To Absent Friends - John Henry Johnson

If you are a football fan and are under the age of 45 or so, the Pittsburgh Steelers have always been a good team. They make the playoffs almost every year; get to the Super Bowl, and usually win it, with a degree of regularity that is the envy of other NFL teams and their fans. But, if you are a bit older, you can remember the days when the Steelers were anything but the model franchise that they are today. For the first forty years of their existence, the Steelers rarely had good teams, but they very often had good, if not great players, and the memory of that hit home last night when the news of the death of John Henry Johnson, 81, hit the Internet.

A member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Johnson played for the Steelers for six seasons in the early 1960's. In 1962, he became the Steelers first 1,000 yard rusher (he did it again in '64), and he still ranks fourth on the Steelers All-Time Rushing list. (Side comment: Franco Harris is first, Jerome Bettis is second. Without looking it up, name who ranks third. I was surprised at the answer.) When he retired, he ranked fourth on the NFL's All-Time Rushing list, trailing only Jim Brown, Jim Taylor, and Joe Perry. As a young tyke, I have a very specific memory of a Steelers victory on a Saturday night in Cleveland over the very superior Jim Brown-led Browns when Johnson rushed for 200 yards in the game. Saw that game in glorious black-and-white in the living room at Saline Street.

It was sad and somewhat annoying to see that Johnson's death was noted by a very small paragraph in today's PG's sports section, although he did get a full news obit, albeit a wire service one, in the main body of the paper. I would hope that this is because Johnson's death came late at night and on a weekend. I would be very disappointed of John Henry doesn't get better treatment in the local sports sections in the days ahead.

People really need to be aware that there really were "sports" before ESPN was invented, and that the Steelers really did exist before the Immaculate Reception.

RIP John Henry Johnson.