Sept. 19, 2007

by Louis Bonnette

It's just after midnight on a Saturday and a late worker is about to shut off the lights and head home when he hears a noise in the back of the McNeese State fieldhouse.

On inspection, its the whirling of a laundry dryer and he sees the familiar face of Bobby Johns, one of the football team's student managers.

The Cowboys had defeated rival Louisiana-Lafayette several hours earlier in Lafayette and Johns is in the process of washing and drying all of the gear that the players had worn in the game.

His work wouldn't be completed for another hour or so but such is the life of a McNeese football manager. The work, mainly in the background, is never done.

The job is a necessary one but one that gets little recognition while the pay is not near the effort.

But, Johns knows this better than anyone. He's the third member of the Mike Johns family to serve as a football manager at McNeese. The patriarch of the family - Mike - was the first back in the early to mid-1960s. First son Tommy followed in early 2000 and now Bobby is taking his turn.

"You can't run a program without them," McNeese head football coach Matt Viator said of managers. "Their value is right there whether it's on the field, off the field, at practice or during games. I know what they mean to our program.

"As for Coach Johns, he's one of the best high school head coaches in this area and he also taught guys like myself what we know about the equipment business- what to order, when to order and how to order. My first three years as a coach was spent at Sam Houston High where Coach Johns was the defensive coordinator and oversaw the equipment. I learned from him."

The elder Johns, now head coach at St. Louis High in Lake Charles, had become an equipment manager as a means to getting into the coaching profession.

"I got to McNeese in 1961," he recalled, "and I graduated in 1965 and got my master degree in 1966. I was a football manager all of that time for Coach Les DeVall. I wanted to go into coaching and Coach DeVall let me attend any meeting that I wanted to.... position meetings, all of them. I really believe that the early education I got there gave me the opportunity to be where I am today."

Johns, who grew up in Bunkie, said that he had become a McNeese football manager through the help of his uncle, the late George Johns who was a close friend of the members of the university's coaching staff.

"My first year I worked for hardly anything but the next year I was put on full scholarship. I lived in the dorm and really made a lot of close friendships that I still have to this day," he said.

"It was a lot of work but I enjoyed every minute of it."

Lee Haley and Milton White were members of the Cowboy coaching staff who oversaw the managers.

"They were great guys to work with because they basically gave me all the responsibility and turned me loose."

One particularly taxing duty the managers had was the painting of helmets the Friday night before a game.

"Back then our school colors were purple and gold (they were changed to blue and gold in 1971) and our helmets were like the old gold of Notre Dame. We (he had two assistants) had to paint each helmet (about 65 players on the team), let them dry and them stripe them. That took up most of our Fridays and we would just about get finished in time to come back and get ready for the game the next day .

"We had some great players on the team and most of them went both ways. The first five years I was here we also played our games at Lake Charles High. It was the last year that we moved into Cowboy Stadium," said the coach who is now in the 42nd year of his coaching career, one that has had him win 125 games and produce seven district titles in 18 years as a head coach.

As for his sons following his footsteps as a manager at McNeese, Johns said, "I am glad they got involved. It gives them an opportunity to help earn their way through college and continue to be around sports."

Tommy, who played football for his Dad at LaGrange High as a center, is now coaching with his Dad at St. Louis High while Bobby, who was a quarterback at St. Louis High on his Dad's team, is undecided about which direction he will go after college.

"I wanted to go into coaching and became a manager for the same reasons he did," Tommy said of his Dad. "I am thankful to this day that I did and I wouldn't change a thing."

Tommy, a 2005 graduate of McNeese, is now in his third season as a coach.

"I had a year of not being around sports and decided to come back," Bobby said. "I'm still undecided about whether I will go into the insurance business or into coaching when I graduate but I am enjoying every minute right now as a McNeese football manager."