Former Christian County HS and WKU football player became a coaching legend with sons who followed in his footsteps
Alvis Johnson had a tremendous run of success at Harrodsburg High. He coached many great players who went on to Division I success numbering some 40-athletes or thereabouts. Johnson won 194-games, against only 77-losses, and took three teams (1988, ’96, and ’97) to the state championship game. Johnson’s ’96 team lost in overtime to Beechwood. Johnson’s track athletes won five (5) team titles, 50-individual titles, and garnered several All-American distinctions. Alvis Johnson coached athletes who received over 1.7-million dollars worth of scholarship money to perform collegiately; changing, forever, countless lives. Eight (8) times Johnson was voted Kentucky’s Track Coach of the year. Six (6) times he was voted Conference Track Coach of the Year. In 1977, he was voted the Kellogg Corporation National Track Coach of the Year. He was again nominated for the National Track Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1992. Coach Johnson was voted the Football Coach of the Year by the Associated Press in 1991 and 1996. In addition, he was voted Coach of the Year by the coaches’s association in both 1994 and 1996. Without question, Alvis Johnson belongs among the pantheon of Kentucky’s greatest football coaches as his induction into the KHSAA Dawahares Hall of Fame, in 2004, would certainly support.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Former players and assistant coaches gathered to pay their respects to former Harrodsburg High School Head Football and Track Coach, Alvis Johnson
Harrodsburg, KY: One of my favorite proverbs involves an acorn and its parent oak tree. The proverb is “an acorn doesn’t fall far from its tree,” or something like that.
The origin may be German. The German saying is “der Apfel fällt nicht weit von Stamm” which translates “the apple never falls far from the stem.”
The saying was popularized by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was a prominent American essayist and poet. Emerson used the saying in some of his works and introduced it to a wider American audience as early as 1839.
Some sources suggest the saying has roots in Asia. Regardless, the proverb is related to other idioms like “a chip off the old block” or “like father, like son (or like mother, like daughter),” all conveying the idea of children inheriting traits from parents.
Regardless of its origins, the Johnson family can relate. Alvis Johnson had two sons, Derrick and Dennis. Both were part of Harrodsburg’s huge run of success in the 1990s and both went on to play at the University of Kentucky.
The younger, Dennis Johnson (now the HFC at Woodford County), was among the Cats’ highest-rated recruits ever. Dennis Johnson earned the coveted “Sports Illustrated,” national high school player of the year honor in 1997.
Post college, Dennis had an NFL career. When Dennis graduated from Harrodsburg, Alvis Johnson retired from coaching and joined his sons at UK as an assistant athletic director in 1998, a position he held for eight years.
It is a tremendous story. To fully appreciate the Alvis Johnson story one has to go back further than his coaching his two sons at Harrodsburg.
Alvis Johnson began his coaching career, in 1970, at Christian County High School in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Johnson served as the freshman football coach, assistant track coach, and assistant wrestling coach.
These old time guys in the coaching industry generally didn’t “specialize.” We have seen plenty of examples of legendary football coaches coaching multiple sports. Hey, if a man can coach, the man can coach.
An assistant football coach named Dan Hampton told KPGFootball once he was the head, women’s soccer coach at a high school which played for a KHSAA title under his direction. He told the magazine, “I didn’t even know what to call the specific positions. In the end, it didn’t matter. You either can coach or your can’t. It is just that simple.”
Alvis Johnson could flat coach. Everything he coached flourished under his guidance and direction.
Hey, if a man can coach, the man can coach
Friday Night Fletch
Johnson’s first freshman football team went undefeated. They didn’t surrender a single point all season.
In 1973, Johnson moved to Harrodsburg, Kentucky where he continued his coaching career at Harrodsburg High School. It would be at the same school where he later finished his career after serving 25 years.
Harrodsburg Herald
Alvis Johnson holding
his two sons, Dennis (left),
and Derrick (right) on his
shoulders.
For the first two years at Harrodsburg High School he served as Athletics Director, assistant football coach, and head men’s and women’s track coach. In 1975, he was chosen to become the head football coach along with continuing his other duties of Athletics Director and head men’s and women’s track coach.
In 1980, he added to his responsibilities the task of Assistant Principal. Johnson continued in those respective capacities for the next several decades.
Johnson’s track teams won five (5) state championships, had two state runner-ups, 20 regional titles, six (6) sectional titles, and 11 conference championships. That is a pretty dad-burn good record of success.
His football team won 194 games, lost only 77-times, appeared in three (3) state championship games (1987, ’96, and ’97). Johnson’s teams won the region seven (7) times, its district 12-times, and was ranked No. 1 in Kentucky numerous other times in both the coaches’s and media polls.
There were numbers aside from wins/losses/titles of which Alvis Johnson was even more proud. Under Johnson’s guidance, over 40 athletes went on to receive scholarships to a Division 1A (FBS) or 1AA (FCS) school. In addition, these athletes earned scholarship dollars totaling over 1.7 million dollars.
Johnson’s track athletes won more than 50 individual state titles as well as garnering several All-American awards. His football athletes won numerous All-State honors as well as several All-American honors.
For his efforts, Coach Johnson was also well recognized. Eight (8) times he was voted Kentucky’s Track Coach of the Year. Six (6) times he was voted Conference Track Coach of the Year.
In 1977, he was voted the Kellogg Corporation National Track Coach of the Year. He was again nominated for the National Track Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1992.
Coach Johnson wasn’t just distinguished in track. Coach Johnson was voted the Football Coach of the Year by the Associated Press in 1991 and 1996. In addition, he was voted Coach of the Year by the coaches’s association in both 1994 and 1996.
There would be several firsts tied to Alvis Johnson and his “acorns.” In 1996, the Johnsons were the first father and sons all distinguished by the Associated Press at year’s end.
The two players named Johnson were both voted first team All State. Their dad, Coach Alvis Johnson, was the Coach of the Year.
Johnson served on the KHSAA Board of Control from 1988-95 and was the board’s president in 1991. Johnson was elected to the National Federation of High School Athletics’ board of directors in 1992 and became that board’s first African American president in 1994.
For his work in Athletics Administration, Coach Johnson was awarded the HUFF Corporation Certificate of Merit in 1982. In 1993, Johnson was awarded the Kentucky Athletic Directors’s Distinguished Service Award.
We will be the first to recognize that Alvis Johnson was one tough, old, oak tree and any acorn falling from his boughs would likely struggle just to keep abreast. Somehow, his sons managed it, his family managed it, his wife managed it.
That is the thing about great coaches and great parents. They, somehow, know just how to inspire greatness in their progeny and those around them regularly.
That was (and still is) certainly true of the Johnsons.
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball and KPI Newspaper Group, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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