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Don Johnson (basketball)

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Don Johnson
Johnson c. 1976
Personal information
Born1930 (1930)
Died (aged 88)
Listed height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
High schoolEl Monte (El Monte, California)
CollegeUCLA (1950–1952)
PositionGuard
Number73
Coaching career1954–2019
Career history
As coach:
1954–1966El Rancho HS
1966–1994Cypress JC
1996–2019Biola (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
As player:
Career coaching record
Junior college588–259 (.694)

Don Johnson (1930[a] – February 6, 2019) was an American basketball player and coach. He played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins under head coach John Wooden. As a senior, Johnson received honorable mention from United Press International for their All-American team in 1952. He became a junior college coach at Cypress College in Cypress, California, leading the Chargers to a 588–259 record with two state titles and seven conference championships.

At the time of his retirement from Cypress, Johnson had the most wins among California junior college men's basketball coaches. He was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame, and Cypress dedicated its basketball court "Don Johnson Court".

Playing career

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After graduating from El Monte High School in El Monte, California,[3] Johnson attended Fullerton College from 1948 to 1950,[4] and he was named the Eastern Conference's most valuable player for the 1949–50 season.[3][5] He played college basketball at the University of California, Los Angeles. It was early in Bruins coach John Wooden's tenure at the school,[6] about a decade before he would win the first of 11 national championships.[1] Replacing graduated star George Stanich at guard,[7][8] Johnson led the Bruins to two Southern Division championships in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC),[1] and he led the team in rebounding in both of his seasons.[3]

As a junior in 1950–51, Johnson averaged 5.2 rebounds per game and received honorable mention for the PCC All-Southern Division team.[1][9] He averaged 5.8 rebounds in 1951–52,[1] when UCLA won the PCC title and qualified for the 1952 NCAA tournament.[10] He was named a third-team All-American by the Helms Athletic Foundation and earned honorable mention from UPI.[b][12][13] He and teammate Jerry Norman, the Bruins' co-captains,[14] were unanimous selections for the PCC All-Southern Division team.[15] In 61 career games, Johnson averaged 9.8 points.[6] His 596 points set a UCLA record for players who only played two seasons, breaking Carl Kraushaar's previous high of 543.[16]

Standing at 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) and 195 pounds (88 kg), Johnson was among the bigger guards in that era. Wooden said that he "was a well-rounded basketball player. He played good defense, passed the ball well, could drive to the basket and was a pretty good outside shooter."[8] Like a smaller guard, he could bring the ball up, and was also able to defend forwards due to his rebounding ability.[8]

Coaching career

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In 1954, Johnson became a teacher at El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, California.[4][17] As their varsity basketball coach, he led them to the playoffs six times in his 12 seasons.[4][18] He joined Cypress College when it opened in 1966.[19] Johnson led the Chargers to state championships in 1977 and 1980 along with seven conference titles.[19][20] Seventeen times they won 20 or more games in a season and reached the state semifinals four times.[3]

Johnson's players included future UCLA and National Basketball Association (NBA) centers Mark Eaton and Swen Nater,[3][21] neither of whom had much basketball experience before joining Cypress.[22] Afterwards, the school gained a reputation for developing big men.[22] Eaton and Nater both set NBA records.[23] The 7-foot-4-inch (2.24 m) Eaton holds the NBA single-season records for total blocks (456) and blocks per game (5.6) as well as the career record for blocks per game (3.5).[24][25] The 6-foot-11-inch (2.11 m) Nater is the only player to lead both the American Basketball Association and NBA in rebounding, and he also holds the NBA record for defensive rebounds in a half (18).[26][27]

Johnson was never attracted to head coaching opportunities at four-year colleges, preferring the purer coaching environment of junior colleges.[1] He retired in 1994 after 27 seasons with Cypress,[3] compiling a 588–259 record, at the time the most wins by a California junior college men's basketball coach.[2][19] In 1996, he joined Biola University as an assistant coach under Dave Holmquist, who played for Johnson at Cypress from 1969 to 1971.[28] Johnson remained at Biola until his death in 2019.[29][30]

Legacy

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Johnson with UCLA in 1950

Johnson was inducted into the Orange County Hall of Fame in 1996, the Fullerton College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010,[19] and the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.[1][31] Cypress honored him in 2009 by renaming its basketball court "Don Johnson Court".[32][33]

Personal life

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Johnson's father, Jack, was a basketball coach at El Monte High.[34] Johnson's mother, Cecile Sparks, played basketball at the University of Kansas for James Naismith, the game's inventor.[1]

Johnson met his wife, Colette (née Hill), when he was attending Fullerton. They married before his second season at UCLA.[35] They had three children.[20] She worked at the ASUCLA News Bureau while he was playing for the Bruins.[34] She was later an administrative assistant at Cypress, helping open the school in 1966.[36]

Johnson died on February 6, 2019, at the age of 88.[2]

Notes

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  1. ^ His age in one source implies that he was born in 1929/1930,[1] while his age in another indicates that it was 1930/1931.[2]
  2. ^ UPI was used to complile the consensus All-American team that year. Helms had also been used in the past (1929–1948).[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Whicker, Mark (October 11, 2013). "Tough, smart, unselfish … and in UCLA Hall of Fame". Orange County Register. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Fryer, Steve (March 2, 2019). "Memorial for Don Johnson, longtime basketball coach at Cypress College, set for March 10". Orange County Register. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Kresal, Steve (February 9, 1994). "Cypress' Johnson Is Stepping Down". Los Angeles Times. p. C9. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b c "ALUMNI STORIES: DON JOHNSON". Fullerton College. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  5. ^ "Scribes Choose Eastern League All-Star Quintet". Los Angeles Times. March 4, 1950. Part III, p. 3. Retrieved May 4, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b "Don Johnson, All-America guard for Wooden at UCLA, dies". USA Today. AP. February 7, 2019. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  7. ^ "Jerry Norman, Don Johnson Supply Vital Bruin Spark". Corvallis Gazette Times. March 21, 1952. p. 14. Retrieved April 30, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b c York, Dan (March 1, 1984). "Don Johnson: Perhaps They Should Call Him the Wizard of Cypress". Los Angeles Times. Part III, pp. 1, 10, 13. Retrieved May 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Two Bruins On Southern Division All-PCC Cagers". Santa Cruz Sentinel. AP. March 9, 1951. p. 8. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "UCLA Coach Gives Spirit Credit For Bruins' Success". The Fresno Bee. March 12, 1952. p. 8-B. Retrieved May 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Johnson, Gary K. (October 2005). NCAA Men's Basketball Finest (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. pp. 183, 211. ISSN 1521-2955. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  12. ^ "Lovellette Top College Cage Player of 1952". Los Angeles Times. April 18, 1952. Part IV, p. 4. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "All-America Cage Team Named; No Westerners On First Team". The Colton Courier. UP. March 4, 1952. p. 5. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Honor Norman, Johnson at Westwood". Daily News. April 25, 1952. p. 41. Retrieved May 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Two Stanford Cagers on PCC Coaches' Team". Oakland Tribune. March 5, 1952. p. 39. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Norman, Johnson among highest Bruins scorers". Daily News. April 17, 1952. p. 35. Retrieved April 30, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "27 Added To Rancho Staff". The Whittier News. September 14, 1954. p. 3. Retrieved May 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Kresal, Steve (February 27, 1990). "Still Working Hard After All These Years". Los Angeles Times. pp. C1, C9. Retrieved May 1, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ a b c d Kresal, Steve (March 24, 1996). "Johnson Found Joy in Coaching and Forged Stellar Career". Los Angeles Times. p. C12. Retrieved April 23, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ a b Nguyen, Thuc Nhi (February 7, 2019). "Don Johnson, former Cypress College coach, UCLA All-American, dies at 88". Long Beach Press-Telegram. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  21. ^ "The Top 20". Sports Illustrated. December 1, 1980. Retrieved April 30, 2024. Eaton is a 23-year-old former master auto mechanic who learned his basketball at Cypress (Calif.) Community College from the same coach—former UCLA backcourt star Don Johnson—who sent the Bruins Swen Nater.
  22. ^ a b Penner, Mike (February 18, 1994). "Cypress' Johnson Is First on the List of Winners". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  23. ^ Posner, Mark S. (February 19, 2014). "NBA Record Holders, Alumni Nater and Eaton to be Honored". Cypress College. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  24. ^ Miller, Ryan (May 29, 2021). "Utah Jazz legend Mark Eaton, 64, dies following apparent bicycle crash". KSL.com. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  25. ^ Larsen, Andy; Walden, Eric (May 29, 2021). "Utah Jazz great Mark Eaton dies at age 64". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
  26. ^ Livarchik, Joseph (December 23, 2016). "Former NBA pro Swen Nater shares secrets of 'rebounding in life' with Sammamish Chamber". Issaquah Reporter. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  27. ^ Weinstein, Brad, ed. (2019). 2019–20 Official NBA Guide (PDF). NBA Properties. p. 232. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 12, 2022.
  28. ^ Kresal, Steve (October 1, 1996). "Saddleback and Long Beach Put Winning Steaks on Line". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  29. ^ "Hi There!". Biola University Athletics. Biola University. February 19, 2019. Retrieved April 30, 2024. Johnson coached Dr. Dave Holmquist at Cypress and the two remained lifelong friends in the decades since, with Johnson serving as an assistant at Biola for the last 21 years.
  30. ^ "2018-19 Men's Basketball Roster". Biola University. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  31. ^ "Athletic Hall of Fame". Fullerton College. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
  32. ^ Crowe, Jerry (January 8, 2009). "Text messages from press row..." Los Angeles Tines. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  33. ^ Posner, Marc S. "Don Johnson — Charter Faculty Member and State's All-Time Wins Leader — Passes at 88". Cypress College. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  34. ^ a b Geyer, Jack (February 7, 1952). "UCLA's Basketball Hopes Rest On 'Old Pro's' Norman, Johnson". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 2. Retrieved April 30, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ^ "Tough, Smart, Unselfish Coach Inducted To UCLA Hall of Fame". Biola University. October 18, 2013. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  36. ^ Posner, Marc S. (October 11, 2022). "Remembering Retiree Colette Johnson". Cypress College. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
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