John Shackelford begins his fifth full year as Director of Athletics for the University of the South in 2026-27. Named to the role on Nov. 15, 2021, he enters his 41st 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).
 
Shackelford spends a great deal of his time fundraising for major developments in the department, including new turf fields at Harris Field (football, men’s lacrosse) and Puett Field (soccer, field hockey, women’s lacrosse) along with a new track surface at Harris Stadium during the summer of 2024.
 
Fowler Center has undergone several different projects over the last three years, including the resurfacing and painting of Juhan Gymnasium, a remodeled film room, new office spaces and a fueling station for student-athletes. The domino project is set to finish during summer 2026, a year-long venture that includes moving and renovating the athletic training room, a new weight room and workout area as well as a men’s lacrosse locker room.
 
During his tenure as head coach at Sewanee, the men’s tennis team won 551 matches and 12 conference titles, reaching the NCAA Tournament 16 times. He 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. Shackelford is currently serving his fourth term as a member of the Men’s and Women’s Tennis National Committees as well as a special advisor on the ITA Board of Directors after previously working with the organization as both the national ranking chair and national awards chair. In 2023 he was awarded the ITA Meritorious Service
Award for his contributions to college tennis.

He has overseen multiple ITA Regional Championships, as well as the 2017, 2021 and 2026 NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis National Championships. The NCAA events are in partnership with the City of Chattanooga and Chattanooga Sports.

Shackelford won four Coach of the Year honors, twice in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (1993, 2001) and twice in the Southern Athletic Association (2014, 2018). In 2017, he was honored as the Atlantic South Region Coach of Year, awarded by the ITA. 

Away from the courts, Shackelford served from 2011-16 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 every summer.

A native of Asheville, N.C., Shackelford, earned a bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington in Physical Education (1983) and received a master’s 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.

Shackelford and his wife, Conchie, who serves as the women's tennis coach for the Tigers, live in Sewanee, and they have four daughters – Avery, Sadie, Michaela and Tessa C'24 – and one grandson, Conan.

Updated 6/16/26