The Bill Johnson Legacy
Read during Friends of Dartmouth Golf Dinner - September 6, 2014
Ted / Jack, thanks ... For those of you I have not yet met, I’m Dave Aznavorian ... I’m a Dartmouth ’92 ... And I had the proud honor of wearing the Green for 4 years during my Dartmouth career...
Keep in mind this was back when people still carried 1-irons, and the seventh hole at Hanover was actually a Par 4 that ran along Lyme Road to Etna where the Hanover Shuttle sometimes came into play off the tee for anyone who sprayed it a little right.
It’s funny - some days, it feels like it was all yesterday ... and then somedays ... well, it feels like an eternity ago ...
Teddy Dardani reached out to me a few days back, and asked if I would speak a little about someone who many of us here knew ... and knew well... and who I know is VERY MUCH here tonight with us in spirit ... and that’s Bill Johnson ...
For those who may not know, Bill was only the third man to coach the Dartmouth Men’s golf team over the course of an entire century ... He coached for 34 seasons prior to his retirement in 2001.
Last November, many of us assembled here tonight gathered ... in a room much like this one ... to honor him upon his passing ...
At the time,we honored not only his career at Dartmouth, but his life ... his contributions to many of us individually – both as players and as people ... and we witnessed the many lives he had touched ... including that of his sister, Ruth, who has kindly joined us here tonight, along with her husband, Fred ...
We spoke then to his legacy ... which was a REMARKABLE one ... and one that I’d like to share with you a little more tonight ... particularly those of you who may never have had the opportunity to have met or have known him ...
Over the course of 34 years at Dartmouth, Bill Johnson didn’t coach very many future PGA TOUR stars ... and the reality is, he didn’t really expect to ... Bill was challenged by Dartmouth’s short playing seasons ... by its high academic requirements ... and by an annual crop of walk-ons ...
So Bill KNEW he needed to build a golf program that would both tap the pride ... and also challenge the potential ... of players not destined for professional golf ...
While Bill’s seasons in Hanover did yield a remarkable slew of All-American players and Ivy titles ... along with a host of coaching honors including recognition in the Golf Coaches Hall of Fame ... one of his most enduring legacies is not formally recorded anywhere ...
There’s nothing in the basement at Hanover Country Club ... There’s nothing anywhere online at the Ivy League web site ... or over at the Sports Information Desk ...
Instead, one of his most enduring unspoken legacies lives in his players – people like us who looked to Bill – or Cha as he was affectionately known – for advice .... or for encouragement ... or maybe to share a laugh ...
We all looked ...ultimately ... to Bill to better understand what it truly meant to “wear the Green” ... ironic, for a guy who never attended Dartmouth, went to Michigan, and who’s family was of Finnish descent ...
During Bill’s prime, you’d look around the clubhouse at Hanover Country Club, and you’d see his touches everywhere ...
By the water fountain, he hung a sign that read “worn spikes cause slices” ... Near the fireplace he hung a caption that read “he who hoots with the owls at night cannot soar with the eagles at dawn” ... is Toby Thomas here by the way? Toby.... A dogleg is just 2 straight shots in different directions...
When you spoke with Bill, you got much more than any sign could ever package ... “A good score is the mere accumulation of shot values” ... he’d say ... directing you to the mental aspects of the game, and the importance of improvement through process versus focusing on
outcomes ...
There’s no such thing as a tucked pin ... You just hit to the inside, and putt to the outside ...
Bill was a true master at engendering self-confidence ... about instilling belief ... about pushing and challenging to see if you really cared ...
He would masterfully identify what mattered to you, and then he’d drill it home ...
If you think you can, or think you can’t ... you’re right …
Bill also had this loaded question that he’d asked anyone who ever doubted themself while putting. He’d often come over and say ...Hey, who’s the best putter in the world?
And there was only right answer to this ... and you had better say enthusiastically - “ME!” ...
Although sometimes ... I’d say – just to sort of push his buttons ... I don’t know, Coach, who? ... Crenshaw???
Some of Coach’s teachings were –you might say – a little unconventional ...
Guys, you just have to foof and ferhoozle out there ... Make love to every blade of grass between you and the hole ...When in trouble, pulsate through a tree ...Bounce like a tambourine ...
The real gem, though ... and for anyone who ever played under Bill you’d no doubt remember ...was a question - He asked every Dartmouth golfer – incoming students, recruits, walk-ons, anyone ... It was part of a formal survey he used to help assess talent – NOT physical talent, mental talent ... To sort of see what you had in you ... In about a ten-question questionnaire, it was always the last question – he sort of tucked in at the end, just to make sure you were paying attention and hadn’t lost your focus along the way ...
In a tournament, would you rather be two-up in the lead with one day to play, OR one back of the field, and ready to charge?
Jerry Daly, from the Class of’76 ... someone familiar to many of you in this room, and another true legend of Dartmouth golf in his own right – had the perfect answer, and ... I think it may even have surprised Bill ...
Coach, he said. I’d rather be two-up ... and ready to charge!
Bill extolled his wit and wisdom on the world with remarkable consistency, and whether it was his team going back to 1967, or his team leading up to 2001, there was always some nugget that passed from one generation of Dartmouth golfers to the next ...
All the quips and quotes aside, what leaves the most marked impression on me about Bill Johnson was how he did just that ... how he threaded one generation to the next ... How he masterfully did this in both practice and in principle ...
It wasn’t enough to just play for Dartmouth ... You had to know the rules of the game, you had to understand golf course management, you had to appreciate golf course architecture, and you had to embrace the mental side of the game ...
You had to do all that, but you also had to pay it forward
... Along with all the signs around the clubhouse, Bill put up on the walls photos and records of all of Dartmouth golf’s legends – many of whom I can say – having dusted some of their photos once or twice as punishment – are actually around the room here tonight ...
He didn’t stop at photos ... He’d talk about these players ... He’d tell stories about them ... He’d get you important facts about them ... Almost like he was talking about his own kids ... He never wanted you to think you were ever the only one to have ever worn the Green ... he wanted you to know you weren’t the first to pass through, and you wouldn’t be the last either...
That place you were in ... at that time ... as a member of the Dartmouth Golf family ... meant you were part of what mattered to him – and it is his true legacy ... There were great ones before you, and there were great ones who would no doubt follow, and the one way you could truly understand the place where you were– with the opportunity you were experiencing, or that lay in front of you – was to understand and embrace that bigger picture ...
That legacy of Dartmouth Golf ... which just so happens to be synonymous with the enduring legacy of Bill Johnson ...
Rich and Alex who are both here were fortunate to have known Bill as well ... learned under him ... were influenced by him ... and touched by him ... They know exactly what I’m talking about, too ... Bill instilled a legacy and appreciation for Dartmouth that extended well beyond
the teams ... it carried out into the pro shop ... amongst his staff ... into the membership ... over to the college and the graduate programs... and into the Hanover community
With any remembrance of Bill, it’d be shortsighted to overlook an enduring presence in his life who embraced and lived the same values of Dartmouth Golf as he did... of which she still carries with her today ...
Sometimes it’s in the form of a photo album she leaves open for anyone visiting her home just outside Pinehurst ... Or sometimes it may be in the form of a good story, or a memoir, about Bill ... Including one I’d actually never heard before which she told me the other day about
Bill’s deep and powerful relationship with golf icon, Jack Nicklaus ...
An enduring presence in Bill’s life, and in the lives of many of us Dartmouth alums – both Men and Women alike – is Izzy Johnson ... Who was very much hoping to join us here tonight, and unfortunately was not able to make it ...
Although she wanted to make sure to pass along her very best …
Just a few parting thoughts ... and I’m always hesitant to try and speak on behalf of anyone other than myself, or let alone a group ... But I’d dare say there wasn’t anyone here who knew
Bill Johnson ... who knew Cha ... who doesn’t still carry around some aspect of him with them today ...
It may be in the form of a random positive thought bubble you tell yourself as you stand over an important shot ...
It may be in the form of a bit of memorabilia he left you at the annual wrap-up team party ...
It may be when you stand in a fairway waiting, and you leave your fairway metal in the bag, knowing he always reminded you to never just stand there holding a club ...
It may be in the form of a dot or a star you still use to record your round ...
It may even be in the form of a wrinkled, 2 dollar bill sitting in the bottom of your wallet ...
Whatever it is ... however you hold him ... keep holding him ...
What he created for us ... the legacy that’s represented by all of us here tonight who love Dartmouth Golf ... is what he conceived ... what he instilled ... and what he crafted through these bonds ...
It’s in the camaraderie of your teammates ... it’s in the friendships with alums, old and young ... and it’s in simply being here tonight gathered as a group ... Largely because of him ...
Let’s be sure to honor him tonight by ensuring we continue to invest in ... and strengthen ... the bonds among us, and pay forward the legacy he created ...
Thank you.
