John Blackburn, former head coach at Coker College, was named men's and women's tennis coach at Eastern Illinois University in June, 2005.

He was the men's and women's coach at Coker College, a NCAA II program located in Hartsville, SC the past four years.

At Coker Blackburn was directed to restart a men's program that had been on one year hiatus from competition.

In his tenure there the men's team rose to seventh place in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference, which was the highest league finish and win total in over a decade.

The women finished sixth this past year in the conference championship, and placed three positions higher in the league standings in each of the past three years.

The women's program also had the best team grade point average the past three semesters.  

Prior to that Blackburn coached at NAIA affiliated Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, FL(1999-2001).  Both the men and women were ranked in the NAIA Top 20 two of his three years as head coach, and the women's team qualified for the NAIA national tournament each of the three seasons.

While there Blackburn coached two All-Americans and one Academic All-American.

In 1997-98 he was assistant women's coach at Oklahoma State, and in 1996 he served as both the men's and women's assistant at Oklahoma Christian University.

From 1993-99, he also was an assistant teaching professional with the Edmund (OK) Racquet Club.

Blackburn earned an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma Christian in 1996 and a masters from Oklahoma State in 1999.