By the time they were in college, “Track and Field News” called Webster and Robert Lee Johnson the fastest brother-duo in the world. The magazine actually noticed them while they were still in High School – “tiny” Princeton High School, the journal noted, an African-American school in the Haughton area of Bossier Parish where the brothers were in the class of 1964.
A “Shreveport Journal” article about coach Crockett’s training for Robert Lee and Webster Johnson described an intensive regimen. When they could practice inside, they’d work on baton passing, their starting form, coordinating their arms and legs, jumping rope, isometric contractions, weight lifting, and running up the bleachers and walking down them to condition their legs. Outside, he’d have them do the “fox trot”, a running exercise to get them to bring their legs up higher, and have them alternate running both shorter and longer distances.
Some cross-training in football probably didn’t hurt either. In a small school like Princeton, it was “all hands on deck” for all sports. Princeton was famous for its multi-sport wonders. There were only about 140 boys in grades 9-12, so the Johnson brothers were members of the football team too, where Coach Crockett put their running skills to good use in the game, and made sure they got plenty of running practice for track while at football practice.
A major disadvantage that Coach Crockett managed to turn into a positive was that Princeton, nor any of the African-American schools in Bossier Parish had an outdoor track (and none in the region had an indoor track). Crockett, as the basketball coach, would take the track team along in his own car to basketball games at Shreveport’s Booker T. Washington High so the runners could use the urban school’s outdoor track in preparation for track competitions. He also frequently took them to Grambling State University when he refereed the basketball games at the historically black university about 60 miles away from Princeton. There, not only would the Princeton boys get to run on a track, but they would get to run with an Olympian! One of the members of the Grambling team, Stone Johnson (no relation to Robert Lee and Webster) had competed in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, and was known as one of the best sprinters in the world. He practiced right alongside the talented high-schoolers.
In their senior year of high school, Robert Lee Johnson brought the state record for a quarter mile down to 48 seconds flat. Webster had a state record of 21. 5 seconds for the 220-yard sprint. (U.S. sports associations didn’t switch to metric standards until the 1970s). The brothers also set a record for high school mile relays on their relay team of four at 3:21.2. These times are especially outstanding if you keep in mind they were achieved on cinder block or dirt tracks, not the all-weather rubberized ones of today.
Where the brothers really hit the big time was when they chose to become “Jaguars” at Coach Crockett’s alma mater, historically black Southern University in Baton Rouge. At Southern, Robert Lee and Webster ran for coach Dr. Richard Hill. Coach Hill ultimately became legendary, but 1965 was his first full year as coach of the team, and what a year it was. In 1965, the Jaguars gained international attention as a team at the Millrose games in the famed Madison Square Garden in New York City, where the mile relay team of Webster and Robert Lee, Grundy Harris, and 1968 Olympian Theron “T-Bird” Lewis made the mile in 3:16.8, tying for a world record with Villanova University. Also in New York, at the Knights of Columbus meet, they won the mile relay in 3:16 followed by getting the top times in Boston, Baltimore, and Detroit.
Southern’s one mile and 880-yard relay teams were ranked first in the world by “Track and Field News” and Robert Lee was featured on the cover of “Track and Field News” in July of 1966. “Ebony” magazine did a five-page article and photo essay on the team, “Southern U. - New Kings of Track.”
Robert Lee graduated from Southern in May of 1969 and Webster graduated in January of 1970. Robert Lee joined the army, where he also competed as a runner. Webster tried out for the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Robert Lee tried out for the 1972 Olympic team. Neither of them made it, though they continued to hold multiple national and international records. For more Bossier Parish sports history or school history, stop by the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett St, Bossier City, LA. We are open M-Th 10-8, Fri 10-6, and Sat 10-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org
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Article by: Pam Carlisle
Fantastic and very impressive
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