John Shackelford enters his second season as Director of Athletics for the University of the South. Named to the role on Nov. 15, 2021, he is in his 38th year with the athletic department after 33 seasons as head men's tennis coach (1986-2018) and three years as Director of Tennis (2019-21). 

During his tenure as coach, the men’s tennis team won 551 career matches and 12 conference titles, and made 16 appearances in the NCAA Tournament. He has served two terms on and as chair of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Tennis Committees, and worked with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) as both the national ranking chair and national awards chair.

He has overseen multiple ITA Regional Championships, as well as the 2017 and 2021 NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championships. After earning the bids on technicality, he was a factor in earning the University of the South an official host of the 2026 NCAA Tennis Championships. The NCAA events are in partnership with the City of Chattanooga and Chattanooga Sports. 

He has won four Coach of the Year honors in his career. His peers made him the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Coach of the Year award twice (1993-2001) and the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) Coach of the Year honor twice (2014-18). In 2017, he was honored as the Atlantic South Region Coach of Year, awarded by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. 

Away from the courts, Shackelford served from 2011 to 2016 as special assistant to former Vice-Chancellor John McCardell, leading the ReThink Task Force and chairing the Cornerstone Initiative with the charge of studying student life outside the classroom. Additionally, in 1987 he launched the Tiger Tennis Camp with 18 students. The camp has flourished since, serving both adults and juniors and now hosting more than 600 campers on the Domain every summer. 

A native of Asheville, N.C., Shackelford, affectionately known as “Coach Shack,” has a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in physical education (1983) and has a master’s degree in Education from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (1987). He played tennis at Asheville High School and UNC-Wilmington and held a No. 1 Southern doubles ranking with former player Pat Guerry in the late 1980s.

John and his wife, Conchie, who serves as the women's tennis coach at the college, live in Sewanee, and they have four daughters; Avery, Sadie, Michaela, and Tessa C'24. 

Updated 6/28/22