11-20-2021
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| CROWN POINT, IN (08-27-2009) Mark Smith and Dave Woodworth recording the weekly Thursday night pregame show for airing the following night on 89.1 FM (at the time, WWLO - presently known as WLPR , The Lakeshore). Mark Smith and Dave Woodworth were the play-by play voices for Crown Point Bulldogs football, boys and girls basketball and baseball and girls softball games between 2004-2019 on USA-365.com. (Photo by Dave Woodworth, from USA-365.com archives.) |
Mark grew up in Chicago and moved to Northwest Indiana in the mid-1980s. He is survived by his sister Kathy. Though his relatives were small in number, Mark viewed the community as his family and deeply valued the roots he grew here in the region. For many years he worked for the Lake County Star out of Crown Point and regularly covered various teams from Crown Point, Lowell and Hanover high schools. His notoriety across Lake County came from his radio and television career. Many will remember him as one of the hosts of the Prep Football Report. Mark was devoted to the athletes, coaches, and fans of the area, and his love of local sports was a passion he maintained throughout his time in the region.
A memorial service will be held at Burns Funeral Home (10101 Broadway, Crown Point, IN 46307) (www.burnsfuneral.com) on Tuesday, November 30. Doors will open for guest visitation at 4:30 p.m. and a time of sharing tributes for Mark Smith begins at 5 p.m. CST. Anyone who would like to say a few words or share a story in remembrance of Mark is welcome.
Mark Smith Memorial Fund
Centier Bank
177 E. Joliet Sreet
Crown Point, IN 46307
Donations can also me made online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/mark-smith-memorial-fund.
More about Mark Smith:
Mark Smith was a long time sports reporter for the old Lake County Star (later bought by the Post-Tribune) weekly newspaper covering sports at Lowell, Hanover Central and Crown Point high schools. Mark's newspaper job ended in 2013 due to significant down-sizing taking place at the Post-Tribune.
He
continued writing sports stories that we
published on USA-365.com up through
the 2021 high school football season. During
the football season, our busiest sports
season, Mark wrote up to five stories a
week, including weekly game preview stories
for Lowell and Crown Point, a feature game
recap story with up to a dozen photos each
and weekly Renegade Top-10 (and
later, his "Renegade Maginificent-7"
polls and his "Mr. Picker" regional
game predictions.
Mark Smith was also well known for his
co-hosting the weekly television "Prep
Sports Report" on WYIN-TV, Channel 56,
beginning in 1987 and continuing for about
10-years.
I (Dave Woodworth) personally first got to
know Mark Smith at WWJY-103.9 FM, Crown
Point, IN when he hosted a sports call-in
show, "Speaking of Sports," over the
6pm hour once or twice a week. I was the
evening radio board operator/announcer in
the early 1990s and he also came back to the
studio after the Friday night high school
game of the week and we ran "The
Scoreboard Show," with scores from
around the region. Mark Smith took calls
from region sports fans during the show to
talk about the night's big games.
Since the pay at USA-365.com was negligible, Mark Smith had a fulltime day job for 13-years as a driver for NOW Courier, based out of Merrillville. He drove all over Indiana and his supervisor had been Jennifer Castanedo, who has organized the GoFund.me account. Jennifer and David Woodworth equally oversee the Mark Smith Memorial Fund.
About USA-365.com:
The web site www.USA-365.com has
been posting high school sports stories
since 2002, covering primarily the high
schools in South Lake County, including
Crown Point, Lowell, Hanover Central, Boone
Grove, Merrillville and Andrean. Sports
writer Mark Smith has been the primary
contributor of content to this website over
those years.