Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Jimmy Johnson, a three-time All-Pro and member of the 1970s All-Decade team, has died. He was 86 years old.
Johnson’s family told the Pro Football Hall of Fame that he died Wednesday night.
Johnson, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994, played his entire 16-year professional career with San Francisco. He appeared in 213 games, more than any other 49ers player at the time of his retirement.
“Jimmy Johnson was extraordinarily gifted athletically,” said Hall of Fame President Jim Porter. “The 49ers had the luxury of using him on offense and defense early in his career to meet the team’s needs. Once he established himself as a left cornerback, he flourished. The notion that a ‘confined’ cornerback could cut the field in half for the opponent was true for Jimmy. Quarterbacks on other teams rarely looked his way, and most of the time they regretted their decision if they challenged him.”
The 49ers drafted Johnson sixth overall in 1961 out of UCLA — the Chargers of the new AFL took him in the fourth round of that league’s draft — and he became a starter almost immediately at cornerback. He had five interceptions as a rookie.
But he was so versatile that the Niners used Johnson on offense in 1962, when he made 34 catches for 627 yards and scored four touchdowns.
Preventing opponents from compiling such statistics was his forte, however, and by 1964 Johnson was a constant presence on the corner. He remained there until retiring after the 1976 season, totaling 47 interceptions, returning two for scores, and earning a reputation as a mean cover with a nose for the ball. In 1971, in the midst of a three-year All-Pro season, Johnson won the George Halas Award for courageous play.
“You have to be worked and corralled and corralled to become the best you can be,” Johnson said upon induction into the Hall of Fame. “So I actually feel here today that I never reached that level, I never reached a player as good as I could be. But thank God and inner talent, I was able to present a picture to those individuals who voted for the Hall of Fame, and my longevity and the level of play I played from my rookie season to my last. That in this wonderful year of 1994 I was given the opportunity, the glorious opportunity, to become a member of the most wonderful society: the Hall of Fame.”
It got to the point where Johnson was at his peak and opponents rarely attacked him. He was Deion Sanders long before Prime Time came to the NFL.
“Jim doesn’t get much publicity because the opposition avoids him as much as possible,” San Francisco quarterback John Brodie once said. “Talk to veteran quarterbacks like John Unitas and Bart Starr and they’ll tell you they spot few passing patterns in Jimmy’s zone. The only reason Johnson doesn’t lead the league in interceptions is he doesn’t have a chance.”
Former 49ers coach Dick Nolan once said Johnson was a better cornerback than two of his other players, (Hall of Famer) Mel Renfro and (two-time All-Pro) Cornell Green with the Cowboys.
Brother of Olympic decathlon champion Rafer Johnson, Jimmy Johnson played two ways at UCLA. He was an offensive winger and a defender, while also competing on the track as a hurdler and broad jumper.
His brother was Johnson’s presenter for enshrinement at the Canton, Ohio, hall.
“Rafer Johnson is truly my hero and that is an incredible thing in itself,” Jimmy Johnson said that day. “Most young people growing up usually have a hero in another town, in another city, in another country, and they write to that individual, get an autographed picture, and then they tack that picture up on the wall and they love that picture, they play with that picture. and get inspired by this photo. There is no such problem for me.
“I had a brother who lived with me on a day-to-day basis who I could talk to, ask the pertinent questions, get the pertinent feedback, and be corrected in my direction if necessary. I must say that I must give credit to brother Rafer for everything I have achieved in the field of athletics. And I just wish we could share this trophy, this bust of myself, right down the middle, because he certainly deserves half of it.”
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Barry Wilner is a retired professional football writer for the Associated Press. Wilner has covered the NFL for the AP for more than 30 years.
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