V 14 N. 39 Brooks Johnson, R.I.P. A Second Report

 

                                                                      Brooks Johnson

Brooks Johnson as we noted in the previous posting passed away on June 29, 2024.   Not knowing him or his career very well, I've done a short search in order to honor him in a more in depth way than yesterday.  

I came across the Massachusetts Track Coaches Hall of Fame page which gives a very good summation of his career.   Please see the following link:    Brooks Johnson MSTCA HOF page

 In 1963 Brooks was part of the winning Pan Am Games 4x100 with Earl Young,  Ollan Cassell and Ira Murchison.  It would be interesting to know how those two 400 men got on that team.  But they didn't drop the baton. 

As noted in the HOF pages,  Brooks attended Tufts University in Massachusetts before moving on the the University of Chicago Law School where he also competed for the U. of Chicago Track Club under coach Ted Haydon.    He went on to Washington DC to work in government but also taught and coached at St. Albans High School.   From DC. he went on to the U. of Florida and then to Stanford.  He was the US team coach at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.   It is also noted that he came originally from Cahokia, Florida the ancestral home of a great First Nation society and trade center before the European invasion of the Americas.  

He went from Washington DC to U. of Florida as an assistant coach from 1975-79, then to Stanford as head coach from 1979-92.  He was Women's coach at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.  

Ned Price our inveterate Boston Marathon photographer also sent in these pictures of Brooks in his University of Chicago Track Club days.   With some additional comments.

Brooks Johnson and Ira Murchison

Brooks Johnson

John Thomas, Jim Brown, a weight man, not the football player,  and Brooks Johnson

on the U. of Chicago Stagg Field

Ned also includes this story.    

   "On the way back from the Drake relays, Brooks and 3White relay teammates 

stopped for lunch at a small town diner. The teenage waitress apologized and told Brooks

that they did not serve colored people."

Brooks did not bat an eyelash and reassuringly touched the girl on the
forearm and said: "That's all right, honey, I am an American Indian".
The girl smiled and said "Oh OK, I guess it's alright then".

This dining room episode is not an uncommon occurrence in our twentieth century sports history about travel in the US and has been repeated many times with many teams.   But what I also choose to believe here is that Brooks was telling the truth about his First Nation heritage. (In Canada we don't say 'tribe' anymore.   Numerous First Nations adopted and/or had African slaves who were later integrated into their cultures.   I refer you to a recent book, "We Refuse to Forget, A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power" by Caleb Gayle.   George

Here are some comments that came in about Brooks Johnson:

The late Brooks Johnson of the Chicago TC and the late NCAA 100-yard champion Ira Murchison of Western Michigan University both beat me in the 60-yard dash, but I beat Ira in the furlong.  Ira was my teammate in the 4x100-meter relay on the U.S. Team in Europe.  He was a co-holder of the world record at 60 and 100 yards and at 100 meters.  

Dr. John Telford

 As always, Gordon Thompson was great and it was so good to see and hear him again.  Like Brooks Johnson, he knows many more things than just track and expanded on them during his interview.  I had not realized he knew Brooks so well so it was nice to hear his comments from an expert.  Bill Schnier

Gordon made several off the cuff errors on the history of women's running in the Olympics stating that there were no women's events in Olympic track until after WWII, but all in all it was a nice presentation about Brooks Johnson.. The 800m was tried once in 1928 in Amsterdam and taken out, because of fake news making it seem like all the finalists ended up on their backs after the race,  but sprints and jumps and throws were there in '28, 32, and '36.  And a lot the modern runners end up on their backs after their races. Go figure.   Remember Babe Didrickson, , Helen Stephens, Harriet Bland, Annette Rogers,  Betty Robinson, et al.  They were all there competing in the late 20's and 30's.   George