M.C. Johnson (1965) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

M.C. Johnson

Induction:
1965

Every football team has a player who seems to always stand alone. Not necessarily because he is the most talented player on the team or the most popular. But because he is the player that the rest of the team looks up to. The player they know is a proven leader.
   Marion Clower (Tuffy) Johnson was the player that seemed to stand alone on the Southern Miss teams of 1939 and 1940. If you checked the statistics, you probably wouldn't find him among the team leaders in any specific category, but you can bet you would find his name in a lot of different categories, because he was the type of player that would do what ever it took to help the team win.
   With a nickname like "Tuffy" you immediately know that Johnson, who played both running back and quarterback for Southern, was one of the toughest and most hard nosed players on the team. If you knocked him down or took a good shot at him, he would quickly bounce right back up and be ready to go at it again.
   On those 1939 and 1940 teams, Johnson was one of the players that Coach Reed Green looked to be a leader and Johnson relished that role.
   On the 1939 team Johnson was a backup, but saw plenty of action on a team that would post a 4-2-3 record. It was a team that played well on offense, but was best known for the play of the defense that season, of which Johnson was a big part. The defense that year had three shutouts and four other times held the opposition to a touchdown or less. Whether it was on offense or defense, Johnson made more than his share of big plays, to make it a successful season.
   In 1940 the team had one of the best season up to that point in Southern Miss history, finishing the year with a 7-4 record. It was a team that possessed an explosive offense, one in which everybody got into the act, and Johnson had more than his share of the carries that season, finishing among the team's rushing leaders. Five times that season the team score 25 or more points, including a season high 41 in a 41-0 win over Delta State. The defense wasn't bad either, recording three shutouts and holding the opponents to a single touchdown four other times.
   Johnson would later in his life return to Southern Miss and create the then Department of Athletic Administration and Coaching in the early 1970s, the first program of its kind in the country that not only prepared students to become teachers, but coaches as well. Many of the coaches in the state of Mississippi and throughout the South, learned from Johnson and graduated through that program.
   Johnson's commitment to the University was honored when the school's swimming facility was build and named the M.C. Johnson Natatorium.
   Few players have been looked up to in the way Johnson was and is, by his teammates, his coaches and the fans
   He was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.