It is a busy time to be a fan of sports this time of year, with the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and the NFL Super Bowl LX having just passed. Therefore, what better time to look back on one of Bossier Parish’s football legends, one Gary “Big Hands” Johnson.
Gary Johnson was born August 31, 1952, in Shreveport, Louisiana, though he would grow up in Bossier Parish. His iconic nickname, “Big Hands,” has a number of conflicting origins, with one standing out more than the others. According to the December 22, 1983, edition of the Shreveport Journal, Johnson was given the nickname when he was attending Charolette Mitchell School, after being told by Coach Riley Stewart during gym class to “Keep your big hands off my basketball!” As mentioned, Gary Johnson attended Charolette Mitchell High School, before attending Airline High School after desegregation. After high school, he would attend Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana, having decided on the school long before any other. Johnson is said to have stated during his 1991 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame induction: “It would not have mattered if 100 schools contacted me, I was going to Grambling.” It was there at Grambling where he would really begin to shine, where he would letter all four years of his college career. Now, some readers may be asking, which position did Gary Johnson play? The answer: Defensive Tackle (DT). Even in his early years of college football, Eddie Robinson (coach for Grambling State) was making the bold claim that Johnson was the best defensive lineman in college football at the time. For three years straight, he would be selected for the Associated Press Little All-American team, and in his senior year, he would make it to the All-American squad selected for the Newspaper Enterprise Association. All-American teams are a series of annual honors given to the best player in a position, as determined by various news organizations. The “Little” in Little American stands in for the size of the school, not the size of the player. For Johnson, who was attending Grambling State, this was a big honor. In his senior year alone Johnson earned, according to Jerry Byrd’s book “Louisiana Sports Legends,” an impressive 136 tackles and 49 sacks. Gary Johnson didn’t stop there though, as after graduating he would go onto join the National Football League.
In 1975, when Gary Johnson was drafted, it was to the San Diego Chargers in their first round (eighth overall) pick. While his career was comparatively quiet during his first years on the team, 1980 would see him earning the most sacks in the league for that year, at an impressive seventeen-and-a-half, leading the team’s impressive sixty sack record for the year. His time with the Chargers would be a long and storied nine years, but his career did not end with them. The same year he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers (1974), Gary Johnson would win the biggest game in the NFL, the Super Bowl. San Francisco would win Superbowl XIX with a score of 38-16 against the Miami dolphins, and Gary Johnson would get his ring.
As mentioned above, in 1991, Gary Johnson would be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, immortalizing his achievements alongside other legends from the state. In a story written for the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) in 1991, Johnson reportedly stated that “’Just being there alongside Coach Robinson is a dream come true in itself.’”
Tragically, Gary Johnson would pass away in 2010 in his sleep. He left behind his wife Alice, son Gary II, daughter Morgan, two granddaughters, two sisters, and three brothers. Much of the information from this article comes from a combination of the work of Jerry Byrd, NFL stats recorded by the league, and his obituary.
If you have any photos or other information relating to the history of Bossier City or Bossier Parish, the History Center may be interested in adding the materials to its research collection by donation or by scanning them and returning the originals. Call or visit us to learn more. We are open M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Our phone number is (318) 746-7717 and our email is history-center@bossierlibrary.org. We can also be found online at https://www.facebook.com/BPLHistoryCenter/ and http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/
Images:
- Gary Johnson - The Shreveport Journal - 22 Nov 1972
- Gary Johnson in 1985 - The Daily Advertiser/Associated Press - 20 Jun 1991
Article by: Jonah Daigle
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