Youth and Amateur Coaching Career
Johnson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He attended Minneapolis Central High School and the University of Minnesota, where he played hockey under legendary coach John Mariucci.
After serving as a medic during the Korean War, Johnson began his coaching career at a high school in Warroad, Minnesota. He later coached hockey at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. He would teach his History class using a hockey stick as a pointer to the chalkboard. He became the head hockey coach at Colorado College in 1963.
In 1966, he moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was head coach until 1982. He led the Badgers to seven NCAA tournaments, winning three championships in 1973, 1977, and 1981. It was at Wisconsin where Johnson earned the nickname, "Badger Bob."
He coached the 1976 Winter Olympic hockey team, the 1981, 1984 and 1987 U.S. teams in the Canada Cup tournament, and the 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1981 U.S. national teams.
Read more about this topic: Bob Johnson (ice Hockey B. 1931)
Famous quotes containing the words youth and, youth, amateur and/or career:
“After all, life hasn’t much to offer except youth and I suppose for older people the love of youth in others.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“A youth in apparel that glittered
Went to walk in a grim forest.
There he met an assassin”
—Stephen Crane (1871–1900)
“I have been reporting club meetings for four years and I am tired of hearing reviews of the books I was brought up on. I am tired of amateur performances at occasions announced to be for purposes either of enjoyment or improvement. I am tired of suffering under the pretense of acquiring culture. I am tired of hearing the word “culture” used so wantonly. I am tired of essays that let no guilty author escape quotation.”
—Josephine Woodward, U.S. author. As quoted in Everyone Was Brave, ch. 3, by William L. O’Neill (1969)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)