Bob Johnson, who led the Pittsburgh Penguins' Stanley Cup victory parade last May before a crowd of 80,000, who treated jaded professional hockey players like college kids and made them love it, and whose enthusiasm for teaching hockey, coaching hockey, and talking hockey seemed boundless, died Tuesday after a brief battle with brain cancer.
Johnson, 60, died Tuesday morning at his home in Colorado Springs, four months after he learned that he had brain cancer.
It was last May 25 that the Penguins defeated the Minnesota North Stars 8-0 in the sixth game of the Stanley Cup finals, giving Pittsburgh its first NHL championship. It was Johnson's greatest hockey achievement in a lifetime of hockey achievements. He had taken a talented but often dispirited and exasperating group of players and made it live up to its promise. He did it in one season.
These players learned of Johnson's death as they were working out in Pittsburgh. They said his tremendous enthusiasm had put passion into a club that had never shown any before. Some of them noted that most of Johnson's coaching life had been spent in the college ranks, where he brought a sis-boom-bah spirit to his teams. When he became a professional coach, he saw no reason to change tempo, they said.
"I'll remember Bob as probably the most optimistic, bright, intelligent and positive man, with a heart that wouldn't stop," said center Bryan Trottier. "It was a heart that was a caring heart, and his will was contagious."
Mario Lemieux, the team's superstar, said the Penguins were a recalcitrant bunch, a team difficult for any coach to bring to heel.
"We learned a lot from Bob -- we learned how to win," he said. "We're a very tough team to coach, a team that was known for offense, but he taught us how to play defense. He was the main reason we won the Stanley Cup."
"Nobody thought we could win . . . but Bob made us believe that anything was possible."
There was little that Johnson left undone in the world of hockey.
He coached two NHL teams. He coached the 1976 U.S. Olympic team. He
coached the
U.S. national team on four separate occasions. He also won three NCAA
championships
and was named the NCAA coach of the year in 1977, while with the
University of
Wisconsin. It was there that he earned a nickname that stuck -- "Badger
Bob."
Johnson was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Minneapolis on Oct. 12.
After compiling a 367-175-23 record in 15 seasons at Wisconsin, Johnson coached Calgary for five seasons. He finished with a record of 234-188-58 and took the Flames to the Stanley Cup finals in 19850-85 where thy lost to the Montreal Canadiens.
After serving for three years as executive director of USA Hockey, the nation's governing body of the sport's amateur players, Johnson returned to coaching with the Penguins last fall.
"I thought, why not? I'll end my career as a coach," Johnson said after the Stanley Cup was won. "I've been coaching all my life. This is the top of the mountain."
Johnson became ill last summer while preparing Team USA for the Canada Cup tournament, On Aug. 30, the eve of the tournament's opening game, he underwent emergency surgery to remove a brain tumor.
When a second brain tumor was discovered, doctors prescribed radiation treatment and sent Johnson home to rest. He became increasingly weak and eventually could not speak.
He had a satellite dish installed at his home to he could watch the Penguins games. And until he was unable to hold a pencil, he wrote messages to his coaching staff and players on Team USA and later, the Penguins.
Johnson is survived by his wife, Martha; five children; and nine grandchildren.
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