ESPN.com Continues Feature on OU

NORMAN, Okla. -- Merv Johnson's office in the Barry Switzer Center at Oklahoma University is a study in camouflage.

A thicket of fishing rods rests in one corner. A crammed bookshelf contains fiction from Larry McMurtry and John Grisham, plus Merle Haggard's memoirs. The television is showing a banal daytime talk show. Pictures of his seven grandchildren proliferate.

There are no trappings in this office to suggest that the quiet, polite man behind the desk is a living, breathing museum of college football.

Merv Johnson has been around long enough to play in the Big Seven at Missouri, coach the wishbone in the Big Eight at Oklahoma and now serves as the Sooners' director of football operations in the Big 12.

He coached at No. 2 Arkansas alongside Frank Broyles against No. 1 Texas in 1969, a game so huge that sitting president Richard Nixon attended. He called passing plays for Joe Montana at Notre Dame in the 1970s and running plays for Jamelle Holieway at Oklahoma in the 1980s -- and won national championships with both.

He might have been the first assistant coach to have his own TV show. He was a first-hand witness to both Rudy and The Boz, and once saw his starting quarterback make the cover of Sports Illustrated in handcuffs.

Yeah, Merv has seen some ball.

"I've seen good and I've seen bad," Johnson said. "And let me tell ya, good's better."

It's all good these days in Norman, where the undefeated Sooners are rolling toward what could be their third BCS championship game in five seasons. And even though Johnson is reaching slow-down age he's still in the middle of all the action, wearing multiple hats within the OU program.

Continue Article... | OU - The Program

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors