Full circle: Former Sooner High athlete came home, gave back

(Note: This is the first of a two-part feature.)

Quick: Identify the following men with the specific job and team each was associated with in sports championship history.

Phil Bengston, Bob Holloway, Neill Armstrong, Woody Widenhofer, Joe Brodsky, Frankie Crosetti, K.C. Jones and Jimmy Rogers?

They were part of the Great Unknowns to most fans. Each served as a main assistant coach (some went on to be head coaches) with some of the greatest teams in sports history: Bengston (Green Bay Packers, late 1960s, head coach Vince Lombardi), Holloway and Armstrong (Minnesota Vikings, 1960s-70s, head coach Bud Grant), Widenhofer (Pittsburgh Steelers, late 1970s, head coach Chuck Noll), Brodsky (Dallas Cowboys, 1992, head coach Jimmy Johnson), Crosetti (New York Yankees, late 1950s, manager Casey Stengel), Jones (Los Angeles Lakers, 1971-72, head coach Bill Sharman, 33-game winning streak) and Jimmy Rodgers (Boston Celtics, mid-1980s, head coach K.C. Jones).

Generally speaking, the glory or the hot tar falls on the head coaches, while the stalwart assistants remain in the background, quietly imprinting their stamp of quality on the players. They give the head coach their insight and advice but loyally back his or her’s final plan of preparation and action. They help form the solid backbone of a team’s coaching structures.

One of the best ever to serve at Bartlesville High in this capacity was Rick Johnson. Johnson — who retired earlier this year as a teacher — poured his support and ability to four state finalists teams in Bruin basketball history — state championships in 1990-91 and 1991-92, and state runner-up honors in 1992-93 and 2004-05.

He served ably with three head coaches of distinctively difference personalities — Steve Hesser (1990-92), Wes Brown (1992-00) and Tim Bart (2000-14). That equaled 24 seasons of devotion — defined by his combination of serenity and confidence. He experienced everything from a 2-20 season in 1999-00, to a 27-2 mark and state title in 1990-91, to a 25-3 showing and state runner-up achievement of 2004-05. In that latter season, all of Bartlesville’s losses were to state champions that season.

Bartlesville recorded 15 winning seasons and another one at .500 during his near quarter-century of service.

As important as his coaching pursuits meant to him, Johnson also greatly values his time in the classroom attempting to students to grow in knowledge and character.

For Johnson — who didn’t decide until halfway through college to become a teacher — teaching and coaching was a labor of love.

Asked about Johnson’s outstanding trait, longtime teaching and coaching colleague and friend Gerald Thompson answered that it’s “his care for the kids, his care for the kids in his classes. His care to get them to explore for themselves. As a coach, it was his passion for basketball. HIs passion to teach basketball and his willingness just to serve as an assistant coach. He was definitely an asset to the Bruin basketball program.”

Johnson earned Thompson’s full respect.

“He’s probably the greatest assistant I’ve ever seen or been associated with,” said Thompson, who has served as the varsity girls assistant, varsity girls head coach and currently as a boys assistant. “He was willing to do whatever they needed during that time.”

Johnson didn’t do it alone. The love of his life Lisa (Meese) Johnson supported him during all those years of traveling and hours gobbled up by practice. She became a familiar presence at pretty much every basketball game and served for years in helping organize the hospitality room at basketball games.

Sadly, illness took her in 2020 — at age 59 — but the glow of her smile and friendly eyes still lives in the hearts of those who knew her, certainly no one more so than Johnson and their daughters and grandparents.

It was Lisa that helped bring Johnson to return to Bartlesville and to plant their roots here.

It was a circular course of destiny that led Johnson back home again.

As a teenager, he played baseball and basketball at Sooner High and summer baseball with the Bartlesville American Legion program.

It was a unique time in Bartlesville for the local teenage sports community. The talent was divided between two high schools, Sooner and Col-Hi, which fostered a fierce rivalry.

But, in summer ball, the boys put aside their school loyalties and blended together into some great teams. The 1978 Legion team — on which Johnson played — finished just one win shy of playing in the American Legion World Series.

“We all really liked each other,” Johnson said. “The chemistry was great. … Really, we all grew up together, and played with the Boys Club, the ‘Y’, Phillips leagues and youth summer ball at the Price Fields. … I always thought it was cool to go from (high school) rivals to really liking each other (in summer ball). It think that was of the best things about it.”

Following high school, Johnson headed to Oklahoma State to study business marketing and management for the first two years. Up to that point, he had chosen against a career in education due to economics.

But, halfway through college, he experienced the epiphany that he would only be truly happy as a teacher and coach. He switched majors.

“It was just based and former teachers and coaches and what they had meant to me,” Johnson said.

(Note: The second part of this feature is planned for Tuesday.)

This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Rick Johnson grew up in Bartlesville, came back to teach, coach