| Robert Walter Johnson | |
| Birth Date: | 1899 4, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Nationality: | American |
| Field: | Internal medicine, sports medicine |
| Workplaces: | Lynchburg General Hospital |
| Alma Mater: | Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) Meharry Medical College |
Robert Walter "Whirlwind" Johnson (April 16, 1899 – June 28, 1971) was an American physician, college football player and coach, and founder of the American Tennis Association Junior Development Program for African-American youths, where he coached and fostered the careers of Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson.[1]
Johnson graduated in 1924 from Lincoln University, a historically black college in Pennsylvania. He was a classmate of Melvin B. Tolson. Johnson played college football as a halfback at Lincoln and was captain of the 1923 Lincoln Lions football team, which won a black college football national championship.[2] He was selected to the All-Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) First Team in 1923.[3]
Johnson served as the head football coach at Virginia Theological Seminary and College—now known as Virginia University of Lynchburg–in 1924, Samuel Huston College in Austin, Texas in 1925, and Morris Brown College in Atlanta in 1926.[4] [5] In 1927 he was assistant football coach at Atlanta University in charge of the backfield and ends under head football coach Chief Aiken. Johnson was the manager of Aiken and Faulkner Rent Department at the time.[6] [7]
Johnson was the first African-American physician to receive practice rights at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia.[8] Johnson continued his medical practice in Lynchburg for his entire career.
Known as the "godfather" of black tennis, Johnson founded an all-expenses-paid tennis camp for African-American children and hired instructors.[9] In these years in the segregated South, they had no public courts where they could learn tennis, and many did not have money for lessons. Johnson was instrumental in encouraging the athletic careers of both Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, who he coached.[10] [11]
Johnson died on June 28, 1971, at a hospital in Lynchburg, Virginia, following a seven-month-long illness.[12]