chattanooga MOCS

There have been few UC/UTC athletics staffers who have touched as many individuals as Tinkler did during her 30-year career (1968-98) as an academic advisor to the school’s student-athletes. Tinkler’s career in higher education brought her to the University as an instructor in the Department of English. As it turned out, her true calling was working with the student-athletes in their academic endeavors. She not only served as a guide through their individual academic careers, but also as a lighthouse for their respective lives in and after college, setting their journeys off on the right course.

One former student-athlete described Tinkler as teacher, professor, psychologist, coach, mother and priest. The many roles and responsibilities she was required to take on grew throughout her career as she was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director for Academics in 1984.

Although retiring from the University in 1998, Tinkler remained active with campus and community events. With a personal data base like an historian, she was a member of the Century of Chattanooga Football committee, and she also organized a Homecoming reunions. She could be seen at just about every home and away Mocs football game and home men’s basketball game before her passing in August of 2018.