Jimmy Johnson (American football coach)

Jimmy Johnson

For other uses, see Jimmy Johnson.

James William Johnson (born August 14, 1943) is an American football coach and broadcaster. He was the first football coach whose teams won both a NCAA Division 1A National Championship and a Super Bowl. In 1987, Johnson wrote Turning The Thing Around: My Life in Football (ghostwritten by Ed Hinton). Johnson currently lives in Islamorada in the Florida Keys where he spends most of his time fishing.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Johnson graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School (now Memorial High School) in Port Arthur, where one of his classmates was future rock superstar Janis Joplin, whom Johnson nicknamed "beat weeds".

He went to college at the University of Arkansas and won a national title on the football team, where he was an all-SWC defensive lineman for Hall of Fame coach Frank Broyles, and a teammate of future Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Johnson was nick-named "Jimmy Jumpup" because he never stayed down on the ground for long during football practices or games as it was said his determination was boundless. [1]

Early football career

Johnson began as an assistant coach at Lousiana Tech in 1965 and Picayune College in 1966. In 1967 he was an assistant at Wichita State, then in 1968 and 1969 he served under Johnny Majors at Iowa State University in Ames. In 1970 he moved on to another Big 8 school to become a defensive line coach at the University of Oklahoma, working alongside future rival Barry Switzer. In 1973, he returned to Arkansas, where he served as defensive coordinator through the 1976 season. Johnson had hopes of being named head coach when Frank Broyles retired, but was passed over for Lou Holtz. Holtz offered to retain Johnson on his staff, but Jimmy decided it would be better to move on and amicably parted company with his alma mater. He then moved on to become an assistant coach at the University of Pittsburgh under Jackie Sherrill in 1977 and 1978. His tenure at Pittsburgh was also highlighted by his introduction to a Pitt defensemen and then assistant coach Dave Wannstedt who eventually teamed up with Johnson again at the University of Miami, the Cowboys and the Dolphins. He coached for five seasons at Oklahoma State University from 1979 to 1983 before taking the head coaching job at the University of Miami.

Oklahoma State University

Johnson's tenure at Oklahoma State University is noteworthy for his successful rebuilding of one of college football's perennial losers and for his inability to beat Barry Switzer's University of Oklahoma teams[2], despite hotly contesting several games, including the 1983 contest in which Johnson's team was leading 20-3 with three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and ended up losing the game[3].

Johnson interviewed for the head coaching job at Arkansas following the 1983 season after Lou Holtz left, only to find out shortly afterwards that former Razorback teammate and classmate Ken Hatfield had already been hired and that athletic director Frank Broyles made no mention of this during the interview. Jimmy was understandably upset about what turned out to be a mock interview and has distanced himself from his alma mater ever since. In 1987, Johnson gained a measure of revenge on the Razorbacks by leading his Miami team to a 51-7 victory at Little Rock, a loss that is still the most lopsided home defeat in Arkansas history.

University of Miami

In 1984, Johnson was hired by the University of Miami to replace former coach Howard Schnellenberger who had won Miami's first national championship in 1983 and who had departed for the recently formed United States Football League. Amidst an initial response of "Jimmy Who?" by the fans and media and a shaky 8–5 record his first season (which included a game in which Johnson's Hurricanes blew a 31-0 halftime lead in a loss to Maryland and also included a 47-45 loss to Boston College immortalized by Doug Flutie's "Hail Mary" touchdown pass on the game's final play), Johnson continued what came to be known as "The Decade of Dominance". In his five years at Miami, Johnson compiled a 52–9 record, appeared in five New Year's Day bowl games, winning one national championship (1987) and playing for a second.

Johnson's program was also marred by several off-the-field problems, including an alleged pay-for-play scheme funded by 2 Live Crew member Luther Campbell [4] reported to have occurred between 1986 and 1992 inclusive [5]. He was also widely accused of deliberately running up the score against Notre Dame in the 1985 season finale, a 58-7 shellacking in which Miami was still throwing passes in the fourth quarter with the game well in hand after the Irish had clearly given up in the second half. Faced with a barrage of criticism and second guessing, Johnson maintained that the Hurricanes were simply playing their game and that it was up to their opponent to hold down the score. In his book, Jimmy mentions that he knew Irish coach Gerry Faust had resigned and that it was his last game, but had no idea of just how bad the situation was with the Notre Dame squad - that many of the players were miserable and fed up with Faust. A blowout win was the last thing he expected; in fact, Jimmy was certain his team would run into a buzzsaw. In his opinion, Miami had put a score on Notre Dame that they'd been putting on other teams for years (also saying that "no one cried for me" when Oklahoma or Nebraska would defeat teams like his former Oklahome State squad and others by the same margin) and finally pointed out, "I couldn't help it if Gerry Faust had a demoralized football team." Jimmy now admits he's a big Notre Dame fan, although for a time he was probably the most despised man in South Bend.

Johnson's Hurricanes would post the school's first undefeated regular season the following year only to lose the National Championship Game that year to #2 Penn State. This along with losses in Miami's prior two bowl games began to raise questions about Johnson being able "to win the big ones". Miami's response would be a 1987 season where they went undefeated for the regular season yet again and winning the school's second National Title by defeating Johnson's old tormentor Oklahoma for the third season in a row.

Johnson also created controversy by allowing the University of Miami to retire Vinny Testaverde's football jersey number #14, but refusing to retire Bernie Kosar's number #20, even though Kosar played one season for Johnson and led the Hurricanes to the national title (though that didn't come under Johnson). Testaverde played four seasons for Johnson and entered Miami as a redshirt freshman, but lost both times when the Hurricanes played for the title (35-7 to Tennessee in the 1986 Sugar Bowl and 14-10 to Penn State in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl). Johnson's reason for not retiring Kosar's number was, "Bernie didn't finish the program here (at Miami)." Kosar graduated with honors a year ahead of his freshman class in 1985 with a dual major in finance and economics (and subsequently entered the NFL's supplemental draft), while Testaverde never graduated, despite attending for five years. Critics of this move cited that Johnson was only concerned with his players' football accomplishments and was indifferent to academics.

Dallas Cowboys

In 1989, Jerry Jones, the new owner of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, a long-time friend and former University of Arkansas teammate of Johnson's, asked him to be the new head coach, replacing Tom Landry, who had coached the team since its beginning in 1960. Johnson was reunited with former Miami standout Michael Irvin, and in Johnson's first season as coach, the 1989 Cowboys went 1–15. However, Johnson's rebuilding of the team soon took off. This was due in part to Johnson's ability to find talent in the draft (helped in large part by the trade of Herschel Walker, which yielded six draft picks), and by signing quality players as free agents in the age before the NFL had imposed a salary cap. Jimmy Johnson served as head coach of the Cowboys from 1989 through 1993. He became only the fourth man in NFL history—after Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, and Chuck Noll—to coach consecutive Super Bowl winners, winning Super Bowl XXVII in 1992 and Super Bowl XXVIII in 1993.

After the 1993 Super Bowl victory, Johnson walked away from the Cowboys due largely to his inability to work with Jones and Jones' desire to start being actively involved in which players were selected, while Johnson's contract gave him complete control over player personnel moves. Jones later hired another former teammate at Arkansas, former University of Oklahoma head coach Barry Switzer and saw his Cowboys win another Super Bowl two seasons after Johnson's departure, although Johnson still received a significant amount of credit for that third Super Bowl victory, as he was generally credited with having put together the team.

Miami Dolphins

After being a TV analyst with Fox Sports for two years with a brief flirtation with an offer of the head coaching job of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1994[6], Johnson joined the Miami Dolphins in 1996 replacing legendary head coach Don Shula, who retired at the end of the 1995 season. After a below-expectations year for the Dolphins capped off by a blowout loss in the playoffs versus Buffalo, there was a groundswell among Dolphins fans who wanted Shula to step aside in favor of Johnson [7].

Johnson's tenure in Miami was marginally successful, but it did not match that of Shula nor live up to expectations. Johnson won fewer games in his first season than Shula had in his final season (8–8 vs. 9–7), and Johnson's overall winning percentage at Miami was 55.3% vs. 65.8% for Shula [8].

Johnson inherited one of the NFL's best offenses, led by Hall of Fame Quarterback Dan Marino, but only a mediocre defense. As a defensive specialist, Johnson was expected to put together a championship defense to finally give Dan Marino the Super Bowl championship that had previously eluded him. With complete control over personnel decisions, Johnson and his staff signed several excellent defensive players, drafting future pro bowlers Zach Thomas, Jason Taylor, Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain. But Johnson's draft record is blemished by several high profile first round busts on the offensive side of the ball including running back John Avery and wide receiver Yatil Green.

For 24 hours in January of 1999, Johnson resigned as Dolphins head coach, citing burnout. He reversed his decision after Dan Marino—with whom Johnson had a strained relationship due to Johnson blaming him for the team's lack of success in private conversations with the media [9]—pleaded with Johnson to come back, and Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga brought in the recently-fired Chicago Bears head coach Dave Wannstedt—a former assistant under Johnson both at the University of Miami and in Dallas—as Defensive Coordinator/Assistant Head Coach in order to ease the burden on Johnson.

In the face of Super Bowl–level expectations, Miami faded down the stretch, Johnson's relationship with Marino dissolved completely, and their last game of the season was an embarrassing 62–7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Divisional Playoff Round, which proved to be the last game for both Marino and Johnson, as Johnson would resign the day after the game and Marino would soon announce his retirement.

Johnson never won a Super Bowl in Miami and retired after compiling a 26–21 record. He was succeeded by Dave Wannstedt. The Dolphins went 65–40 from 1996 to 2003 with a core group of players assembled by Johnson and his staff.

After leaving the Dolphins, Johnson became a TV studio analyst again for Fox Sports, and is currently part of their NFL pregame show. He has been assigned as a studio analyst for Fox's coverage of the Bowl Championship Series in January with Chris Rose as the host.

Personal life

Jimmy was married to the former Linda Kay Cooper in 1963, with whom he had two sons. They divorced in 1989. On July 18, 1999, he married Rhonda Rookmaker.

Trivia

• Reputed to have an IQ of 162. [10]
• Johnson's hair is often a source of humor: heavily starched in a perfect wave, it has been called "helmet hair" for staying in place through wind and weather. His players often took delight in tousling it after victories. He is sometimes known as the only coach to wear a helmet both on the sidelines and off.
• He made a cameo appearance as a bearded prisoner in lockup on the TV series The Shield.
• He was a guest star on the TV Series "Coach" in 1994, an episode entitled "Johnsonwreckers".
• Johnson owns two restaurants named "Three Rings" (after the three championships he's won on both collegiate and professional level.) One is located in Miami, Florida, and the other in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The location in Oklahoma City has since closed.
• Made a cameo appearance in the movie The Waterboy next to Bill Cowher.
• Pennyslvania governor Ed Rendell once bet an Eagles fan sitting next to him during the infamous Bounty Bowl II game twenty dollars that he couldn't hit Johnson from the stands with a snowball. Rendell lost the bet, as Johnson was struck in the head by a snowball, inciting a flurry of snowballs from fans all around.

Quotes

"How 'bout them Cowboys!?"

"Let the mind control the body, not the body control the mind."

"Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat him as he could be, and he will become what he should be."

"The best game we play will be the last one of the year" (his way of avoiding mentioning Super Bowl to his players but implying it as the goal and expectation).

"Hey, Johnny Majors couldn't help it if I had a young and nervous football team." (after losing to Tennessee by a score of 35-7 in the Sugar Bowl following the 1985 season)