A member of the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame’s Class of 1994, Johnson died Wednesday night. He had remained within the San Francisco space after his profession and had been in declining well being for a while, his household stated.
“Jimmy Johnson was terribly athletically gifted. The 49ers loved the luxurious of utilizing him on offense and protection early in his profession to fill group wants,” Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame President Jim Porter stated. “As soon as he settled in at left cornerback, he flourished. The notion {that a} ‘lockdown’ cornerback may minimize the sphere in half for the opposition was true with Jimmy.
“Solely not often would different groups’ quarterbacks even look his route, and most of the time regretted the choice in the event that they challenged him.”
Born March 31, 1938, in Dallas, Johnson and his household moved to California in his youth. In highschool, he excelled in a number of sports activities and captained his Kingsburg Excessive soccer, baseball and basketball groups, ultimately catching the eyes of faculty scouts.
He attended UCLA and have become one of many Bruins’ high wingbacks and a key participant within the secondary.
“I performed numerous soccer, possibly not as a lot as I wished to,” Johnson stated of his days at UCLA. “I may have performed 60 minutes.”
One 12 months, he earned UCLA’s “Iron Man Award,” given to the soccer participant who logged probably the most minutes that season.
The brother of former Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson, Jimmy was an impressive monitor star in his personal proper – a 13.9-second-high 110-meter excessive hurdler (and NCAA champion in that occasion) and a 25-foot broad jumper.
The flexibility he demonstrated in faculty would repay for the 49ers, who drafted him with the primary of their three first-round decisions 1961.
The 49ers meant to play Johnson on offense as a rookie, however he broke his wrist previous to coaching camp. With a forged limiting his pass-catching capacity, coaches moved him to protection, and he responded with 5 interceptions. He moved again to offense in 1962, catching 34 passes for 627 yards and 4 touchdowns. 4 weeks into the 1963 season, it was again to protection, as a security, to shore up a depleted secondary.
The following 12 months, Johnson moved to left cornerback, a spot he anchored for the rest of a 16-season profession that concluded in 1976. He performed in 213 regular-season video games, greater than some other 49er on the time of his retirement, and a group document damaged solely by Corridor of Famer JERRY RICE.
“He is an actual good one. Mark my phrases. He’ll be round for some time,” JACK CHRISTIANSEN, additionally a future Corridor of Famer however in 1961 a 49ers assistant coach, stated of Johnson. “He has the three necessities: super velocity, nice reflexes and the willingness to sort out with authority.”
Acknowledged as top-of-the-line man-to-man defenders within the historical past of professional soccer, Johnson’s popularity was so nice that opposition quarterbacks threw solely not often into his defensive territory. Nonetheless, Johnson intercepted 47 passes and returned them 615 yards.
“Jim does not obtain a lot publicity as a result of the opposition avoids him as a lot as potential,” quarterback John Brodie, a former teammate, stated in an interview throughout their taking part in days. “Discuss to veteran quarterbacks like JOHN UNITAS and BART STARR they usually’ll inform you they name few go patterns in Jimmy’s space. The one cause Johnson doesn’t lead the league in interceptions is he does not get the prospect.”
Dick Nolan, the 49ers’ head coach from 1968 to 1975, was an enormous Johnson fan.
“I coached three defensive backs I felt had been nice, MEL RENFRO and Cornell Inexperienced with the Dallas Cowboys and Johnson,” he stated. “Jimmy is one of the best I’ve ever seen.”
Corridor of Fame receiver FRED BILETNIKOFF additionally heaped reward on Johnson.
“I really feel Jim is without doubt one of the greatest corners in professional soccer,” he stated throughout their taking part in days. “I simply hope he makes a mistake of some kind so I can get a bonus. He covers all of the go patterns so properly.”
If opposing receivers revered Johnson, so too did he respect the opponents he confronted every week.
“I do not take a look at somebody and suppose that he cannot beat me,” he stated. “Should you play lengthy sufficient, you are going to get beat. The query and the important thing to your effectiveness is how typically.”
Johnson was named All-Professional 4 consecutive years (1969-1972). He performed in three Professional Bowls and was chosen to 2 others that he missed due to accidents. He earned a spot on the NFL’s All-Decade Staff of the Nineteen Seventies.
He received the Professional Soccer Writers’ George Halas Award for brave play in 1971 (finishing the again half of that season with a damaged wrist) and twice obtained the coveted Len Eshmont Award, chosen by 49ers gamers and given to a teammate who demonstrated inspirational play.
In 1977, the 49ers retired his jersey at “Jimmy Johnson Evening at Candlestick Park.”
“Jimmy Johnson has not solely been an ideal soccer participant, he has been one of many recreation’s most interesting residents all through his profession,” Joe Thomas, the group’s vice chairman and basic supervisor at the moment stated on the ceremony. “There isn’t any one within the NFL who doesn’t have the best respect for him, each as a participant and as a person.”
Johnson additionally was elected to the Fresno Athletic Corridor of Fame (1978), Bay Space Sports activities Corridor of Fame (1990), UCLA Athletics Corridor of Fame (1992) and was a constitution member of the San Francisco 49ers Corridor of Fame (2009).
One in all Johnson’s longtime 49ers defensive backfield teammates, Kermit Alexander, summed up his profession this fashion: “He is one of the crucial phenomenal athletes I’ve ever seen. There are such a lot of issues he can do. He is an especially managed particular person and really, very gifted. In the entire time we performed collectively, I by no means noticed him lose his cool, on or off the sphere. The explanation his honors had been so late in coming was that he by no means beat the drums for himself.”
The reserved Johnson waited almost twenty years earlier than his election to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame.
In presenting his brother for enshrinement, Rafer Johnson stated: “Jimmy is a quiet man, however he performed with dedication and dedication. Most of all, Jim was, and is, a mild man and a real gentleman.”
Jimmy Johnson’s legacy shall be preserved without end in Canton.