11-09-2012, 08:15 PM
I was too young to really have the opportunity to watch him play, but damn do I wish I could have! I was just surfing youtube and randomly came across some of his highlights and wow was this guy a stud. I know he got sick unfortunately, but I wihs things would have worked out for him in the NFL. The article below from the LA Times is a great read as well. Just thought Id share...
ON THE Heisman Sideline : LeShon Johnson, the Nation's Leading Division I-A Rusher, Toils in Obscurity
November 13, 1993|GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI | TIMES STAFF WRITER
DeKALB, Ill. — Etta Johnson still has the letter, the one written by the baby of her family, little LeShon.
He wrote it three years ago, when Etta sometimes couldn't pay the electric bill, or the water bill, or buy enough propane to heat the two-bedroom house in the tiny, no-stoplight town of Haskell, Okla. She was working two jobs at the time, but it never seemed to be enough.
"We were like every poor family," she said from her niece's house in Haskell. "We were trying to make ends meet."
Etta Johnson lives in the country now. She doesn't have a phone, but she has that letter written by her youngest son. Back then, times were tough. Then again, so was LeShon.
"That's the reason why I've got big dreams," he said.
Read the letter in part: \o7 "Pray for me. I'm going to try to make it in football. And if I do, I'm going to build a house for you, Momma."\f7
So now, as LeShon (Cowboy) Johnson plays his final game for Northern Illinois, only one question remains: Ranch, Tudor or split-level, Etta?
No one is quite sure how it happened, but Johnson could finish today's game against Mississippi not only as the nation's leading Division I-A rusher, but as only one of four running backs in collegiate history to gain 2,000 or more yards in a season. The other three: Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders, USC's Marcus Allen and Nebraska's Mike Rozier, all of whom own Heisman trophies.
Johnson needs only 83 yards. A Heisman is probably out of the question--Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward is expected to win easily--but an invitation to New York and the Downtown Athletic Club shouldn't be. Johnson has earned that much.
"I have a sign I keep," Johnson said. "It says, 'Second to None and Still Improving.' I think I'm one of a kind."
Johnson is more than 600 yards ahead of Texas Tech's Byron Morris, the NCAA's No. 2 rusher. He has had 100-yard games against Iowa State, Indiana, Southwestern Louisiana and Louisiana Tech; 200-yard games against Arkansas State, New Mexico State and Pacific; 300-yard games against Southern Illinois, a Division I-AA team, and Iowa.
Along the way, he has picked up his share of endorsements.
"It was like trying to shoot a bull with BBs," Arkansas State Coach John Bobo said of trying to stop Johnson.
"When he ran, he was just like a blur," Iowa Coach Hayden Fry said. "You will probably never see a better running back in (Iowa's) Kinnick Stadium."
Ads by Google
Ucla Bruins RecruitingSign up for the web's most popular UCLA Bruins football newsletter! BleacherReport.com/UCLA-Football
100 Business Cards $5Personal Business Cards + Shipping Included. http://www.vistaprint.com
Ed Podolak, whose Kinnick Stadium rushing record was broken last Saturday, told radio listeners at halftime that Johnson was among the nation's best, but certainly not better than Michigan's Tyrone Wheatley. Later, as Johnson neared the 300-yard mark, Podolak rushed back to the microphone.
"Tyrone Wheatley cannot carry LeShon Johnson's jockstrap," he said.
Podolak now believes, but the rest of the country wouldn't know Johnson if his picture were on the front of a Wheaties box. Except for an occasional highlight on ESPN's SportsCenter, Johnson has been a television no-show. Big West Conference member Northern Illinois (4-6) doesn't have a cable TV deal, doesn't play in a high-profile league, isn't going to a postseason bowl and can't even fill its cozy 30,998-seat stadium.
So unknown is Johnson that he often can walk across campus and not be recognized. When a former Northern Illinois player began marketing a "LeShon For Heisman" T-shirt, Johnson was positive the venture was doomed.
"I thought, 'Man, they're going to lose money,' " he said.
Wrong. The $12.95 shirts are collectors' items. To get one, you first have to go on a waiting list.
But outside the farming community of DeKalb, Johnson is rusher \o7 non grata\f7 . America knows Wheatley, San Diego State's Marshall Faulk, Penn State's Ki-Jana Carter.
"He's not going to win the Heisman," said sports information director Mike Korcek, who has been at Northern Illinois since 1966. "I mean, this is not a glamour school. But this \o7 is\f7 a glamour player."
True enough. NFL scouts consider Johnson perhaps the best senior running back available.
"That's the reason I think that if I had gone to any other college in the country, I think I could put up the same number of yards," said Johnson, who rates himself the best runner in the country and the second-best player overall, with Ward first. "Whoever drafts me, it's going to be a good decision they made."
The 6-foot, 202-pound Johnson acknowledges that he isn't the most physically imposing ballcarrier. Too many visits to fast-food joints. "I hate to cook," he said. "I miss my Momma's cooking."
Imposing or not, strange things happen when Johnson gets the ball.
Against Iowa, Hawkeye defensive players warned him that no yard would come easy. Everybody tells him that.
"I don't talk trash," Johnson said. "I just tell them it's just a matter of time."
And it was. Johnson gained 306 yards and scored twice against the Hawkeyes.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-13/s...on-johnson
ON THE Heisman Sideline : LeShon Johnson, the Nation's Leading Division I-A Rusher, Toils in Obscurity
November 13, 1993|GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI | TIMES STAFF WRITER
DeKALB, Ill. — Etta Johnson still has the letter, the one written by the baby of her family, little LeShon.
He wrote it three years ago, when Etta sometimes couldn't pay the electric bill, or the water bill, or buy enough propane to heat the two-bedroom house in the tiny, no-stoplight town of Haskell, Okla. She was working two jobs at the time, but it never seemed to be enough.
"We were like every poor family," she said from her niece's house in Haskell. "We were trying to make ends meet."
Etta Johnson lives in the country now. She doesn't have a phone, but she has that letter written by her youngest son. Back then, times were tough. Then again, so was LeShon.
"That's the reason why I've got big dreams," he said.
Read the letter in part: \o7 "Pray for me. I'm going to try to make it in football. And if I do, I'm going to build a house for you, Momma."\f7
So now, as LeShon (Cowboy) Johnson plays his final game for Northern Illinois, only one question remains: Ranch, Tudor or split-level, Etta?
No one is quite sure how it happened, but Johnson could finish today's game against Mississippi not only as the nation's leading Division I-A rusher, but as only one of four running backs in collegiate history to gain 2,000 or more yards in a season. The other three: Oklahoma State's Barry Sanders, USC's Marcus Allen and Nebraska's Mike Rozier, all of whom own Heisman trophies.
Johnson needs only 83 yards. A Heisman is probably out of the question--Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward is expected to win easily--but an invitation to New York and the Downtown Athletic Club shouldn't be. Johnson has earned that much.
"I have a sign I keep," Johnson said. "It says, 'Second to None and Still Improving.' I think I'm one of a kind."
Johnson is more than 600 yards ahead of Texas Tech's Byron Morris, the NCAA's No. 2 rusher. He has had 100-yard games against Iowa State, Indiana, Southwestern Louisiana and Louisiana Tech; 200-yard games against Arkansas State, New Mexico State and Pacific; 300-yard games against Southern Illinois, a Division I-AA team, and Iowa.
Along the way, he has picked up his share of endorsements.
"It was like trying to shoot a bull with BBs," Arkansas State Coach John Bobo said of trying to stop Johnson.
"When he ran, he was just like a blur," Iowa Coach Hayden Fry said. "You will probably never see a better running back in (Iowa's) Kinnick Stadium."
Ads by Google
Ucla Bruins RecruitingSign up for the web's most popular UCLA Bruins football newsletter! BleacherReport.com/UCLA-Football
100 Business Cards $5Personal Business Cards + Shipping Included. http://www.vistaprint.com
Ed Podolak, whose Kinnick Stadium rushing record was broken last Saturday, told radio listeners at halftime that Johnson was among the nation's best, but certainly not better than Michigan's Tyrone Wheatley. Later, as Johnson neared the 300-yard mark, Podolak rushed back to the microphone.
"Tyrone Wheatley cannot carry LeShon Johnson's jockstrap," he said.
Podolak now believes, but the rest of the country wouldn't know Johnson if his picture were on the front of a Wheaties box. Except for an occasional highlight on ESPN's SportsCenter, Johnson has been a television no-show. Big West Conference member Northern Illinois (4-6) doesn't have a cable TV deal, doesn't play in a high-profile league, isn't going to a postseason bowl and can't even fill its cozy 30,998-seat stadium.
So unknown is Johnson that he often can walk across campus and not be recognized. When a former Northern Illinois player began marketing a "LeShon For Heisman" T-shirt, Johnson was positive the venture was doomed.
"I thought, 'Man, they're going to lose money,' " he said.
Wrong. The $12.95 shirts are collectors' items. To get one, you first have to go on a waiting list.
But outside the farming community of DeKalb, Johnson is rusher \o7 non grata\f7 . America knows Wheatley, San Diego State's Marshall Faulk, Penn State's Ki-Jana Carter.
"He's not going to win the Heisman," said sports information director Mike Korcek, who has been at Northern Illinois since 1966. "I mean, this is not a glamour school. But this \o7 is\f7 a glamour player."
True enough. NFL scouts consider Johnson perhaps the best senior running back available.
"That's the reason I think that if I had gone to any other college in the country, I think I could put up the same number of yards," said Johnson, who rates himself the best runner in the country and the second-best player overall, with Ward first. "Whoever drafts me, it's going to be a good decision they made."
The 6-foot, 202-pound Johnson acknowledges that he isn't the most physically imposing ballcarrier. Too many visits to fast-food joints. "I hate to cook," he said. "I miss my Momma's cooking."
Imposing or not, strange things happen when Johnson gets the ball.
Against Iowa, Hawkeye defensive players warned him that no yard would come easy. Everybody tells him that.
"I don't talk trash," Johnson said. "I just tell them it's just a matter of time."
And it was. Johnson gained 306 yards and scored twice against the Hawkeyes.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-13/s...on-johnson