This year at the Australian Open, the tennis world received devastating news: Andy Murray is retiring from tennis. Murray has been a pioneer for British tennis through the past decade, breaking records and leading the pack. The announcement came as a shock to the entire tennis community because no one was expecting this from him so soon. His legacy as a fighter and contributor to the tennis world will forever be remembered, and he will go down in history as the greatest British tennis player of all time.

In his early years, Murray rose to stardom very quickly by beating the legendary, Roger Federer in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters tournament in 2006. By 2007, he had won three ATP titles and rose to the top 10 in the world. In 2008, Murray again made a name for himself by defeating Rafael Nadal to get to the finals of the US Open, where he lost to Federer. The next few years he remained consistent, winning a few titles each year and reaching the finals of the Australian Open in 2010 and 2011.

In the height of his career, Murray reached the final of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, the first British pro to reach the final since 1937 – he would, again, lose to Federer. However, he avenged his loss by defeating Federer in the 2012 Olympic Games, earning gold. A few months later, he reached the final of the US Open again, this time claiming the title and being the first British pro to win a grand slam since 1977. Fast forward one year, Murray reached the final of Wimbledon again, however, he was able to win the title this time, defeating Novak Djokovic in straight sets. After this win, Murray became a household name throughout Great Britain.

In 2013, Murray underwent back surgery and was out of the game for a while. He had a up-and-down 2014, being inconsistent with his wins and his playing, compared to when he was at the height of his game. In 2015, however, he made a strong comeback by reaching the finals of the Australian Open for the fourth time and reached the finals of the French open, losing both finals to Djokovic.

In 2016, he once again made the finals of the Australian Open before losing to Djokovic again. Making history again, Murray was able to score his third grand slam title at Wimbledon, which caused major national pride and excitement within in Great Britain. After winning his third grand slam title, Murray went on to defend his gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games, defeating Juan Martin Del-Potro in the final. This made him the only male tennis player to successfully defend his gold medal at the prestigious event.

Later on, however, Murray started to decline in his quality of play. He wasn’t able to live up to the expectation that people were expecting of him, as well as himself. Throughout the 2017 season, Murray was plagued by a hip injury that resulting in him needing surgery. He returned to tennis in the 2018 summer, but just could not produce the tennis that had once got him to the top of the game. He played in the US Open but struggled to get wins on the board and wasn’t playing his best tennis.

Andy Murray will go down in tennis history as a legend. He has paved the way and inspired so many young British players. He accomplished so much within his illustrious career and was able to break many records that had been set for so long. Murray will forever be known as one of the greatest British tennis players.

“I’ve been fascinated with children and families and the influence that we can have, parenting styles, that kind of thing. I think how we raise children is an extremely important issue in our society and they aren’t raised the same way they used to be. In some ways that’s a good thing. We don’t hit kids as much as we used to. On the other hand, we let them do whatever they want, more than we used to,” said Owens.

Owens hasn’t always been interested primarily in psychology. Initially, Owens majored in Christianity at Houston Baptist University with the intention of going into ministry work. Houston Baptist required every student to have two majors. Because Owens had previously taken and enjoyed a psychology class, he chose psychological sciences. Near the end of his undergraduate studies, Owens decided to focus on psychology as his line of work instead of ministry work.

“When I was a senior I had a job as a minister of youth at church. I liked working with the youth, but working with the parents of the youth at the church was not my cup of tea and I decided I would go into some other line of work and psychology was my major so I started doing that and loved it,” Owens said.

Owens got his bachelor’s degree from Houston Baptist and went on to graduate school in Utah. He completed further master’s work at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Houston, Texas. Owens was still working on his doctorate and was all but dissertation when he started looking for work in order to support his wife, Penny, and first child, Candace, while also finishing his dissertation.

“I looked at all sorts of jobs and I applied for many. I sent my resume to the Baptist College Association, so I did not apply directly to Jewell, but they had seen my resume and they called me and asked me if I was interested in teaching and I thought it sounded like fun. So they interviewed me and I guess I fooled them,” said Owens.

“Fooled them” might be a bit of an understatement. Dr. Owens has been teaching psychology at Jewell for 35 years and has been making impactful relationships with both his students and colleagues.

“That’s probably been the most rewarding part of the experience. Just being in relationship in so many different ways, from classroom experiences to outside kind of things,” Owens said.

During some of the earlier years of Owens’ time at Jewell, there was a January term where students had a “Winterum.” This was a time where students were required to take a class for the month of January and usually they were a little unorthodox and didn’t usually have to do with students’ majors.

“I got involved with the ski Winterum where we took students to Colorado to ski for a week. It was a great experience for 10 years or more and I would take my kids along and they would also get to ski,” said Owens.

For many years, Owens also assisted with the spring break trip for the Habitat for Humanity students.

“We often went to Florida, Texas once and New York one time. Seeing the students in that kind of environment and serving other people was a really special experience,” Owens said.

Besides the relationships with students and colleagues, Owens has also enjoyed the travel opportunities Jewell has afforded him. In his office, Owens has a map filled with pins that signify all the places he has traveled, many because of Jewell. Owens taught at Harlaxton College in England in 1993 and in 2007, he taught in Hong Kong in 2010 and he went to Ecuador with the Jewell Summer Grant to take Spanish lessons.

After retirement, Owens plans on adding pins to his map and traveling with his wife, Penny, and his family.

“Penny and I tell people that we’re going to travel until the money or the health runs out, whichever comes first,” said Owens.

Owens already has many trips planned. Starting right after school is over this year, he has planned a trip with a friend to go to Israel. Right after that trip, Owens plans on taking his family and grandkids to Disney World. One item also on the list is to see New England in the fall.

“One of the things that I’m really looking forward to is going to see New England in the fall and I’ve never been able to go during that time because I’ve always been teaching because it doesn’t come on a schedule, you’ve got to go when the trees start changing. We’ve never been able to pick up and go, but we should be able to now,” said Owens.

A cruise to the Arctic Circle, a cruise to Russia and places on the Baltic Ocean, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii are all on the itinerary.

Photos by Mykala Crews.