Tusculum Announces Sports Hall Of Fame Class

The 2024 Tusculum University Sports Hall of Fame class has been announced and four new members will be inducted later this fall.

This year’s honorees will be inducted during Sports Hall of Fame Weekend festivities on Oct. 26. This year’s class includes: football All-American Justin Houston; former baseball coach and athletic director Doug Jones; women’s tennis All-American and Academic All-American Annie McCullough; and men’s basketball standout Dante Owens.

The Sports Hall of Fame Breakfast will be held at the Meen Center Boardroom on the Greeneville campus beginning at 8:30 a.m. The inductees will also be honored during TU’s football game against Anderson University at 1 p.m.

Justin Houston Football

From 2012-2015, Justin Houston accounted for arguably the greatest playing career by a Tusculum wide receiver. His 322 career receptions are still a South Atlantic Conference and TU record while his 3,182 career receiving yards are the most by a Pioneer and listed sixth in the SAC record book.

The Chattanooga native posted two All-America seasons in 2013 and 2015, while earning All-Region laurels on three occasions and was a three-time All-Conference first team performer.

He also holds TU career records in all-purpose yards (4668) and career kickoff returns (68), while he is second in career touchdown receptions (24), third in career touchdowns (27), third in career kickoff return yards (1470), fifth in career points scored (164), ninth in career all-purpose attempts (395) and 10th in career kickoff return average (21.62). He also holds the program record with his 13 games of 100 receiving yards.

In 2013, he garnered All-America distinction by the Football Gazette, Beyond Sports Network and USA College Football. He was also a consensus All-Region pick and earned All-SAC first team honors for the first time. He established a TU single-season record with 1,347 receiving yards (4th in SAC history) on 110 catches (2nd in SAC history). His 11.00 receptions per game average was second most in NCAA Division II that season. He hauled in seven TD receptions and returned a kickoff for a 99-yard touchdown against Wingate which is the third-longest in school history. He set a Tusculum single-game record at Brevard where he amassed 317 all-purpose yards.

In his junior campaign, he was an All-Region and All-SAC honoree as he finished with 66 receptions for 643 yards and four touchdowns. He once again shined on special teams as he averaged 27.82 yards per kickoff return which was second in the league and 19th-best nationally. He led the country with his two kickoff returns for touchdowns, covering 65 and 91 yards.

Houston earned All-America recognition for a second time in 2015 as he led the conference with his 106 receptions (2nd in TU history) for 799 yards and tied a school-record with his nine TD catches. He recorded 10 or more receptions on six occasions in 2015 including 15 grabs for a season-high 155 yards and three touchdowns against Lenoir-Rhyne. He also posted a season-best 16 receptions for 129 yards against Mars Hill. In 2015 he was named his team’s most valuable player.

He was a member of the SAC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Dean’s List, Charles Oliver Gray Honors List and the Tusculum Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. In 2013, he earned a spot on the NCAA Division II Academic All-District first team.

He graduated from Tusculum in 2016 with his Bachelor of Arts degree while majoring in mathematics. He later earned his graduate degree in teaching from Lee University.

He has been a mathematics teacher for four years including two years at Tyner Academy and is currently at East Ridge High School.

While at Tyner, he was on the football coaching staff where he helped the Rams to a 2022 TSSAA State Championship. He was also the head track and field coach as Tyner finished as TSSAA State runner-up.

Houston is currently teaching math at East Ridge and is offering sports training to youth in the Chattanooga community.

He and his wife Makayla reside in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Doug Jones Baseball Coach/Athletic Director

For 26 years, Doug Jones was a legend, both during his 21 seasons as Tusculum’s baseball coach and his last eight as the University’s athletic director.

The Norfolk, Virginia, native amassed a career record of 705-412-1 while leading the Pioneers. His 705 wins are the most in Tusculum history and the second-most by a South Atlantic Conference skipper.

Jones guided the Pioneers to winning seasons in 18 of his 21 years, including a string of 17 consecutive winning seasons from 2002-2017, and a 14-year span (2004-2017) that saw the Pioneers reach 30-plus wins each year, including five seasons with 40 or more victories.

Under Jones’ leadership, the Pioneers won five SAC Championships, four SAC Tournament titles, and made seven trips to the NCAA Division II Tournament. He was named SAC Baseball Coach of the Year three times and was tabbed the Art Arguaer Award recipient on four occasions, which recognizes the athletic department’s coach of the year.

Jones mentored 20 All-Americans, 47 All-Region honorees, 92 All-Conference players, four SAC Players of the Year, two SAC Freshmen of the Year and five SAC Pitchers of the Year. Fifty-three (53) Pioneers have garnered SAC All-Tournament distinction during his watch, including four tournament most valuable players. During his tenure, 30 Pioneers played professional baseball.

Off the field, Jones served on several baseball committees, including serving as chair of the NCAA Division II Southeast Region Baseball Committee and chair of the NCAA Division II National Baseball Committee.

He served the dual role as head baseball coach and vice president for athletics from 2015-2018 before retiring from coaching at the end of the 2018 campaign.

During his eight years as vice president, he guided the athletic department to unprecedented success and oversaw the addition of several new sports offerings.

TU Athletics has experienced numerous upgrades in all areas of the department including renovations to Red Edmonds Softball Field, Nichols Tennis Complex, Pioneer Park and Pioneer Arena. He also coordinated the construction of the University’s new beach volleyball complex and the new athletic department weight room and university wellness center.

In stride with the department’s mission statement, additional personnel were added to the athletic staff, including: a full-time academic athletic advisor, a strength & conditioning coach, diversity & inclusion designee, student-athlete development coordinator, and transitioned the Pioneer Club under the departmental umbrella in athletics. He developed a branding strategy for the department as well as coordinated the University’s partnership with Under Armour.

Jones holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Gardner-Webb University and was inducted to the South Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame in 2023.

He currently serves as the Assistant Vice President for Student Engagement at Tarleton State University. He is married to the former Dawn Roshto of Norfolk, Virginia, and they are the proud parents of two daughters; Katlyn and Allison.

Annie McCullough Women’s Tennis

From 2016-2021, Annie McCullough accounted for one of the most decorated careers ever by a Tusculum student-athlete.

On the tennis court, she led the Pioneers to three NCAA Division II Tournament appearances along with the 2017 SAC Tournament title and the 2019 SAC Championship. Her teams posted a combined 75-25 overall record including 37-9 in conference play. She was named the 2020 SAC International Woman of the Year and is a two-time Tusculum University Female Athlete of the Year.

She went 104-17 in career singles and posted a 101-27 doubles worksheet, including 77-18 with her twin sister Caitlin. Her career singles and doubles records are the best in program history.

She was a four-time All-Conference selection in singles and a three-time All-SAC doubles honoree, including 2019 where the McCullough sisters garnered All-America honors and finished as national runner-up for the ITA Cup. Annie was also named the 2019 SAC Player of the Year going 27-5 in singles and finished the season ranked 32nd in the country to garner All-America distinction.

Off the court, she was the first three-time recipient of the SAC Women’s Tennis Scholar Athlete of the Year Award in conference history. She was tabbed the 2021 SAC Presidents Award winner which is the league’s top student-athlete honor.

She was named an Academic All-American three times, was selected to the Academic All-District team on four occasions and was a top-nine finalist for the NCAA Division II National Woman of the Year Award.

A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, she was one of the founding members of the hydrogen evolution research program at Tusculum, which was designed to develop a catalyst for use in solar energy applications. She was the recipient of the TU Senior Key Award for Excellence in Chemistry and the Northeast Tennessee Section of the American Chemical Society Outstanding Graduating Senior Award.

She graduated from Tusculum in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, earning summa cum laude laurels. She received her Masters of Business Administration degree with high honors in 2021.

McCullough worked with Ionic Water Technologies LLC as a research scientist during the 2021-2022 academic year which was a start-up company housed at Tusculum University. The program is aimed at developing new and innovative water purification and desalination technologies at a lower cost, less energy use, system complexity, smaller footprint through use of sustainable sources to enable safe drinking and agricultural water for the developed and/or developing world.

She is completing her Masters of Science degree in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where she is a teaching assistant, instructing senior-level undergraduate students in a variety of inorganic lecture and laboratory courses. She is also conducting research focused on designing and synthesizing novel cobalt polypyridyl complexes for the study of proton-coupled electron transfer reactions to develop new catalysts for solar energy applications.

Dante Owens Basketball

From 1990-1994, Dante Owens was one of the most prolific scorers in the history of the Tusculum men’s basketball program.

At the time of his graduation, his 1,606 career points were the fourth-most in school history and are currently ranked seventh in the TU record book. The Pioneers accounted for a 64-60 record during his four seasons in Greeneville, which included a 22-11 campaign in 1992-93.

Owens holds the school record with his 660 career field goals made, while his .559 career field goal percentage is the fourth-best ever by a Pioneer. He also totaled 673 career rebounds which are the seventh-most in program history. The three-time All-Tennessee-Virginia Athletic Conference selection is one of only four players in TU history to be ranked in the top-10 in both scoring and rebounding.

He averaged 13.3 points per contest during his 121-game career where he also totaled 104 steals, 139 assists and 28 blocked shots. He also connected on 237 career free throws and shot 68 percent from the foul line.

The Cincinnati, Ohio, native averaged 18.4 points per game during his senior campaign where he posted 551 total points and hauled in 192 rebounds for a 6.4 boards per game average. He finished sixth in the TVAC in scoring, ninth in rebounding, shot 56 percent from the floor (4th in TVAC) and 75 percent from the charity stripe. His 214 made field goals made that season at the 10th-most ever recorded by a Pioneer.

Owens tallied 14.7 points per game during Tusculum’s 22-win season in 1992-93 which included an 89-87 upset win over top-seed Virginia Intermont in the NAIA District 24 semifinal in Bristol to extend the team’s seven-game winning streak.

He graduated from Tusculum in 1994 with his Bachelor of Arts degree and completed a double major in business administration and computer information systems.

Owens is a Regional Vice President with Primerica Financial Services, with offices in St. Louis, Missouri and Akron, Ohio. He is also a business development expert, spiritual leader, mentor, and success coach. As a professional speaker, he has presented at various workshops and church seminars.

He is the proud father of five children including: Robert Straus, Dante Owens, Jr., Bryson Owens, Aris Owens and Asher Owens. Dante also has four grandchildren.