Morris Johnson with his daughter IsadoraJohnson's wife Ellen had put this message on her husband's Facebook earlier: "Beautiful things have happened as we gathered at Morris' bedside as a family over the past two weeks. He is surrounded by love and he has reminded us of the bond of family and friends. Please keep him in your prayers."
A native of Sacramento, California, Johnson joined the Sacramento High wrestling team his sophomore year to stay in shape for baseball ... and enjoyed it so much, he built a lasting career on the mat, according to TheCaliforniaWrestler.com.
Johnson went on to wrestle at San Francisco State, where he was a two-time NCAA Division II finalist. He was a runner-up at heavyweight in 1983, then won the title in the same weight class at the 1984 NCAAs. He was also a two-time Northern California Athletic Conference champion. At the prestigious Midlands post-Christmas wrestling event at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago, Johnson twice placed fourth.
In his two-year career at San Francisco State, Johnson had a 79-9 career record. He broke the Gators' record for most pins in a season (18) in 1984, and now ranks second all-time for falls at SFSU, with 30. He concluded his collegiate career by being presented with the Wrestler of the Year award from the Bay Area Wrestling Officials Association in 1984.
In addition to success in folkstyle (high school/collegiate) wrestling, Johnson enjoyed competing in both freestyle and Greco-Roman. In 1981, Johnson was the Espoir (20-Under) National Champion and took third in the Espoir World Championships. From 1985-87, he again placed third at the USAW (USA Wrestling) Nationals in Greco Roman each year, and finished third at the USAW Nationals in Freestyle in 1986. He was also the Pan American Games Champion in 1986, and took bronze at the Tbilisi Tournament. In 1988, he placed placed fifth at the USAW Greco Roman Nationals and fourth at the Olympic Trials. He also took the 1990 Sombo National Championship and placed second in the Sombo World Championships in Moscow, Russia.
After graduating from San Francisco State, Johnson became assistant coach for the Gators, and later helped coach at Arizona State and the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling from Bryn Mawr University in Philadelphia, and had been working as a psychologist for the Delaware County Intermediate Unit.
Johnson was also inducted into the San Francisco State and California Hall of Fames.
Johnson is survived by his wife Ellen, his daughter Isadora, and son Desmond, who just completed his freshman season as a member of the University of Pennsylvania wrestling team.
In addition to Morris Johnson's accomplishments in wrestling, his professional career, and regarding his family, the former San Francisco State wrestler/coach was well-known and loved for his storytelling skills on online amateur wrestling forums. Here's one exceptionally strong example Johnson originally posted to TheMat.com forum in January 2010, regarding another mat legend from the San Francisco Bay area, the late Dave Schultz (re-posted by "Scribe"):
"Two of the most important contributors to whatever success I had in wrestling were my HS Coach Gary Kreizenbeck at Sacramento H.S. and Dave Schultz, primary citizen of the wrestling universe...
"Since most of our guys were first-year wrestlers, and most of our tournaments were 0-2 and bar-b-que, Coach K worried that we were getting knocked out so fast that we never had a chance to watch really good wrestlers compete, so he made a rule that we had to stay at the tourney until he said we could leave, which usually wasn't until after our weight class finals. This was great as we got to see a lot of guys whom we would never get to observe unless we were wrestling against them. Even then it was hard to really observe someone who was headlocking you into oblivion, or blast doubling you across two mats! I was lucky enough to be able to watch Dave Schultz on occasion and it was truly a learning session, each and every match. Seeing how he made up for a seeming lack of strength by applying excruciating leverage to one particular joint, and never letting up on that joint until the guy either turned over or the body part turned purple and fell off! Just watching Dave taught me that one of the major aspects of the sport is to impose your will, not just on your opponent, but on the body part of your opponent that you wished to claim as your own. Even if you weren't the strongest guy in the world, you could pretty much overpower any body part of your opponent with focus, determination and a clear idea of where and why you want that part to go in a certain direction. This was a true revelation to me and introduced the concept of FOCUS into my wrestling ideology, something I never forgot.
" ... I had been so very fortunate to have been able to watch Dave several dozen times over the years and even practice with him once or twice. I was a better wrestler by now, having won a Jr. World medal, made a world university team as well as US teams to Cuba, Romania and Germany. My folkstyle was getting a little stronger too, as I placed at the Midlands and had taken 2nd at the D2 nationals, with a generous portion of what I knew and used coming from those observations of and the rare but valuable private coaching sessions (in exchange for being the willing recipient of Dave's artful mayhem).
"There was one story that I have shared here before, but will again at the risk of being redundant.
This story took place during my senior year, while I was wrestling as a heavyweight at San Francisco State. We had a home dual meet against Stanford University, where Dave was the assistant coach. As I mentioned earlier, I was a D2 runner-up at heavyweight and ranked in the top 4 or 5 at heavyweight in AWN. I was also 2nd on the Olympic Greco ladder for the upcoming Olympic Trials that coming spring/summer. Dave had been doing ok himself, having just won his first world championship and had placed 3rd at 180.5 the previous year. I was not aware that prior to the match, Coach Chris Horpel of Stanford and Dave had gotten together with my coach and informed him that they had no heavyweight and would have to forfeit our match. Dave came up with the idea of he and I having a freestyle exhibition match that they could bill as 'Battle of future Olympians' or some such. My coach agreed with the idea, but, thinking that he had a sense of humor, told Dave and Chris not to mention anything to me about it until we went out to shake hands! Coach then came over to me and said that Stanford had this great new transfer from Oregon, but he had to weigh in earlier in the afternoon because of a big final that he had to take. He was driving up with one of the assistant coaches and would definitely be there by match time, so I should stay warm and get ready for a war! Well, that got me juiced up and I went around the gym, stretching and shooting and hitting fake throws and such. I noticed Schultz in sweats, riding a stationary bike on his team's side, but I thought 'that's just Schultz. He's always warming up in sweats and wrestling shoes!' By the time the 165-pounder went out, there was still no Stanford beast, so I ambled back over to Coach and asked what the story was. He said they had just called in from a gas station and were about 20 min. away, so make sure I was warm he said, giving me a stern look. Finally the 190 pounders were out shaking hands. I noticed that Dave had removed his sweats and was just stretching on the floor with one of his Stanford boys. I kept looking around the room, but didn't see anybody who looked like a heavyweight. The 190 match ended quickly with a fall, I stripped down, thinking that I had figured it out ... I was getting a forfeit!
"Ha! I walked out onto the mat and here comes Dave at the same time. Odd. The PA guy was also announcing our international and national records too, which was real odd for a dual meet! What the heck? I looked back and my coach and teammates were laughing their heads off, as was the Stanford coaches and our AD. I smiled at Dave, and with only a bit of cracking in my voice said 'Hey man, you wouldn't be the transfer from Oregon would you?' Dave just smiled some more and said 'Let's have some fun, Morris. Show these guys what freestyle is all about.' :shock: . We shook hands and, as with most matches, the fear was quickly replaced by adrenalin. Dave took a quick outside single. I thought, 'Bad move man.' I clamped down on a hard whizzer and prepared to hit him with my famous double over, hip toss. Somehow though, instead of my heel and calf catching his knee and thigh, sending him flying over my hip, Dave took a little step backwards and around to his right. The next thing I recall was my head, back and shoulders all hitting the mat at approximately the same time, with pretty remarkable force! After the ringing in my ears started to dissipate, to be replaced by the 'oooohhhhs' and 'aaahhhhhs' punctuated with the occasional 'Oh my God!' or girlish scream. I checked my mouth to make sure that the girlish scream wasn't coming from my mouth, but it was pretty much locked shut from shock and awe! Dave hopped on top right away and I braced myself in my best gut wrench defense! I guess it was so good that Dave didn't want to even try and turn me with it, so he reached back and grabbed my left foot with his right hand. He cranked it up and over my shoulder with so much force, I really didn't feel much pain ... .until he crossfaced me with his left arm and drove my face from the mat to my right shoulder. I managed to open one eye and looked to my right side (Mr. Schultz didn't want me to look at my left side, and I thought it best to cooperate with his wishes from that point on. I noticed Dave's wrestling shoes and I recall thinking "Oh wow, Dave and I wear the same kind of wrestling shoes! It took a few minutes before I realized that I was looking at my own foot, planted nicely right next to my face! Well, at least I knew were to look for it after the match! Luckily for me, our AD was officiating this match as it was an exhibition. We went a few more minutes, with my AD stopping the match several times for potentially dangerous (I was wondering why he didn't do this right after the handshake!
"Time [FINALLY] ran out. I stayed until Dave's hand was raised and started walking off the mat, looking for the nearest ice machine to crawl into! It was my first and only collegiate loss at my home gym, and I was too sore to even whisper the word 'bummer!', much less say it out loud in front of Dave. Before I could step off the mat however, I felt this hairy, sinewy arm wrap itself around my neck and shoulders and who else but Dave Schultz was escorting me off the mat. And just like the Dave Schultz we all know and LOVE, he sat down next to me and told me I did a good job out there, and that I just need work on defending the single leg, and a better way to keep my balance on my once famous hip toss, and how he expected me to dominate at D2 nationals (I did) and the Olympic trials (took 3rd) so that he can say he had a close one against a CHAMPION, not some scrub that just fell off the onion truck! That was Dave. Who else could beat you like a rented mule and leave you feeling like you were just a move or two away? Who else could pound your head on the mat and reframe it into a small mistake that you make on your way to a potent offense? No one but Dave Schultz. We miss you man. Miss you and love you and for many, many, many of us, you are still just a heartbeat away."
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