Vicki Johnson hasnt been back to Lincoln Financial Field or across the street to the Eagles NovaCare Complex since she lost her beloved husband 27 months ago. It would just hurt too much.
On Sunday, shell not only return to the Linc the first time since 2008 but also stand on the field at halftime, watch a video presentation honoring her late husband, and then speak to the fans who revered Jim Johnson during the decade he ran the Eagles defense.
Its going to be hard, Vicki Johnson said. Im just hoping it will be a joyous occasion.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Jim Johnson, the first coach Andy Reid hired after he was named Eagles head coach in January of 1999, died on July 28, 2009, after a courageous battle with cancer.
On Sunday, the Eagles will give Johnson the franchises highest honor when they induct him into the Eagles Honor Roll. Hell become the first assistant coach and only the third coach -- along with Greasy Neale, who led the 1948 and 1949 teams to the NFL Championship, and Dick Vermeil, who coached the 1980 Super Bowl team -- inducted into the Honor Roll.
Johnson met his wife -- then Vicki Howell -- in the fall of 1960, when she arrived at Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., to start her freshman year. He was a sophomore quarterback at the neighboring University of Missouri.
Jim called Vicki a week later to ask her out. They dated for a year, got married while they were still in school, and were married for 48 years.
News
To us, Jim Johnson was one of the most innovative defensive minds in recent NFL history. To Vicki, he was the love of her life.
On Thursday afternoon, Vicki Johnson shared her memories of her husband with CSNPhilly.coms Reuben Frank.
It's not going to be an easy day
I think its going to be a really hard day for me. I havent been down there at all to the stadium, I really havent even been to the NovaCare Complex. Its really so much a part of what Jim was, you know, i just dont think Id enjoy being there and not seeing him on the sidelines. So its going to be hard. Its going to be hard. Im so happy and thrilled that the Eagles are doing this for him. I think its wonderful, but I feel very mixed about it personally.
Jim would cry at the movies
He was such a different person at home as he was at work. He was a person that thought that the two should be separate, so I dont know that the players got to meet the real Jim Johnson. He had a great sense of humor, but he was very tender and soft. He was a person that could cry at a movie, that kind of a person, but I dont think the players ever saw that side of him. I think that he never let them see that side of him.
Jim loved the fans
He loved the fans. He really did. They were so great to us. It was just amazing. We never went on a vacation anywhere that I didnt take a picture of him in a bathing suit with fans. And it didnt matter if we were in the Caribbean someplace on vacation or in the West Coast in Southern California. And he was always signed autographs and was very approachable as far as the fans were concerned. However, I will say, he thought he was incognito when he put on his baseball cap and went to Home Depot. He thought people wouldnt recognize him. We always told him fewer people would recognize him if he took his hat off than with his hat on. But he was always very approachable, and he really appreciated the fans here.
Still living in Newtown Square
Im still in the same home. I feel like I have a very good support system in Philadelphia. The Eagles family has been so great to me. The Luries and Tammy and Andy Reid and even the coaches that are still on the staff. I get phone calls and emails from them, and I have a great support system here. For the time being, Im staying put.
This is how we might back in 1960
He picked me up. I went to Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., which was a girls school, and we started school earlier than the University of Missouri did, but the Missouri football team always came in early for their fall practice, their fall camp. So the thing that they did after football practice was theyd come over to the campus and theyd watch all the new Stevens girls get off the buses. And, truthfully, I met him the first day I was on campus. My luggage did not come on the bus that I was on, so I had to sit out in the heat and wait for my luggage to come, because I had no clothes to change into, and thats how I met him. A girl that was a year older than I came and introduced her to me and said there were some people that would like to meet you and she said that theyre jocks, and that was a term that Id never heard in my life, and I kind of looked at her and she said, You know, football players. Oh, great. So we started dating and the rest is history.
The fans, they just identified with Jim
He was not a very wordy person. Its not as if he ever said a lot at his press conferences. He just didnt. So I dont know. Maybe they just identified with the working mans outlook that he had. Kind of like the everyman. He was not one to beat around the bush. He was pretty forthright. He had a wonderful sense of humor and even my mother -- she used to love when he would belly-laugh because you had to laugh with him when he laughed like that.
Sunday will be special for the family
Its such a great honor. Im so pleased, and Im so happy for my grandchildren. We have twin grandsons that are 12 years old, and they were very close to Jim, and Andy (Reid) still invites them to camp. They get to come to camp and stay with Andy at training camp, and its been such a great experience for them, and I think this will be something theyll put in their memory banks for the rest of their lives.
The whole family will be there
My son and his wife and their two children - they have a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old. The 4-year-old knew Jim, but the 1-year-old never did. My daughter and her husband have three children - they have a daughter whos 14 and twin boys who are 12, and they were all very close to Jim. My daughter and son-in-law live in Louisville, Ky., and son and daughter-in-law live in Boulder, Colo.
Jim never brought home work with him
When he was home, he was home. He did not like to talk about football. We didnt talk about football at home at all. When he came home, he just wanted to get away from it and not talk about it. Now, that didnt mean that he wouldnt sit with a piece of paper and draw up plays, but we really didnt talk about it. The thing about coaching on any level is that its a way of life rather than a profession. I think that the whole family gets involved in it, because theres so much time away from home, and the nice thing is the family can participate in it and can go to the games and meet with all the people who are involved in the game.
Jim got quiet before big games
You couldnt tell that he was nervous about a game, except that he would get quiet. He wouldnt say much. So I would always know that he was nervous. Then I would get nervous.
I used to give Jim football advice
I was a high school cheerleader, so I did know football. I knew the basics. I used to give (Jim) my opinion and he would just look at me.
I think we moved 23 times
We really thought we had it made where we finally got a job where the team paid for the move, because in the early days, we would have to pay for our own move, and then by the time we got up to, I think maybe when we went to Indiana University, they paid for our move, and from that point on, somebody else paid for the moving van. (Moving frequently) was sort of a mixed blessing. We didnt stay in any town for very long, but we found that there were wonderful people everywhere, and we had friends all across the country.
Jim loved a good burger
He loved Five Guys. He really had very simple taste. He loved to play golf, he loved a good cheeseburger, he loved a good steak, and thats it. He loved to be with his family. He didnt love to travel, unless there was golf involved, maybe because he did so much traveling during the year. But very simple. He was not a complicated person. He loved to golf at Edgemont Country Club, and we belonged to Overbrook Country Club, too.
I still wait for him at the door
Its a very strange thing. Because he was always gone so much, you know, its like I still wait for him to walk in the door. Its odd. Its a very odd thing. And probably as long as I live in this house, that will be the case. But its not a bad thing. Because I just really feel his presence around here.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com