{"id":13011,"date":"2019-04-04T16:13:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T22:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=13011"},"modified":"2019-05-02T18:42:47","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T00:42:47","slug":"harding-to-honor-former-head-baseball-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2019\/04\/04\/harding-to-honor-former-head-baseball-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Harding to honor former head baseball coach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On April 6, the Harding baseball team will honor the legacy of former Head Coach Dick Johnson, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, by putting his name on the wall at Jerry Moore Field.<\/p>\n

Johnson graduated from Harding College in 1959 and became the head baseball coach in 1969. During his time as the head coach, the baseball team won 289 games.<\/p>\n

Under Johnson\u2019s leadership, Bison baseball won multiple titles, including the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference (AIC) Championship in 1984 and the 1985 NAIA District 17 Championship.<\/p>\n

Later in his career, he was named AIC Coach of the Year and NAIA District 17 Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Johnson\u2019s success as coach translated to many wins, but his legacy runs deeper than just numbers.<\/p>\n

Athletic Director and Head Men\u2019s Basketball Coach Jeff Morgan, spoke highly of the influence Johnson has had as an ambassador of Harding University.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is great to be able to honor Coach Johnson and his time as the baseball coach at Harding,\u201d Morgan said. \u201cHe has been a great ambassador for Harding and was a great influence on many young men that he was able to coach in his time at Harding University. We are very grateful for his time and service to Harding and our athletic department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current Head Baseball Coach Patrick McGaha was personally recruited to play for Johnson during his final year as a coach before he retired in 1988.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see the faith that coach and his wife<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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had was important for a young college student to see and helped me understand what life is all about,\u201d McGaha said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about this game, it\u2019s not about if we win or lose, but it\u2019s about our commitment to the Lord and the commitment to our families, and that\u2019s what Coach Johnson showed us every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Johnson, coaching at Harding was more than just a job; it was the fulfillment of a life-long dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a dream that I had the nine years I was away [coaching in Georgia],\u201d Johnson told the Bison in 1988. \u201cI told the folks here that if they ever had an opening, I\u2019d like to be considered. I knew before I came that I\u2019d take it if they offered me a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The baseball team will honor Johnson before tomorrow\u2019s game against Southwestern Oklahoma State University. The ceremony will begin at 12:30 p.m. First pitch for the game is at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 6, the Harding baseball team will honor the legacy of former Head Coach Dick Johnson, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, by putting his name on the wall at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15136,"featured_media":13012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13013,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13011\/revisions\/13013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}