Brooks Johnson, former head coach of Cal Poly Track and Field from 1993-1996 passed away at 90 on June 29.
Johnson was highly respected in his field, coaching for over 60 years and advising many Olympic-level athletes. In his stint with the Mustangs, he advised 45 individual conference champions and 27 Division II All-Americans.
Johnson served as a member of the Team USA coaching staff for the 1976, 1984, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. During the 1984 Los Angeles games, he was the head women’s coach for the team.
Johnson received much recognition for his achievements as a coach. In 1997, he was inducted into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
He received USATF Nike Coach of the Year honors in 2010 and also became the second former Cal Poly coach to earn the 2018 USATF Legend Coach Award.
Johnson’s collegiate coaching career began at the University of Florida in 1975 where he served as an assistant. He then became the first African-American head coach at Stanford University in 1979 before taking the reins at Cal Poly in 1993.
Though his achievements mostly lie in his coaching career, Johnson was no slouch as an athlete.
In 1955, he unofficially tied the intercollegiate record in the 60-yard dash with a time of 6.2 seconds at the UConn Relays. He was also a part of the gold-medal-winning U.S. 4×100 relay team at the 1963 Pan American Games, winning his first international medal there.
Johnson is survived by his wife and their two sons.