Gary Johnson

'Big Hands' Johnson Grew Up in Bossier City

Gary 'Big Hands' Johnson grew up playing football in Bossier City. He  REALLY grew - into a fabulous gridiron career, marked by:

Johnson began playing football at Charlotte Mitchell High School, where he got his nickname from Coach Riley Stewart.  In a phys education class, the 13-year-old Johnson kept toying with basketballs on a table while Stewart was explaining an exercise. Soon, Stewart had had enough of the inattention. "Son, keep your big hands off my basketballs," Stewart boomed.  All his classmates picked up on the sobriquet. "It stuck and it sounded good," Johnson recalls.

When Mitchell High closed through integration, Johnson finished high school at  Airline High. When college recruiting began, Johnson wasn't much impressed by the furor it created. But one day at his after-school job at Harry's Bar-B-Que, he was surprised when Grambling Coach Eddie Robinson walked in to make a pitch for Gary to become a Tiger. "When Coach began talking about Grambling, I told him he needn't worry. I was going there regardless. I knew where I wanted to go."

At Grambling, Gary was selected on the Associated Press Little All-America team in 1972 as a sophomore and as the Sheridan Black College Player of the Year after his senior season. And the pro football scouts who selected the Newspaper Enterprise Association All-America squad chose him as the only small-college player on their first team.

Johnson was heralded as possibly the best lineman ever at Grambling, a signal accomplishment when you realize that comparison takes in GSU greats Willie Davis and Buck Buchanan.

The Chargers drafted “Big Hands” in the first round of the 1975 NFL draft. He was traded to the 49ers in 1984.

Johnson realized a defensive lineman's dream, scoring points, five times in his pro career - touchdowns on a pair of interceptions and a fumble recovery and two safeties. He also got his 'big hands' on opposing quarterbacks 72 ½ times for sacks, including 17 ½ times in the 1980 season.

Photo Courtesy of:
San Diego Chargers