Avery County native Paul Johnson to be Inducted into Georgia Sports Hall of Fame

Avery County native, Paul Johnson has been selected for a Sports Hall of Fame induction for the second time in the past nine months. 

After being chosen last January for enshrinement into the 2023 College Football Hall of Fame on December 5 at the National Football Foundation’s Annual Awards Dinner in Las Vegas, Nevada, the State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame announced September 1 that Johnson is one of eight to be inducted into its 2024 Class.

The latter Hall of Fame enshrinement will be on February 24 during a ceremony at the Macon City Auditorium.  

Johnson compiled a career record of 189-99 (.656) in 22 seasons as a head coach on the major college and lower, Division 1-AA levels.  His over-all major college coaching record is 127-89, and he had a 62-10 (.861) mark at then lower-level, Division I-AA Georgia Southern University.

He coached major college Georgia Tech for 11 seasons (2008-2018), compiling an 82-60 record. His win total is the fourth-best in Georgia Tech history, behind only his fellow-College Football Hall of Famers Bobby Dodd (165), William Alexander (134), and John Heisman (102). Johnson’s .577 winning percentage with the Yellow Jackets ranks fifth-best in program history, behind only Heisman (.764), Dodd (.713), George O’Leary (.612) and Alexander (.580). Johnson led the Yellow Jackets to nine bowl appearances (winning three) and three Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship games. He was named ACC Coach of the Year three times (2008, 2009, and 2014).

Additionally, Johnson was the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) Sportsline 2008 National Coach of The Year.

Also under Johnson, Georgia Tech compiled two of the nine 10-win seasons and one of the five 11-win campaigns in its 131-year football history.

Johnson’s first collegiate head coaching experience came at Georgia Southern from 1997-2001. During those five seasons, Johnson led the Eagles to a pair of NCAA Division I-AA–now called Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)–national championships (1999 and 2000), one national runner-up finish (1998), and five-straight Southern Conference titles.

Georgia Southern went 14-3 in Division I-AA national playoff games during Johnson’s tenure as head coach.

Johnson was Southern Conference Coach of The Year in 1997 and 1998, and he also received the Eddie Robinson Award in ’98. The latter honor is given annually to college football’s top head coach in the NCAA Division I FCS (formerly Division I-AA) in honor of the long-time legendary Gambling State University head coach.

Johnson was also named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division I-AA National Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2000.

He was inducted into Georgia Southern’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.

His head coaching record at the two schools in the State of Georgia is 142-70.

Between his tenures as head coach at Georgia Southern and Georgia Tech, Johnson was head coach at Navy (United States Naval Academy) from 2002-2007.

He compiled a 45-29 record (.608) in his six seasons as Navy’s head coach. He led the Midshipmen to five eight-win seasons, five Commander-in-Chief’s trophies, and five bowl appearances, turning around a program that had won just one game in the two seasons prior to his arrival (1-20). His 2007 team earned a berth to the Poinsettia Bowl, but Johnson had already taken the Georgia Tech head coaching job and Navy was coached in that game by his replacement as head coach, Ken Niumatalolo. Navy won 2 of 4 bowl games when Johnson was the Midshipmen’s head coach.

Johnson’s Navy teams never lost to arch-rival Army (United States Military Academy) during his tenure as head coach and lost only once in six games against the Air Force Academy. And his 2006 senior class was the first in Navy history to win the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy (for beating both Army and Air Force) all four of their years in school.

In 2007, Johnson coached Navy to a 46-44 triple-overtime victory over Notre Dame, ending the Midshipmen’s 43-game losing streak against the Fighting Irish.

And in 2004 at Navy, he was named the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year. That award is presented annually to the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) head coach whose team excels on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. The award is named for Dodd and was established in 1976 to honor the values that he exemplified.

Johnson coached 11 First Team All-Americans and one First Team Academic All-American. He coached 1999 Walter Payton Award winner and 2017 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Adrian Peterson at Georgia Southern and 2010 Burlsworth Trophy recipient Sean Bedford at Georgia Tech. The Walter Payton Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding offensive player in the NCAA Division I FCS (formerly Division I-AA) of college football, while the Burlsworth Trophy is an award given annually to the most outstanding FBS college football player who began his career as a walk-on.

Johnson is best known for his flexbone, spread-option offense, which usually bedeviled opponents, while rolling up plenty of yards and points with him calling all the plays as a head coach or offensive coordinator. At the end of the 2018 regular season (his last as a head coach), Georgia Tech had run for 5,222 more yards than any other major conference school during Johnson’s tenure there.

Johnson had only four losing seasons as a college head coach.

He also served as an assistant coach at Navy (1995-1996), the University of Hawaii (1987-1994), Georgia Southern (1983-1986), and Lees-McRae Junior College (1981 and 1982) in Banner Elk, where he got his first college coaching experience. 

Georgia Southern won a pair of I-AA national titles in 1985 and 1986 while Johnson was its Offensive Coordinator under legendary head coach Erskine “Erk” Russell.

Johnson’s first football coaching experience came as an assistant at Tuscola High School in Waynesville, NC in 1978, while he finished his undergraduate studies at Western Carolina University.

He then returned to his native roots as an assistant at Avery County High School in Newland. The Vikings produced two of their best seasons with Johnson as offensive coordinator in 1979 and co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in 1980. Avery compiled a 17-4-1 record, captured a Blue Ridge 2-A Conference championship (1979), was league runners-up the other year, and earned state playoffs berths both seasons.  He was co-offensive coordinator at Avery in 1980 with Bill Bomar, who like Johnson, also coached at Lees-McRae College (head coach of the Bobcats in 1979).

Johnson, who was raised in Newland, also played football for Avery High, where he graduated in 1975. Johnson then earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from Western Carolina University in 1979. He also earned a Master of Science in health and physical education from Appalachian State University in 1982.

He is one of only a few college football coaches to never have played football on the collegiate level.

Johnson was presented Western Carolina University’s Professional Achievement Award in 2022 and was honored during the school’s homecoming football game activities that season.

Johnson and his wife, the former Susan Propst, currently live in Avery County.  They have a daughter, Kaitlyn. His parents are Paul Johnson, Sr. and Joyce Johnson, and he has two brothers, Tim and Jamey.

Besides Johnson, members of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 include: 

*Claude Felton, University of Georgia associate athletic director and its 44-year Sports Information and Sports Communications Director, generally considered the best by his peers and the media in his chosen profession.

*Thomas Davis, a star linebacker and safety at the University of Georgia and the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Carolina Panthers. 

*Eric Berry, a football standout at the University of Tennessee and the NFL, mainly with the Kansas City Chiefs.

*Brian McCann, a seven-time all-star while playing Major League Baseball, including ten seasons with the Atlanta Braves. 

*Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a University of California and National Basketball Association (NBA) standout who played three seasons with the Atlanta Hawks and is currently director of the NBA G League.

*Chris Carpenter, a punter and pitcher for the University of Georgia football and baseball programs, respectively, who is one of the school’s leaders in career yards average (44.1 per punt) and led Georgia to a College World Series appearance. He played eight major league seasons, mostly with the St. Louis Cardinals.

*Wendy White-Prausa, a star tennis player who won the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) singles title as a Rollins College sophomore, then finished in the top 50 on the World Tennis Association’s (WTA) tour seven times as the most successful women’s professional player in State of Georgia history.

For more information about the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and the 2024 induction ceremony, call its office at (478) 752-1585 or log onto its Internet web site (georgiasportshalloffame.com).