Bill Johnson, coach of the men's golf team at Dartmouth, head professional at the College-owned Hanover Country Club and physical education instructor for the athletic department, announced yesterday that he will retire effective June 30.
Johnson has been the golf team coach since 1967, when he replaced the team's first coach, Thomas F. Keane Jr., who had held the position from 1922-1967. Johnson, a native of Marysville, Michigan, has been one of Dartmouth's most successful coaches during his 35-year tenure.
"A college has to consider itself blessed many times over when it can boast of a coach of Bill Johnson's caliber, great skill and far-reaching impact on generations of Dartmouth students and his profession," said Athletic Director Dick Jaeger.
In his time at Dartmouth, Johnson has had his team or individual players in the NCAA Championship 17 times. In the team category, most recently made it to the championships in 1999-2000 at Temple after an 18-year drought.
Johnson has also had four players receive All-America honors " Sandy McWilliams, 1970; Jeremiah Daly, 1973-76; Joseph Henley, 1978-79; and Mark Trauner 1982-83.
Johnson has served many posts, aside from his Dartmouth coaching duties. From 1975"85 he was a member of the ECAC golf committee, which he chaired from 1984-85.
He was a member of the NCAA golf committee from 1978-84 and served as the chair of the organization from 1981-84. Johnson is currently the dean of Ivy League golf coaches and chair of the Ivy League golf coaches committee.
Johnson is also currently the president of the New England Intercollegiate Golf Association which is comprised of 48 schools. The NEIGA honored Johnson in 1999 with the Gordon McCullough Award for contributions to the game.
Among those contributions, Johnson co-founded the New Hampshire Junior Golf Association, an active summer tour, and directed the Association for many of its early years. Johnson also co-founded and chaired the New Hampshire chapter of the New England PGA.
Far from being just a local legend, Johnson represented the nation as coach of the victorious USA team in an international match against the collegiate all-stars of Japan in 1980.
Among Johnson's charges in that endeavor were seven-time PGA Tour winner and PGA Championship winner Bob Tway, six-time winner Joey Sindelar and former PGA Tour winner Jay Don Blake.
For all of these accomplishments, and many others, Johnson was inducted into the Golf Coaches of America Hall of Fame in 1990.
Johnson has also left a legacy of techniques behind for future coaches, as he was one of the first to use many modern teaching aids such as videotape footage and graph-check sequence photography to analyze and alter a player's swing.
This season, Johnson hopes to finish off his career with another tournament appearance, as the team most recently finished third at the Yale Spring Open. This followed on the heels of a fifth place finish in the Kauai Collegiate Cup.
