Leo Johnson,Jr.
Leo Johnson, Jr. '71 1981 Soccer, Basketball
The bus from Baltimore arrived in Cleveland in tandem with the rising sun. A compactly-built youngster alighted at the downtown terminal, found a relatively-comfortable bench and began an anxious vigil for his new coach.
Time passed slowly and the coach did not arrive. Finally the young man picked up his bags and began the long trudge on foot from East 13th Street to his new home in Fenn Tower.
Thus on a summer morning in 1965 did Leo Johnson and the Cleveland State University begin their rendezvous with athletic destiny.
Johnson and Cleveland State literally began together that fall. The young athlete from City College High School was a freshman starter in the University's first athletic contest under its new name, a 3-0 soccer victory over Alliance College.
For the first four games of his collegiate career, Johnson actually played in the Red and Gray of Fenn College, because Cleveland State's Forest Green and White uniforms had not arrived.
Johnson looked good in any color for the Vikings, however. He was the soccer team's second leading scorer in that first year, then moved over to the basketball court and averaged 12.9 points per game as a starting guard for the first CSU basketball team.
At the end of that excellent freshman year Johnson became the first winner of the Alumni Athletic Association "Athlete-of-the-Year" Award under the Cleveland State banner.
The next season Johnson led the soccer team in scoring and was named CSU's "Most Outstanding Soccer Player." He led the booters in scoring again the following year and was named to the All-Ohio second team.
He was also drafted at the end of the season by the Cleveland Stokers of the National Professional Soccer League, the first CSU player to be drafted by a professional team.
He elected to remain in school, but gave up his basketball uniform to concentrate on soccer. Moved from a forward to a midfield position, he helped the team to a magnificent 13-2-1 season and its first NCAA playoff berth. He was also named to the All-Ohio first time.
A decade after his graduation in 1971, he still ranks in Cleveland State's Top Ten in all soccer career scoring categories - total points, goals scored and assists.
His soccer career, however, was laid to rest after considerable agonizing, to permit him to follow a career in accounting following his graduation.
After working with private accounting firms in Cleveland for several years, he joined the Republic Steel Corporation in June of 1975, and is currently employed as Controller of the Donner-Hanna Coke Joint Venture, a Republic Steel subsidiary located in Buffalo, N.Y.
He still plays basketball, but soccer has been replaced in his active sports participation itinerary by softball.
The opportunities to play either are growing slimmer these days, however, as the Johnson family grows larger.
He met his wife, the former Cindy Hazen, when she was a cheerleader at Cleveland State, and this all-alumni pair now are the parents of three future Vikings, Nathan, 6, Sarah, 4, and Seth, 1.
