Kingsport is a small city hidden in Sullivan County in Tennessee, United States. With a population of around 44,000 people, Kingsport was designed and planned by John Nolen of Cambridge earning the name of garden city. As a result of this plan the city is organized into a well rounded structure comprising of separate areas for residential areas, churches, commerce zones and industrial zones. It had been this city that popularized traffic circles and built a school system based on a model designed by the Columbia University.
The population in this area features a mix of African Americans, Whites, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics. There is a school district that goes by the name of Kingsport City Schools and houses one preschool, one high school, seven elementary schools, one alternative school and two middle schools. Together with these schools, Kingsport also boasts of eight private academies. Even though there are no colleges or universities that are housed in Kingsport, The University of Tennessee, the East Tennessee State University and the Northeast State Technical Community College have their branch campuses in this area.
The East Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee are the two universities that have an active athletics and sports arm. As Kingsport is really a small city the folks take interest in many of the college sports plays there and in the nearby areas. East Tennessee State University or ETSU as it’s also known as is a part of the Tennessee Board of Regents system of universities and colleges and has a functional school of medicine, a college of pharmacy and is credited with the title of being one of Americas best value colleges.
The athletic team in the college goes by the name of the Buccaneers. They participate in the NCAA Division I Atlantic Sun Conference. They’ve been successful in winning a number of titles both in the mens and womens categories. The main sports that this college plays are baseball, basketball, football, tennis, track and field, softball and golf.
The University of Tennessee is headquartered in Knoxville and has nine undergraduate departments along with eleven graduate departments. It has a student population of more than 28000 students from over fifty states in the United States and from 100 foreign countries. The University of Tennessee carries with it an illustrious football tradition as well as being considered the states highest center of learning aside from being the primary economic propellant.
The University of Tennessee continues to be champions in football participating in the Southeastern Conferences eastern Division. They have got longstanding sports rivalries with the Universities of Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. They have also won several National Championships and boast of some very prominent names such as Peyton Manning who was the Super bowl Champion and NFL athlete Reggie White.
These two were some of the few athletes who began their careers on the University of Tennessee campus. Their womens basketball team has additionally been consistent winners of the NCAA Division I titles and are also arch rivals with Georgia, LSU and Vanderbilt.
All the news on the sports action that surrounds these colleges is brought to Kingsport by the Kingsport Times News. This local paper is one of the major publications of Northeast Tennessee and has been in publication since 1916 with an average daily circulation of 44,000 copies.