Kevin Johnson
Track & Field
Kevin Johnson could lay claim to being the greatest junior athlete the country has ever produced. As a 15-year-old, Johnson was the pride of Attucks High School in Broward Country, Florida and was regarded as one of the fastest males in the entire state of Florida.
In April of 1996, he went up against the veteran senior sprinter James Gaston of North Dade. At the time, Johnson had already run a 9.6 seconds 100 yards dash. However, Gatson was acknowledged as the premier runner. This was not the case afterwards. Johnson defeated Gaston in both the 100 and 220-yard dashes and his popularity skyrocketed.
The young Bahamian boy with the speed of a man, became an overnight sensation and was to win many more races, in the United States, and at home, where his superstar status was cemented by memorable races during the decades of the 1960s and 1970s.
Johnson was a star at every stop in the United States, at North Dade Community College, Compton Community College and Dickinson State University where he blazed a trail for other Bahamians. Johnson’s sprint records were eventually broken by fellow Bahamian, Derrick Atkins.
Johnson was selected twice to compete in the Olympic Games, 1968 in Mexico City and Munich in 1972.
His glamorous years, competing in the United States accounted for a great part of his legacy, but as aforementioned, there were those thrilling encounters with Bert “Mole” Duncanson, Tom “The Bird” Grant, Norris “Nuts” Stubbs, Bernard “BJ” Nottage and Mike Sands over a 16-year span that, that made him legendary.
His amazing run in the 200 meters run during the trials for the 1968 Olympic Games has been etched in the minds of many and recounted over and over among those that were fortunate to be there.
Another sports legend, Henry Crawford, was the starter for the final of the 200 meters during the trials. The race was called and Johnson’s blocks slipped. He got up, expecting the race to be called back. That did not happen so Johnson took off, some 20 meters behind the field at the time. In an awesome demonstration of sprinting, Johnson caught the rear runners and zeroed his sights in on the leaders. The race would seem all but over as the front runners were fellow speed demons Norris Stubbs and Bernard Nottage. Going into the home stretch, off the curve, the leaders were still some 10 meters in front of the hard-driving Johnson.
Johnson shifted into another gear barreling past Nottage, and then on to Stubbs. For a moment, it appeared as if Stubbs would hold off the fast-charging Johnson. Unfortunately for him, Johnson had one more burst of speed left in him and the momentum carried him past Stubbs, clearly the winner of one of the most exciting races in the history of track in The Bahamas.
That race more than any other Johnson ran, exemplified the true talent in the boy from The Pond who developed into a Bahamian sports icon.