Brooks Johnson

Brooks Johnson (February 28, 1934 – June 29, 2024) was an American sprinter and track coach.

Early life Johnson was a track star for his high school in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His father shined shoes in Miami, Florida, and his mother was a housemaid.

Life as an athlete After high school, Johnson attended Tufts University. There he was a football halfback and kick returner. He described his track career there as having more "lowlights than highlights." but injury curtailed his career. He was not a member of the USA track team for the 1964 Olympics; he was involved in an automobile accident on the way to the qualifying meet at Stanford University. One of his pupils there was the promising young discus thrower, and future vice-president, Al Gore.

Later coaching career Johnson spent 12 years at St. Albans before moving on to the University of Florida (1975–79) as assistant track coach and then head coach at Stanford University (1979–92), succeeding coach Payton Jordan, and California Polytechnic State University (1993–96). At St. Albans, Johnson helped steer some 200 inner city boys to the prep school, via an opportunity he created called The RISK Program.

Johnson coached Olympians since 1960, beginning with 110-meter hurdles silver medalist Willie May. Since then, notable Olympians coached by Johnson include Esther Stroy (a 15-year-old girl he trained through a neighborhood track club to get to the 1968 Olympics Johnson also was a former director of the ARCO Olympic Training Center for the United States Olympic Team (there at its opening in 2003–04) and acted as High Performance Division Chair for USA Track & Field. He was still an active coach with a small, select group of athletes that has included Justin Gatlin, Tiffany Williams, and David Oliver. "It is actually quite easy because a lot of the problems have already been resolved," Johnson said of his athletes, "these people were outstanding with Olympic credentials before they ever came here, so they know their way to the podium. Our job is to retrace the steps back to the podium." Johnson was more recently based at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World, usually to be found in his "signature beige straw hat".

Accolades and awards In 2018, Johnson was given the USA Track and Field Legend Coach Award.

In 2010, Johnson was named Nike Coach of the Year by USA Track and Field.

The Brooks Johnson Development Chair of the Year Award, is awarded annually to the outstanding chair within the USATF National Team Development Committee whose work has promoted, assisted and developed the event group(s) he/she has led. It is presented at the USA Track & Field National Convention, by the USATF National Team Development Committee, in honor of Coach Johnson and his past work with the USATF Development Committee.

Criticism In 1992, one of Johnson's former athletes at Stanford University went public with her criticisms of Johnson's treatment of students.