The criteria for making this list are as follows: an impressive list of successes, not recruiting athletes, the ability to develop a complete roster, being ahead of their time (innovators), and helping boys grow into better men for the rest of their lives (aka leaving an imprint on everyone who coached them). Without further ado:
1) Harry Johnson, Track and Field Coach, South Eugene High School, Eugene, Oregon 1971-1977- Seven state championships.
When Coach Johnson (soon to be known throughout the state as “Harry”) took over the track program at SEHS, they had never won a state track and field championship in school history. Only one Eugene high school has ever won a state title in track and field, its rival North Eugene High School ten years earlier. Harry’s teams won the state title his junior year and every year after winning seven straight state championships. His athletes set national records in the decathlon, steeplechase, 6-mile and 10,000-meter medley, distance medley relay, and four-mile relay (the last of which still stands to this day).
Despite the fact that few top-tier scholarships were available in the sport of track and field, Harry’s athletes were awarded more scholarships to major universities than any of the state’s other schools, each year. This included all the major sports (football, basketball, and baseball) that had more scholarships available.
As impressive as the above stats are, most of what made Harry great wasn’t easily quantifiable. How did he manage to create such close bonds between the diverse team members in an individual sport? How was he able to make each team member feel important to the overall success of the programme? How did the seniors get the five-minute mile excited on a team that had several four-minute runners?
I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I do know that he has the one trait I’ve seen time and time again in coaches/leaders who go above and beyond. He somehow got you to buy into his process and surrender yourself to something bigger than yourself. In doing so, he also found a way to make hard work fun. He didn’t always have the best athletes, but he never put any pressure on his athletes.
He was ahead of his time mentally, too. He rarely talked about winning and focused on preparing, knowing that if you prepare well you will feel comfortable and confident when the encounters come. I have rarely seen female athletes so tense or tense. While the athletes on the other team were “provoking themselves” to the race/competition, Harry was loose and having fun. They viewed everything as an opportunity, keeping the idea of potential failure a million miles away.
I don’t know if the following was by design or not (and I asked Harry and he wouldn’t admit it if that was the case), but Harry’s teams wore different colored sweats (except for the school name on the back which was in the school colors: purple and white). So while his athletes were preparing for their events (not mentally exhausted) most of their competitors were busy figuring out what the different colored sweats signified.
Some of the best performing actors wore blue sweats, others in orange, black, red, green, or maroon. Some in every color were seniors, but others were juniors and sophomores. It was baffling to outsiders and seemed to have no rhyme or reason, but that didn’t stop athletes from other schools from coming up with many plausible reasons. The truth was very simple. Everyone must choose the color they want, starting with the oldest, until they run out.
Although Harry was undefeated in state championships during his tenure, his team has lost several duel encounters over the years. Harry could have easily won all of them too, but he would relieve many athletes to give less accomplished athletes a chance at success, and they usually did. This has also helped develop them moving forward.
However, there was one exception to this strategy. Harry despised cheating and one particular school had a reputation for recruiting athletes way beyond other schools. When his team faced that school, Harry would load all of the top athletes and close that school out nearly every time. I think this is called sending a message.
2) Harry Johnson, Boys’ Gymnastics Head Coach, South Eugene High School, Eugene, Oregon 1963-1972- Ten state championships.
Harry started working at South Eugene High School right out of college as an assistant coach with the football team. Soon after, they asked him if he wanted to coach their new gymnastics team. He said yes, he had no prior gymnastics experience at any level, but no experience to back down from a new challenge.
The rest is history as Harry developed his coaching style and leadership qualities that led the team to a state title each year before stepping down.
3) Harry Johnson, Head Boy’s Cross Country Coach, South Eugene High School, Eugene, Oregon 1970-1977- Eight state championships.
This could easily have been Harry’s number one spot, as this former football star and coach would love a bunch of wicked distance runners and make them men. The only reason I gave his job as the number one track and field coach was because of the sheer number of diverse people he was able to bring together as one.
However, he is perhaps most widely known for the job he did in developing middle and long distance runners, and he did so without burdening them with devastatingly high miles as many successful high school coaches of the day did. However, most high school teams in America have no record whatsoever for the mile at 4:12. Harry has coached five of his targets to bests under 4:10, two of them under 4:05 in his very short time as head coach there.
Harry turned down many opportunities to coach the track and cross country programs at major colleges, but finally an opportunity came along that was too good to pass up. The start-up sports company known as Nike decided to start the first sports team of its kind to help post-college athletes train for the Olympics, and Nike founders Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman agreed that Harry Johnson was the man to lead this team, which became known as Western Athletics.
Who knows how many more championships Harry would have won and lived had he stayed longer? What is known is that Culture and some of the athletes he left behind as his successor won eight more state titles in the five years following his departure.
For anyone wondering why I made it to the top 1, 2, and 3 on this list? The answer is twofold: 1) just giving it first place doesn’t seem enough of its awesomeness and 2) I have an aversion to lists and awards in general, because they’re always subjective, so I get why not?
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” • Jimmy Johnson
You can follow Sam on Twitter @SuperTaoInc