About Inductee

Floyd Buster Douthit, a familiar face on the Huntsville sports scene for the past 45 years, joins Dr. Bill Richards as a Special Achievement Award winner in the 2011 class of the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame. Born April 19, 1931 in Anniston, Ala., Douthit one of the five sons of Floyd and Myrtle Douthit - grew up in Calhoun County, graduating from Jacksonville High School in 1949 and Jacksonville State in 1952. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1953-55, he earned an MA degree from Texas Western College, now known as Texas-El-Paso, in 1955. Over the next three and a half decades, Douthit worked as a teacher and coach back home in Alabama, pausing along the way to complete an advanced degree in education at the University of Alabama. He also resumed his military career, serving in the U. S. Army Reserve before retiring in 1984 with the rank of Colonel. Douthit, who played tennis and worked as a football trainermanager in college, organized the first track and field team at Jacksonville State in 1964. He also coached basketball, softball and track at Jacksonville Junior High and Saks Junior High, and organized the first 6th District junior high basketball tournament, an event his Saks team won in 1958. Douthit later moved on to Ohatchee High School, serving as assistant football coach for two years and head coach one year, and three years as head basketball coach. After six years as head football and basketball coach at Saks, he moved to Huntsville in 1966, first coaching football and baseball at Joe Bradley Junior High and later coaching football, baseball and track at Stone Junior High. Douthit moved over to Lee High School in 1971 as assistant football coach, cross country track coach, assistant girls basketball coach and girls softball coach. He worked at Lee for 18 years, retiring in 1989 after five years as assistant principal. During this period, he helped organize and conduct the Track and Field Day for 5th and 6th graders in the Huntsville city schools for 23 years and the Madison city schools for 10 years, and also ran a swimming program for two years. Meanwhile, he was officiating basketball (20 years), football (nine years) and baseball (three years), along with softball and volleyball. Douthit and his wife Annelle have been married 58 years. They have one daughter, Elizabeth Ann Guest, and two sons, Floyd Terry Douthit and Robert Douthit, and 11 grandchildren. Douthit now operates the Off Campus College Bookstore, near UAH, with his oldest son, Terry.