 Johnsonc. 1976 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1930 (1930) |
| Died | (aged 88) |
| Listed height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) |
| Listed weight | 195 lb (88 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | El Monte(El Monte, California) |
| College | UCLA (1950–1952) |
| Position | Guard |
| Number | 73 |
| Coaching career | 1954–2019 |
| Career history | |
| As a coach: | |
| 1954–1966 | El Rancho HS |
| 1966–1994 | Cypress JC |
| 1996–2019 | Biola (assistant) |
| Career highlights | |
As player:
| |
| Career coaching record | |
| Junior college | 588–259 (.694) |
Don Johnson (1930[a] – February 6, 2019) was an Americanbasketball player and coach. He playedcollege basketball for theUCLA Bruins under head coachJohn Wooden. As asenior, Johnson received honorable mention fromUnited Press International for theirAll-American team in 1952. He became ajunior college coach atCypress College inCypress, 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 theUCLA Athletics Hall of Fame, and Cypress dedicated its basketball court "Don Johnson Court".
After graduating fromEl Monte High School inEl Monte, California,[3] Johnson attendedFullerton College from 1948 to 1950,[4] and he was named the Eastern Conference'smost valuable player for the 1949–50 season.[3][5] He playedcollege basketball at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles. It was early inBruins coachJohn Wooden's tenure at the school,[6] about a decade before he would win the first of 11 national championships.[1] Replacing graduated starGeorge Stanich atguard,[7][8] Johnson led the Bruins to two Southern Division championships in thePacific Coast Conference (PCC),[1] and he led the team inrebounding in both of his seasons.[3]
As ajunior in1950–51, Johnson averaged 5.2 rebounds per game and received honorable mention for thePCC All-Southern Division team.[1][9] He averaged 5.8 rebounds in1951–52,[1] when UCLA won the PCC title and qualified for the1952 NCAA tournament.[10] He was named a third-teamAll-American by theHelms Athletic Foundation and earned honorable mention fromUPI.[b][12][13] He and teammateJerry 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 defendforwards due to his rebounding ability.[8]
In 1954, Johnson became a teacher atEl Rancho High School inPico Rivera, California.[4][17] As theirvarsity basketball coach, he led them to the playoffs six times in his 12 seasons.[4][18] He joinedCypress 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 andNational Basketball Association (NBA) centersMark Eaton andSwen Nater,[3][21] neither of whom had much basketball experience before joining Cypress.[22] Afterwards, the school gained a reputation for developingbig 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 totalblocks (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 theAmerican 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 ofjunior 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 joinedBiola University as an assistant coach underDave Holmquist, who played for Johnson at Cypress from 1969 to 1971.[28] Johnson remained at Biola until his death in 2019.[29][30]
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Johnson was inducted into the Orange County Hall of Fame in 1996, the Fullerton College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010,[19] and theUCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.[1][31] Cypress honored him in 2009 by renaming its basketball court "Don Johnson Court".[32][33]
Johnson's father, Jack, was a basketball coach at El Monte High.[34] Johnson's mother, Cecile Sparks, played basketball at theUniversity of Kansas forJames 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 theASUCLA 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]
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.
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.
