In his brother’s honor – Johnson and family leave legacy of giving to Tech Athletics
A walk into Rena Johnson’s home and it’s quickly evident how much legacy means to the Johnson family. Photos adorn the walls, illustrating generations past and new, and date back decades. While the clothing and hairstyles change, how close the family has been and continues to be did not.
The Johnson family’s support has not waivered, even after the loss in 2020 of patriarch Bill Johnson, whose own love for his brother led to a lifetime of giving to Tennessee Tech.
While tragedy struck, that love never faded. Instead, it blossomed into opportunities for so many student-athletes over the years since. In the memory of Robert Hill Johnson, the Johnson family has given so much to Tech and helped build the future success of the Golden Eagle football team.
“If you asked me what are the foundations of the Johnson family, I would say faith, family, philanthropy and football,” said Cathryn Rolfe, one of Bill and Rena Johnson’s three daughters. “Those pillars were all relied upon in 1952 when my uncle was tragically killed in a car accident while serving as an assistant football coach at Tech.”
Robert Hill Johnson was born seven years prior to Bill and the two grew up in Sparta, the sons of Ammon E. and Mary Hill Johnson. Robert Hill Johnson attended White County High School for one year, then transferred to the Baylor School in Chattanooga, playing football there for three years and graduating in the Class of 1947.
While at Baylor, Robert Hill Johnson suffered a shoulder injury, but it wasn’t enough to sideline him as he caught the eye of the University of Alabama.
Following his freshman year, Robert Hill Johnson was on the 1949 roster for the Crimson Tide, suiting up as quarterback and wearing the number 4. However, another shoulder injury ended his playing career, but he refused to let go of the game he loved.
In the spring of 1951, Robert Hill Johnson transferred to Tennessee Polytechnic Institute. The 1951 Tech game program said Johnson came to finish his degree and serve as an assistant coach, overseeing the ends and scouting for head coach Star Wood and assistants Calvin Frey and Wilburn Tucker.
The Golden Eagles had an up-and-down season in 1951. They finished 5-5-1 that year, including a 3-3 mark in Tech’s third season in the Ohio Valley Conference, beating Morehead State, Western Kentucky and Evansville in league play while falling to Murray State, Eastern Kentucky and Marshall at the end of its brief stay in the OVC. Tech also had contests against Southeastern Conference foes Kentucky and eventual national champion Tennessee, before closing out the season with a 14-14 tie against rival Middle Tennessee in Murfreesboro.
The future was looking bright for Tech football, though. The Golden Eagles went on to win back-to-back OVC championships the following two seasons and seven over the next decade.
Robert Hill Johnson never got to see it.
It was about 1:15 a.m. on January 14, 1952. Johnson and his passenger, Erbie Clark, were returning to Sparta from Nashville on the Woodbury Highway near Cripple Creek about seven miles east of Murfreesboro. It was unseasonably warm, creating slick road conditions. Johnson attempted to make the curve, but crashed in the process. Johnson was killed instantly, while Clark escaped with minor injuries.
The family held the funeral the next day at their family home in Sparta with a wide outpouring of sympathy and support. Members of the Golden Eagle football team served as honorary pallbearers.
Tennessee Tech football alum Ed Zegarske, who was broadcasting the Tech games for WHUB at the time, was quoted: “Football fans in the Upper Cumberland region have suffered a tremendous loss. A promising career would have been his, for he had demonstrated his ability to lead men, and his knowledge of the game was declared outstanding for a person his age. These qualities, plus his intense love of the game, would have led him upward to success.”
In the January 25, 1952, edition of the Tech Oracle, the newspaper pleaded that something be done to honor the memory of their fallen classmate.
“His fighting spirit and brilliant young football mind brought him to our campus, where he spent many hours helping other young men solve the intricate problems of football. The spirit and determination which he displayed during his lifetime will live forever on the football field at Tennessee Tech. Tech lost one of its greatest assets – a young man who would have contributed much more to the high ideals of this institution.
“The editors suggest that something constructive be done to honor the memory of Robert Hill Johnson. Whatever is done, however, should have the unanimous consent and approval of all concerned. We feel that he would have wanted it no other way.”
On Thanksgiving Day 1952, Tech President Everett Derryberry and Bill Johnson made the first presentation of the Robert Hill Johnson Award during halftime of the game between the Golden Eagles and Middle Tennessee. Flavious Smith was the first winner of the award.
“My dad adored his older brother,” said Cynthea Amason, the oldest of the three Johnson daughters. “The award provided a tangible way for him to continue to honor his memory.”
Since then, as the award celebrates its 70th anniversary, the list of Robert Hill Johnson Award winners is a veritable Who’s Who of Tennessee Tech football talent, with many of the recipients going on to become TTU Sports Hall of Famers. Even today, the Robert Hill Johnson Award stands as Tech football’s highest honor and is one of the longest continuously-awarded honors bestowed by a collegiate athletics program. The winner is selected each year by a vote of members of the Tech football team.
Three Golden Eagle football players – Larry Schreiber (1967-69), Larry Shipp (2005-07) and Tim Benford (2008, 2010-11) – have won it three times. Barry Wilmore, who won the NCAA’s Theodore Roosevelt Award – the organization’s highest honor – was a Robert Hill Johnson winner in 1985.
Bill Johnson, a star at White County High at the time, went on to become a three-year letterwinner at Tennessee. He started the 1956 and 1957 seasons at guard, earned All-America and Academic All-America honors in 1957 – the first Volunteer to do that and just one of three in program history – and helped lead UT to an SEC championship in 1956.
He returned to Tennessee to serve on its athletics board in 1972, then served as a trustee for 21 years. He was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1980.
“If you ask me what has driven my father and the family to continue to honor Robert Hill’s memory, I would tell you it is brotherly love,” Rolfe said. “Bill loved his older brother dearly. As a teenager, Dad was devastated when his brother was killed. He was determined to honor his brother and keep his memory alive by how he lived his life, excelled in football, was a leader in the community and in our church, and how he continued to fund the RHJ scholarship/award.
“What this taught me was that family is so important. Dad also taught us that as people who are blessed, we should give back. He closed nearly every prayer by saying it is more blessed to give than receive. My father and mother lived this and were the model for my sisters and me. We saw it lived out in how Dad kept honoring Robert Hill.”
While he bled orange and white as a Tennessee Volunteer, there was also plenty of purple and gold there too as Tennessee Tech and the Upper Cumberland continued to be near and dear to his heart. The same can be said for his daughters.
“Tennessee Tech has such a special place in my family’s heart,” said Carolyn Bronson, the youngest of the Johnson daughters. “In my childhood years, my journeys to the Tech campus were frequent and enjoyable experiences for me as I attended camps, concerts and athletic events. Tech is a respected institution and an integral part of the fabric of Cookeville and the whole Upper Cumberland area, both educationally and culturally. My grandparents’ and ultimately my parents’ commitment to the university and the Robert Hill Johnson Award demonstrated to me what high esteem that they had for the school.”
Rolfe added, “Our father believed heavily in giving back to the community, state and organizations in the area where he lived. Even though the Johnson family lived in Sparta, Cookeville and the Tech community were always substantive landmarks in our lives. While we didn’t attend Tech, it was important in our lives not only because it was in our community, but because our father needed to continue to honor his brother through the Robert Hill Johnson Award.”
Amason said, “My sisters and I can recount many happy days being on campus as we were growing up. I went to cheerleading camp there for four years, and Cathryn and Carolyn both attended basketball clinics there. My very first concert attended was at Memorial Gym with my cousin, Tech grad and Cookeville resident Walter Hill Carlen, to see James Taylor. I went to more football and basketball games than I can count as well as other concerts – the Doobie Brothers and the Commodores come to mind.”
Still, Tech played an important part in their lives, and not just through their familial connection.
“Another more indirect but more important Tech influence on the Johnson family is the strategic and critical role that the university plays in the educational climate of Sparta and White County as a whole,” Amason said. “My sisters and I were definitely in the minority by choosing to go to Tennessee – the overwhelming majority of White County High School graduates who go to college choose Tennessee Tech. Consequently, most of our K-12 teachers who directly impacted us and prepared us for post-secondary education were Tech alumni. Both the educational and economic health of our town and county are directly tied to the TTU grads who live and work in our community. I would be willing to wager that you would be hard-pressed to find any other Vol grads who are as committed to Tennessee Tech as the Johnson women are.”
In 1987, the Robert Hill Johnson Award was expanded to include a scholarship to a deserving student-athlete chosen by the coaching staff, as well as a stipend for student or graduate coaches.
“Robert Hill Johnson meant a lot to Bill,” Rena Johnson said, “and that’s why he supported the award and Foundation. We chose to make a pledge to the Foundation, and I was able to complete that pledge after Bill’s death. Robert Hill Johnson was never forgotten by his brother, and our children and grandchildren know and appreciate what he meant to their daddy and granddaddy.”
And those words ring earnestly as three of Bill and Rena Johnson’s grandsons – John Bronson, Robert Hill Bronson and Thomas Bronson – all played for the Golden Eagles between 2013 and 2016.
“As parents, you know how important it is not only for your child to enjoy their participation in their sport, but also the necessity of receiving a quality education. As we investigated potential schools, communities and programs, we saw that Tech was a family and that all the boxes could be checked,” said Carolyn Bronson, the mother of the Bronson trio. “We were confident that Tech was the best option. Our second son, Robert Hill – who is named for my dad’s brother – was the first to arrive in Cookeville. He loved the coaching staff and the school and decided this was the place he wanted to commit his energy to. He immediately meshed with the community and other players.
“Two years later, my son John also made the decision to play at Tech, in large part due to the experience his brother was having and the excitement of the program. As a wonderful turn of events, my oldest Thomas, who had graduated from Appalachian State, opted to leave and play out his final season of eligibility at Tech with his two younger brothers. What a blessing!”
Bronson continued: “To say we are indebted to Tech is an understatement. The boys got a quality education and were exposed to so many wonderful people who helped guide them on the way. We are especially thankful to Coach Watson Brown and his staff, Dr. Jantzen and the academic department, Head Athletic Trainer Joe Erdeljac and Administrative Assistant Debbie Parker, as well as the professors that helped mold our sons. The boys fell in love with Cookeville and made so many friendships with the young men on the team and their fellow students.”
Of course, the giving spirit was passed along to them as well.
“Their experience was also enriched by their participation in the many extracurricular activities that abound on the campus as well as the myriad of community service opportunities they had with the football program,” Bronson said. “Giving back was always a part of their involvement with the team.”
In 2016, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the award, the Johnson family and the Tennessee Tech Department of Athletics collaborated to honor the past winners and the legacy Robert Hill Johnson left to the Golden Eagle program.
“Bill and I wanted to honor all the former RHJ Award winners,” Rena Johnson said. “Each recipient was recognized, and we enjoyed hearing from President Phil Oldham), Athletic Director Mark Wilson, then-head coach Marcus Satterfield, Bill and our daughters Cynthea and Cathryn. They were welcomed and updated on all the improvements, athletically and academically.”
The legacy of the Robert Hill Johnson Award has meant so much to the family over the years.
“Bill and I both grew up in families that believed in being generous to churches, to those in need and to organizations that benefitted others,” Rena Johnson said. “It was natural for us to be giving. Through the years, the impact of the award and the now established Foundation grew in their importance to Tech, to the community and to us.”