Former University of Miami football coach Jimmy Johnson was named Tuesday as one of 17 members of the 2012 class of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Johnson, who compiled a 52-9 record at UM and guided the Canes to the 1987 national championship, will be the third former UM coach to be inducted ? joining Jack Harding (1980) and Andy Gustafson (1985) ? but the only one who won a national title with the Canes.
Johnson will become the ninth person with UM ties to be inducted. Former players Don Bosseler (1990), Ted Hendricks (1987), Gino Torretta (2009), Arnold Tucker (2008), Bennie Blades (2006) and Russell Maryland (2011) also were honored, the latter two coached by Johnson.
?I?m really happy for him,? said former UM running back Melvin Bratton, who starred in the 1988 national championship game before sustaining an injury to his knee. ?Motivation-wise, he was the type of guy that could get you psyched up mentally to the point where he could get you to run through a wall for him. He was a players? coach, too.
?I was the team clown, and he let me be that guy. I used to go in and take the letterhead from his office from his secretary and post notes on guys? lockers telling them Coach Johnson wanted to see them. It lasted for a while where nobody knew who it was. But when he found out he just laughed. We had a lot of fun together.?
Johnson left UM after the 1988 season to replace the legendary Tom Landry as coach of the Dallas Cowboys. His five-year stay in Dallas culminated with back-to-back Super Bowl titles in 1992 and 1993.
Johnson also coached the Miami Dolphins from 1996 to 1999.
In 1987 under Johnson, UM went 12-0 and defeated six nationally ranked teams, including a 20-14 victory over then-No.?1 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl game to clinch the title.
After his team?s win over the Sooners, Johnson said: ?We played our way to this championship. ? What is sweetest is that we did it as a team. We lost starters and had other guys come in and played magnificently.?
Including his five seasons as coach at Oklahoma State, Johnson?s career collegiate record was 81-34-3.
Johnson and the other honorees will be inducted during the National Football Foundation Annual Awards Dinner on Dec.?4 in New York.
The other honorees are former coaches Phillip Fulmer and R.C. Slocum; and former players Charles Alexander, Otis Armstrong, Steve Bartkowski, Hal Bedsole, Dave Casper, Ty Detmer, Tommy Kramer, Art Monk, Greg Myers, Jonathan Ogden, Gabe Rivera, Mark Simoneau, Scott Thomas and John Wooten.
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