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Ask Homer B. Johnson who was the greatest football player he's ever seen in his 60 years as a coach and athletic director, and he answers without hesitation. It was Bobby Boyd, the same player he brawled with on the sidelines.

The year was 1955. Johnson was Garland's backfield coach and Boyd, who would go on to be a Pro Bowl defensive back with the Baltimore Colts, was the star quarterback. The Owls led Weatherford, 6-0, at halftime of a game Garland should have been winning by four touchdowns.

As the team was taking the field for the second half, a fuming Johnson told Boyd that if he wasn't going to play any better, he might as well stay on the bench.

"That's when I got after him," Boyd recalled. "He had a red tie and I got that red tie and I almost choked him."

Johnson, who turns 80 on Nov. 28, remembers giving Boyd as good as he got. "Both of us were pretty high-spirited," he said.

In the tussle, the two fell over a bench. That's when Johnson said he noticed Weatherford was about to score and told Boyd to get into the game. Garland went on to win, 36-0.

"They'd fire you now for that," Johnson said. "Nobody ever said anything."

Fortunately for Johnson, he didn't get fired. It was a different era, one of many Johnson has seen during his time – minus a couple of years for the Korean War – at Garland.

It's hard to imagine anyone firing Johnson – he hired both of his superiors, superintendent Curtis Culwell and assistant superintendent Gary Reeves, as coaches.

Then there's the matter of the football stadium that was renamed after him in 1978. Until then, the Garland ISD had a policy against naming anything after living people.

"To be honest with you, I was worried a little bit," Johnson said. "Because I thought maybe somebody knew something I didn't know."

Johnson is still going strong and looking fit as a fiddle. His relationship with Garland ISD goes beyond when he was hired as a 20-year-old assistant coach in 1948. He was also the starting center for Garland High from 1942-44.

He still goes to work every day at his office in a small building outside Williams Stadium that doubles as a ticket booth.

Johnson has been Garland's athletic director since 1963, when he stepped down after five years as Garland High's football coach. He didn't want to leave coaching, but Garland was opening a second high school, South Garland, and as Johnson put it, "If I stayed [coaching], they were going to hire me a boss."

Johnson has worked in the Garland ISD so long that if he were to retire, he would make 19 percent more in retirement benefits than his current salary. He's losing money by working, but he has no plans to stop.

"I like to do what I'm doing," Johnson said. "I look forward to working every day."

The only thing that slows Johnson down is caring for his wife of 56 years, Billie, who suffered a paralyzing stroke two years ago. Mrs. Johnson is in a care facility, but he visits her at least three times a day.

"It's not easy," Johnson said. "It's even harder than I imagined. The hardest part is to see her try to talk. But she's always smiling. She's taking it like a champion."

When Johnson was hired by his former coach, Jerry Sellers, for his first coaching job back in 1948, he couldn't imagine sticking around for 60 years.

"He told me I really wasn't what he was looking for, but I would do until then," Johnson said.

All these years later, they still haven't found a replacement for Homer Johnson.

"I don't play golf, I don't fish, I don't hunt," Johnson said. "My life is going to ballgames and being a part of that."

And what a life it's been.

HOMER B. JOHNSON TIMELINE

Nov. 28, 1927: Born in Frisco

1942-44: Starting center for Garland High School

1945: Freshman football player at Texas A&M

1946-47: Transfers to play at North Texas State

1948: Hired as backfield coach at Garland High at age 20

1958: Becomes the youngest head coach in Texas at Garland

1963: Leaves coaching to become Garland ISD athletic director

1978: Garland Memorial Stadium re-named in his honor

1989: Inducted into the Garland Sports Hall of Fame

2001: Inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame