Aggie continues life of basketball
To some, basketball is life. Phil Johnson is no exception.
Johnson, who graduated from Utah State University in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, began his coaching career with the Aggies as a graduate assistant to then Head Coach Ladell Andersen. He hasn’t stopped since.
While under Anderson he was working on his master’s degree.
Currently, he is Utah Jazz Head Coach Jerry Sloan’s go to guy on the bench as an assistant coach.
Before coaching though, Johnson did his fair share of playing.
A native of Grace, Idaho, where he said his family still resides today, Johnson said he played football, track and basketball while in high school.
No one from his high school at the time went on to play collegiate basketball, Johnson said. He was the exception.
After being widely-recruited, Johnson said he decided to come to Utah State because he liked the coaches and he was a, “small-town boy.”
Even though his first year as a player was 40 years ago, he still recalls the excitement of playing on the team.
At the time, the basketball team practiced and played in the Fieldhouse and there were no student tickets.
“We would leave practice the night before [a game] and people would be camped outside in the middle of winter,” Johnson said. “That will get you ready to play.”
Similar to today’s rivalries, BYU and the University of Utah were the crowd-drawing games during his time, Johnson said.
He said the team would take a bus to play the Cougars and Utes but would fly commercially elsewhere.
In his senior year, Johnson said the starting five players were himself, Troy Collier, Mark Hasen, Reid Goldsberry and Wayne Estes.
Goldsberry remembers Johnson being quick for his size and a hard worker.
“He was very enjoyable to be around,” Goldsberry said. “We used to play a defense that forced everything his direction and away from Wayne Estes. He had a great responsibility and did a good job with that.”
Collier went on to play with the Harlem Globetrotters while Goldsberry was a football, basketball and tennis coach at Box Elder High School in Brigham City as well as an English teacher. He has since retired.
Estes was electrocuted by a live wire hanging from a utility pole at the scene of a car accident after scoring a Fieldhouse-record 48 points, pushing him over the 2,000-point mark in his career on Feb. 8, 1965.
Johnson said he received a call to tell him about Estes’ death.
“I was coaching at Weber State [University],” Johnson said. “A guy called me up at 3 a.m. [to tell me]. I had no idea who [the caller] was.”
Johnson was an assistant coach under Dick Motta and became the Wildcats’ head coach in 1968.
He said he learned a lot about coaching under Anderson at Utah State.
“He was interested in you as a person,” Johnson said. “He was a very sound basketball coach and he really understood what was going on.”
Anderson was the Aggies’ head coach from 1962 to 71 and led the team to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, all during Johnson’s career.
Johnson said throughout his career he has been able to work with great coaches.
Aside from basketball, Johnson also competed in track as an Aggie, met his future wife Ann at USU and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
“I joined [the fraternity] mostly for the food,” Johnson said.
Although he is not the current definition of a “True Aggie,” Johnson said he will always be an Aggie at heart.
In 1997 Johnson was honored as the Alumnus of the Year at USU.
Through coaching at Weber State, he said he also has ties there and was inducted into the Wildcats’ Hall of Fame in 1992.
While at WSU, he led the team to a 68-15 record, three Big Sky Championships and three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
Frank Layden hired Johnson as an assistant coach for the Utah Jazz in 1982, but he left two years later to work with the Sacramento Kings.
After his stint in California with the Kings, he became Sloan’s assistant coach in 1988.
He was also a member of the Kings organization while it was the Kansas City/Omaha Kings. He led the team 33-49 record and earned NBA Coach of the Year.
Johnson said he visits Logan regularly while passing through to go to his summer home in Bear Lake.
He said he does follow Aggie athletics and knows Utah State Head Coach Stew Morrill.
Although he said the campus has expanded and the buildings are larger, Johnson said Utah State is a large part of the town and has the “true campus feeling.”