Ron Johnson, 1947-2018

It's hard for young fans to understand that rushing for 1,000 yards in a season was once a very big deal.

In a 16-game season, as we have had since 1978, presuming a player plays in every game, 1,000 yards averages out to 62.5 yards per game. That doesn't sound like a lot. In a 14-game season, as was in place from 1961 to 1977, 1,000 yards meant 71.4 per game. In a 12-game season, which the NFL had for most of its history until 1960, it was 83.3 per game.

The 1st running back to gain 1,000 yards in a season was Beattie Feathers, with the 1934 Chicago Bears. Believe it or not, no Jets player did it until 1996, when Adrian Murrell rushed for 1,249 yards in the worst Jet season ever, 1-15.

The 1st Giant to do it was Ron Johnson.

Ronald Adolphis Johnson was born on October 17, 1947, in Detroit. He was the younger brother of Alex Johnson, a rookie with the ill-fated 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, a member of the 1967 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, an All-Star and an American League batting champion with the 1970 California Angels, a Yankee in the Shea Stadium exile years of 1974 and '75, and closed his career with his hometown Tigers in 1976, the year of Mark Fidrych and Rusty Staub in Detroit. Alex died in 2015, at age 72.

Alex Johnson's sport was baseball. Ron Johnson's sport was football. Both brothers starred in both sports at Northwestern High School in Detroit. In 1967, Ron set a University of Michigan record by rushing for 270 yards in a game, in a 27-14 win over Wisconsin.

The following season, he became the 1st black Captain of a Michigan football team, and set a new NCAA record with 347 yards rushing, and a Big Ten record with 5 rushing touchdowns, also in a win over Wisconsin, 34-9. (Red Grange had famously scored 5 touchdowns in a game for Illinois against Michigan in 1924, but it was 4 rushing and 1 on a kickoff return.) He set school records with 2,524 rushing yards in a career, and 139.1 rushing yards per game and 19 rushing touchdowns in a season.

Esco Sarkkinen, long an assistant coach to Woody Hayes at Ohio State, said, "Johnson has good size, speed, agility and balance. But his extraordinary physique gives him the ability to shake off tacklers." Said size was listed at 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds. "Picking the hole is what I think I do best," Johnson said. "It's more instinct than anything else. You either have it or you don't. When the play is called in the huddle, I start thinking about where the hole is supposed to be."

He was selected as a First Team All-American, finished 6th in the voting for the Heisman Trophy (O.J. Simpson of USC won it), won the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the Most Valuable Player in the Big Ten Conference, and the Big Ten Medal as his school's outstanding scholar-athlete. He was no "dumb jock": He graduated on time the following Spring, with a degree in business administration.

*

The Cleveland Browns drafted him in the 1st round of the 1969 NFL Draft. But he held out in training camp, and that may have affected his performance. After the season, the Browns traded him to the New York Giants.

The biggest name the Browns got from the Giants was Homer Jones, the receiver credited with being the 1st player to throw the football to the ground after scoring a touchdown -- inventing the "spike." In the opening game of the 1970 Browns season, Jones would return the 2nd half kickoff for a touchdown, helping them to beat the Jets in the 1st ever Monday Night Football broadcast.

But 1970 was a good year for the Johnson brothers. Not only did Alex win the batting title, but Ron married Karen, and they would go on to have 2 children: A son, Christopher; and a daughter, Allison. Ron and Karen would remain together for the rest of his life.

On November 8, Ron rushed for 136 yards, and caught 4 passes for 59 yards, 1 for a touchdown with 3 minutes left, to beat the Dallas Cowboys 23-20. He gained 1,027 yards, not enough to lead the NFL -- Larry Brown of the Washington Redskins was the leader -- but enough to become the 1st player for a New York team, in any professional football league that could be considered "major," to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. He caught 48 passes for 487 yards.

Fran Tarkenton, then quarterbacking the Giants in between his stints as the Hall of Fame passer for the Minnesota Vikings, said, "Johnson is the best halfback in football today, period! He's just a devastating football player."

Given his pass-catching ability, he may have come along too soon. Had he debuted in the 1990s or later, a head coach and an offensive coordinator might have had him thrown to more, or maybe even converted him to an All-Pro tight end. As it was, he was an easy choice for the 1970 All-Pro team.

He was plagued by injury in 1971, but was an All-Pro again in 1972, gaining 1,182 yards, 3rd best in the NFL behind Simpson (now with the Buffalo Bills) and Brown. He caught 45 passes for 451 yards. His 2 All-Pro seasons were the only winning seasons the Giants had between 1963 and 1981. That was not a coincidence.

He had 902 rushing yards and 377 receiving yards in 1973, but injuries resumed their course, and he last played in the NFL in 1975. The Giants cut him. In 1976, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys, but did not get into any games, and retired. He finished with 4,308 rushing yards for 40 touchdowns, and 213 catches for 1,977 yards and 15 touchdowns.

After his playing career ended, he put his business degree to work, founding Rackson, a food service company, which eventually ran 13 Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in his native Michigan and in North Jersey, to which the Giants moved in 1976. His son Christopher worked for Rackson as well.

In 1992, Ron Johnson was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, which is overseen by the National Football Foundation. In 2006, he was named the Foundation's chairman.

He had to leave that position in 2008, as he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Given what we now know about what football does to the human brain, it's almost certain that it caused his case. By 2011, he was living in a residential care facility in Madison, Morris County, New Jersey. He died there this past Saturday, November 10, 2018. He was 71 years old.

Ron Johnson could have been the right man, in the right position, in the right sport, in the right place, but it was at the wrong time. The wrong time -- 15 years too late, or 15 years too early -- to be a New York Football Giant. And the wrong time to have insufficient protection for his head.

He could have been a legend. Maybe he should be considered one, anyway.

UPDATE: His final resting place is not publicly known.