Sep. 9—ROCHESTER — Jim Johannson's first full-time job in hockey was as the General Manager of the St. Paul Vulcans, a Twin Cities-based team that played in the United States Hockey League.

It was 1995 and Johannson, a Rochester native, was less than a year removed from retiring from his playing career. He was living with his older brother John, and doing his best to make a positive impression on Vulcans owner Stan Hubbard.

As the 1995-96 season was winding down, the Vulcans were out of playoff contention and had three older players whose junior hockey eligibility was running thin, and they had yet to receive any offers to play college hockey.

"The team didn't make any money," John Johannson said. "Stan (owned) it to give more kids opportunities to play.

"They weren't going to make the playoffs, so Jimmy went to Stan and said 'I have these three kids who deserve to play more and if they do, someone will give them a college scholarship.' Jimmy tried to trade them, but he wasn't offered much in return, but he knew they could get scholarships if they had the chance to play.

"Stan told him, 'Jim, do what's best for the players.' Jimmy was adamant he really needed to get something in return, but Stan kept telling him 'just do what's best for the players.' Jimmy traded them for almost nothing, but all three went on to get college scholarships.

"That time working with Stan really shaped him. Jimmy was never a patsy to players, but he always understood their side."

That reputation of empathy, kindness and being firm but fair, followed Jim Johannson the rest of his career.

And though he passed away at age 53 in January of 2018, it's a big reason why Johannson was awarded one of the highest honors a U.S.-born hockey player or executive can receive: On Thursday, he was named to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2022.

He'll be inducted at a ceremony at the St. Paul RiverCentre on Nov. 30, along with the other four members of this year's class: Ryan Miller, the winningest U.S.-born goalie in NHL history; twin sisters and six-time World Championship gold medalists Jocelyn Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando; and three-time Paralympic gold medal-winning goaltender Steve Cash.

"My first thought when I found out was, 'boy, I wish my mom and dad were here for this,'" John Johannson said. "He'd be so proud. You know, Jimmy and my dad were just full of gratitude. They appreciated everything and everybody. They were incredibly humble."

The Johannson brothers have one sister, Judy. Their father, Ken, played at the University of North Dakota from 1950-53, then played eight seasons for the Rochester Mustangs. He also served as the general manager for the 1980 U.S. Olympics team, better known as the "Miracle On Ice" team. Ken and his wife, Marietta (who passed away in July, 2010), kept the family in Rochester, where he worked for Mayo Clinic. Ken passed away less than a year after Jim died, in late 2018.

Ken Johannson could see the trademarks of success in his son Jim from a young age.

So could Jim's eventual high school coach.

"When I came to Rochester in 1966, I got to know Ken," long-time Mayo High School coach Lorne Grosso told the Post Bulletin after Jim's death in 2018, "and Jim and John were always around, always skating and playing hockey. I coached Jim in (youth) hockey schools, when he was very young. I remember him zipping around cones and skating so well ... he was on the ice all the time.

"Ken always told me, 'he's going to make it big some day.'"

As a player, Jim Johannson was a notoriously skilled stick handler and a quietly productive scorer. As a high school senior in 1982, he helped Mayo reach the Minnesota state tournament for the first time ever. It was the first of seven state-tournament trips the Spartans would make under Grosso.

"Jimmy was a tall, lanky player as a young sophomore," said current Mayo activities director Jeff Whitney, who was a senior at Mayo in 1980 when Johannson was a sophomore. "He hadn't even fully grown into his body yet at that time. He always had unbelievable hands. He could stick handle through you without even moving. You'd come at him, he'd stand still and ... he was just really tricky, had a great hockey sense. You needed to be ready when he was on the ice."

Jim Johannson then became one in a long string of Rochester players to play college hockey at Division I power University of Wisconsin, where he recorded 63 goals and 129 points in 148 career games. Playing alongside his brother, Jim helped the Badgers win an NCAA title in 1983, beating Harvard 6-2 in the title game.

He played in two Olympics — the 1984 and 1988 Games — becoming one of just three hockey players from Rochester to ever do so, joining fellow Mayo grad Eric Strobel (1980 "Miracle on Ice" team) and JM grad Guy Gosselin (1988, 1992).

Johannson began working for USA Hockey in 2000 and was promoted to assistant executive director of hockey operations in 2007. He wore many hats for USA Hockey, including building the roster for multiple U.S. World Junior Championships teams, and perhaps his biggest accomplishment in the game: setting the roster for the 2018 U.S. Olympic team, the first to not have NHL players since 1994.

Jim Johannson and his wife, Abigail, whom he married in 2011, have one daughter, Ellie.

Jim passed away at his home in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Jan. 22, 2018, just two weeks before the team he assembled took the ice for the Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.

"Jimmy's role in amateur hockey and USA Hockey, his demeanor and reputation is impeccable," John Johannson said. "When he was building those (international) teams, he'd spend more time on the phone with the guys he cut than he did with the guys who made the team.

"He said it was the greatest moment of his life to call guys and say 'you're going to the Olympics to play for your country.' And it was the toughest moment of his life to call the guys who weren't making it."

First and foremost, Jim Johannson always considered the players' side of things when building rosters. He knew he needed role players, that a roster full of skilled goal-scorers wasn't going to win and it wasn't going to advance USA Hockey's status on the world stage.

When constructing a roster for a World Championships, Johannson understood that players had just finished the eight-month grind of the NHL season, and he was asking them to then immediately leave for Europe to play for the U.S. for three weeks.

His invitations weren't always received kindly.

"One (former) NHLer said 'Jim asked me to go play in the World Championships one year I told him to (expletive).' Jim understood, guys were tired and beaten up," John Johannson said. "But the next year, this NHLer had finished the season, was without a contract. He said 'I was so hesitant to call Jim and ask if I could play in the World Championships. I thought he'd rip me up and down, but he was so accommodating. He asked me to play, and I ended up getting another (NHL) contract because of it.'

"I never knew any of these stories until Jim passed away."

One of Jim's proudest accomplishments, his brother said, was working with Hockey Canada executive Bob Nicholson to help bring the goals and objectives of the two entities more closely in line.

"USA Hockey went from wanting to be competitive (on the world stage) to expecting to win," John Johannson said. "Years ago, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey were opposed, they weren't in unison. Jim and Bob Nicholson, the kind of merged interests together as North Americans — we have the same viewers, same population, if something good happens in USA Hockey, that can be good for Hockey Canada, and vice versa.

"Jimmy worked with other organizations around the world and the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) to say 'how do we make these events more popular?'"

Those who know him best have no doubt Jim Johannson would be grateful, thankful and most of all humble, if he knew he will be inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, in his home state. The Hall is located in Eveleth, Minn., approximately 60 miles north of Duluth.

"He'd definitely ... you'd have to dig to get him to talk about it," Whitney said. "He'd be humble, but very proud.

"He came from a hockey family. It was such a large part of his youth and college years, then into USA Hockey after he played and coached a bit. It was in his blood, so to reach the U.S. Hall of Fame level, that's a pretty cool thing."

John Johannson said his brother would be thankful to everyone who has helped him or who he worked with in hockey, from the time he started playing the game in Rochester until he ascended to an executive position with the sport's U.S. governing body.

"I think back to our days in Rochester youth hockey," John said. "There was a newspaper clipping that hung on our fridge from the youth ice skating races they would hold at Graham (Arena). The Post Bulletin came out one day and did a story about the races. There's a picture there of Jimmy, without a helmet, turning a corner with his short red hair and the article says '8-year-old champion Jimmy Johannson.' That hung on our fridge for a long time.

"I think about all those things like when I think of him going into the Hall of Fame. Without all of those things, Jimmy wouldn't be there."