Wiedmer: Buck Johnson is thrilled that softball will return to Olympics in 2020

Buck Johnson
Buck Johnson

When Don Porter first envisioned making softball an Olympic sport in the late 1980s, he turned to former Chattanooga Times sports editor Buck Johnson for advice after first telling the old Buckaroo, "They say I'm crazy as (heck)."

Replied Johnson: "I think you're crazy as (heck), too, but I'll help you."

The two of them are still crazy like foxes after all these years, now working together on a book about the history of women's softball and Porter's long life of promoting it, including his 26 years as president of the International Softball Federation from 1987 to 2013.

And 20 years ago, in 1996, the Summer Games having landed 120 miles south of us in Atlanta, Porter's dream of softball becoming an Olympic sport became a reality, albeit banished 107 miles southwest of the Big Peach to historic Golden Park in Columbus, Ga.

The media coordinator for that competition? Johnson, of course.

"It was great," he said. "I didn't have to write a word. I just had to make sure everything ran smoothly."

Once a part of the Olympics, softball seemed to be running smoothly. Especially for the United States, which won the sport's first three gold medals in 1996, 2000 and 2004 before Japan claimed the 2008 gold medal in Beijing. But three years before those Beijing Games, former International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge allowed, if not pushed, for softball's and baseball's removal.

"I'll always blame Rogge," Johnson said this past week. "More than 8.5 million women play softball worldwide in 128 countries. It deserves to be in the Olympics."

Though you won't see softball over the next fortnight at the Rio Games, you will see its return in 2020 at Tokyo, along with baseball. Those sports - as well as surfing, skateboarding, karate and sport climbing - were voted into the Olympics for the Tokyo Games under the approving eye of current IOC president Thomas Bach. However, none will be guaranteed a spot past those games.

"Bach's a good man," Johnson said after softball's return became official. "Bringing back softball was the right thing to do. It's really hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced being inside the Olympics what this decision means to someone like me."

Johnson is 90 now, still living in Soddy-Daisy with his wife Jean, who fights a daily battle against spinal stenosis.

Yet if Johnson himself doesn't move quite as quickly as he used to, his mind is still as fast as a Monica Abbott delivery, especially when it comes to recalling the three Olympic softball competitions he attended in Atlanta, Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).

"When we got to Columbus, I met with some people about where the press would sit," Johnson recalled. "This very nice man came up to me and said he'd worked events at the stadium for years and he knew we'd have a big media contingent, so he put us eight seats in a section right behind home plate."

Johnson was almost speechless.

"Sir," he told the man, "I'm going to need 52 seats for every game. Media from all over the world will be here. This is the Olympics."

Recalled Johnson this past week: "When I told him 52 seats, the guy nearly fainted."

Fortunately, the volunteer soon met with a general from nearby Fort Benning who also was working the softball venue. The general told the man to "get back up there and do what he told you."

Beyond that, Johnson would drive to Atlanta early each morning and stop by the Olympic media center to remind those folks of the softball competition, as well as give them Olympic pins and such to encourage their attendance.

"We were filled to capacity every night," he said as he remembered the United States beating China 3-1 for the gold behind the talents of such as Dot Richardson - an orthopedic surgeon who would return to Los Angeles to operate on a hand three days after hitting the gold-medal-clinching home run - and Lisa Fernandez. "As Don Porter likes to say, '(America) brought softball from the backyard to the Olympics.'"

He has other memories of those Atlanta Games.

"They closed off part of I-75 so we could get to the stadium on time for the opening ceremony," Johnson said.

And like any American, when the national anthem was played as the U.S. team entered the stadium that would become Turner Field, "I choked up a little."

A lot of gifted and serious softball players probably choked up with the announcement that softball is again an Olympic sport, at least for 2020. Though she couldn't be reached for comment, Soddy-Daisy native and former University of Kentucky star Kelsey Nunley - who's now playng pro softball in Florida - could well be one of those players, according to Johnson.

"In four years, she's liable to be in the Olympics," he said. "I certainly think she'll have a chance."

But would Johnson, then 94 years young, have a chance to watch her live and in person?

"I probably won't live to see that," he said with a laugh. "But if I'm able, I'd love to go."

If that's not a shining example of the Olympic spirit, what is?

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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