John Heart Sock
jhartsock@altoonamirror.com
Dick Johnston was only 5-foot 4 in junior high school and reached the final height of 5-8.
But as athlete, even a very young age, he was always natural.
Johnston, who died in Fortewein, Indiana at the age of 76, graduated from Artuna High School in 1966, was a three -year basketball starter, and in 1965, the first to all the teams of the team. 66 and scholarships to the University of Tennessee.
Johnston is an outstanding baseball player, a best friend of Johnston, and his high school teammates and baseball teams and his high school teammates remind him of him.
“As an athlete, he was far ahead of his times,” Nedimyer said. “He was a year at school. We played together with the baseball team and played with a basketball program from the junior high level.
“We played basketball for Jim Rice in Roosevelt and did Frank Mastrocola in Altuna,” Nedy Myier said. “(Johnston) was an outstanding baseball player who could hit, run, and throw, but basketball was his niche. The University of Tennessee came north of the Mason Dixon line and at Dicky Johnston. He had to be pretty good to find a basketball player.
Certainly he was. Johnston has earned 1,427 points in a three -year high school career in a three -year high school, including a three -point line, including a personal high 42 -point game. Both have set a school record.
The screw meer was amazed at Johnston’s ball skills.
“He had been dribbling the ball between his back and his legs since he was young … the man was unrealistic,” said Nedy Ston. “He had a great personality. He was a friendly man, a little about him, and was different from others.
“We have been in contact for many years. I was very sad when I knew he had died, like everyone else,” Nedimyer said.
Rice knew that Johnston was a special basketball coat when Johnston was young.
“Even in 5 feet four, he was the best player I had so far,” said Rice when Johnston entered the Blare County Hall of Fame in 2002. And (no opponent) came near us. “
Johnston was also adopted by the North Carolina University for basketball, but chose Tennessee. He was mainly the sixth man and a volunteer play maker.
“Dick has started some of Tennessee, but he played a lot,” said Bob, Johnston’s older brother. He lives near Charlotte, North Carolina. In Tennessee, he had never scored a lot, but his job was to deliver the ball to others.
Johnston has participated twice in the National Invitational Tournament held in Madison Square Garden in New York City.
He was also a good free throw -shutter and took a foul shot 31 times in a row in the senior season with volunteers.
“I saw him played at Tennessee University, but when Tennessee broke the game that broke Kentucky, he was the best in his basketball career when he did some free throw. It was one of my memories, “said Bob Johnston. “I was able to get the game broadcast on an old radio on our home in Altuna, and the announcer was all excited about it.”
Johnston spent his professional life in the Fortewein area as an accountant.
The survivors, along with their brother Bob, contain three growing children and four grandchildren.
