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Catching up with the 'Big Guy'
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Published: July 12, 2009
Harold Nelson Johnson Jr. is not a Statesville native, although this has been his home for five decades.
His family, father, step-mother, sister and he moved here from New Jersey in 1958.
He father was a supervisor with Hunt Pen, later Hunt-Bienfang. The company wanted to move South and looked at three cities in North Carolina and chose Statesville.
"I'm very glad they chose Statesville," says Johnson. I love this place!"
His first job in what was to become his life's work — reporting sports — was in the sports department of the Record & Landmark.
"Jerry Josey was the sports editor, later the editor of the paper," Johnson recalls. "I had a part-time job with the circulation department after school. Jerry and I got to talking and he found out that I had a love of sports and asked me if I'd like to cover some of the local high school basketball games.
"I never played sports here at Statesville High or in college, but I did play a little baseball when I was in high school in New Jersey, and played some basketball and football in the Marines. But I grew up with sports. I loved sports.
"Remember that I was still a student at Senior High and I got a job at the R&L and I learned a lot there. At first, Jerry really edited all of my columns, but I soon figured out how he wanted me to write.
After that, most of my columns were printed just as I wrote them."
Harold's first byline article was published Dec. 5, 1959, the coverage being of basketball games between the Cool Spring High Hawks and the Troutman High Bobcats.
Johnson confesses, "By the way, I couldn't type, so I had my twin sister Barbara type up my sports stories for me."
After graduating from Statesville High School in 1960, Johnson enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving four years and leaving the Corps in August 1964, just before the United States became heavily involved in Vietnam. He was, however, at one time in a warship just off the coast of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He also got to Europe for about eight months and saw some of Spain, France and Greece. His Marine Corps Military Occupational Specialty was, incidentally, radio operator.
In 1962, he married, literally, the girl next door. Johnson's family lived then at 523 Virginia Ave. in Statesville and next door lived another family of Johnsons (no relation), at 521 Virginia Ave., one of them being Linda Kay Johnson, who was in the grade above Harold at Statesville High.
Harold related the story of their first date. "I had asked her if she would like to go to a movie with me. I dressed in what the guys were wearing in New Jersey. I had on blue peg pants with cuffs, a tight black shirt to show off my muscles, and had a string tie around my neck. I had my hair slicked back and a gold belt around my waist. I was the prototype for 'Grease.'
"I thought I looked very cool. I rang Linda's doorbell and she came to the door dressed in pink Bermuda shorts and a white blouse. She was very cute.
"I asked her if we were ready to go and she said that she was, but that I needed to go home and change clothes. I did, and I followed her advice for 44 years. Honestly, she made me what I am. You know, if I'd stayed in New Jersey, I might have ended up on the Sopranos, not the TV show, but the real guys!"
Johnson started broadcasting local sports at WSIC radio in Statesville in the fall of 1965.
"Bob Marlowe gave me a break, and that's how I got started in broadcasting," Johnson said. "You've got to take advantage of opportunities when they come along. I was never afraid to take a chance on a new job. Some folks say, 'I could never do that,' but I've always been positive. I think, 'Yeah, I can do that.' I wonder how we could teach this attitude in schools?"
From 1966 through 1968, he did the HaJo Show at WSIC, playing a lot of Carolina beach music at night.
In 1972, while still at WSIC, he met WBTV's sports director, Jim Thacker. Thacker vaguely invited Johnson to come down, sometime, to Charlotte and talk about maybe doing some TV work.
The very next morning Johnson was at WBT's studio, shoes shined and ready to go to work. He soon cinched a job on Channel 3 doing weekend sports and a morning radio show with Bob Lacey, which began in 1974.The two worked well together and fed off each other's gab. They always sounded like they were having a lot of fun.
Johnson attended Mitchell Community College for two years and graduated from Lenoir-Rhyne College in 1969 with a major in economics.
"I really liked history and took all the history courses I could, but I didn't want to be a teacher, so I majored in economics. I liked to work with numbers and money."
In 1979, Harold moved to WSOC-TV, becoming part of that station's "Eyewitness News Team," and the following year became that station's sports director, a position he would hold for the next 26 years.
His wife of 44 years, Linda, died in December 2006, in Statesville. She had been a teacher in the I-SS system, teaching at Troutman Elementary and then on the faculty of East Iredell Elementary School when it opened. At the time of her death, Linda and Harold had two sons and a daughter and five grandchildren. Harold now has nine grandchildren: three in Statesville, three in Mooresville and three in Hickory. He considers himself fortunate that they all live relatively close.
Harold retired at the age of 65 in December 2006, and no longer had to make the 100-mile, round-trip drive from Statesville to the WSOC studio and back. He estimates that while he worked in Charlotte, he drove more than a million miles. Most of that mileage, he points out, was driven before there was a U.S. Interstate 77.
Doing the 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. broadcasts, Johnson had time between the 6 and 10 shows to go to the old Crockett Park to cover baseball and attend local basketball games and do interviews.
During his broadcasting career he won four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Sportscasting (1990, 1992, 1994 and 1995) and was nominated for two more.
"These days I do heavy consulting with my driver and my putter."
Johnson also said he did a few talks in Charlotte, but that these days, he mostly concentrated on the "three Gs," grandchildren, gardening and golf.
"I learned the love of gardening from Linda. I have flowers and vegetables," he said.
He also loves the poetry of Robert Frost, and Johnson's two favorite movies are "The Flim-Flam Man," with George C. Scott in the title role, and "The Silence of the Lambs," with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster.
"I know," Johnson said, "they're about as two different movies as there could be.
As to his career, he says, "I had a great time doing what I love. If I could have chosen another career, I think that I'd have liked to have been an actor, but then I've been acting all my life.
"When I get to the Pearly Gates, I want St. Peter to say, 'Harold, I'm glad you made it. I never doubted you would, for you helped a lot of other people along the way.' "
O.C. Stonestreet is a retired Iredell County history teacher and works in the newsroom at the R&L. He can be reached at ostonestreet@statesville.com.
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