Glen Johnson

Lloyd Glen Johnson... sports family (soccer father Lloyd, skating cousin Karen Magnussen)... both his father Lloyd and mother Jean were born in Vancouver... he married his wife Gaye... his father Lloyd was a local soccer youth coach (although Lloyd didn’t coach his son Glen)... in 1975, his son Nathan was diagnosed with Leukemia (Nathan passed away in 1980)... has worked as owner of Team Sales Ltd. in Richmond, BC...

honoured by the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame as a player (he was shortlisted as an original alternate by The Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000 and then honoured as part of the Class of 2007)... honoured by the Soccer Hall of Fame of British Columbia and the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame...

represented Canada in two cycles of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers... career eight international “A” appearances across five years from 1972 to 1976 with Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team...

played parts of three seasons in the Pacific Coast Soccer League and three seasons in the Western Canada Soccer League... he was an original member of the Vancouver Whitecaps in the North American Soccer League...

at age 11, he had the honour to kick off the all-star match against Sheffield United FC at Callister Park on 6 June 1962 (Johnson was the recent Soccer Boy winner at the Vancouver Sun’s Tournament of Champions)... once missed a FIFA World Cup Qualifier match because he couldn’t take leave from his job (a playoff match against USA on 22 December 1976)...

wrote Roy Jukich in 1967, fifteen-year old Glen “impressed manager Doug Greig with his fine passing and excellent shooting”... wrote Don Howe in 1972, Glen “has a good shot with either foot and loves scoring goals; he always manages to get himself into the box to get his shots in; he is also a good team player and a 90-minute trier”... as noted in a 1976 program, Johnson was “a physically powerful player who never hesitates when in shooting distance”... wrote Vancouver Whitecaps in 1977, “physically powerful with the hardest shot on the squad”... wrote Zander Hollander in 1977, Johnson “has a powerful shot from long range; bustling attacker with high work rate”... wrote Colin Jose in 2006, “one of the finest strikers ever developed in Canada”... wrote Kolby Solinsky in 2014, Johnson was “signed by Vancouver with floppy disco hair and a dancing suit and right when the game’s most ambitious league was taking aim at the soccer world”...

said Glen Johnson in 2018, “I took all the corners and direct free kicks and penalties. I was fairly quick, I wouldn’t say I was fast, but I was quick and my skills were good.... I might have been like a Yordy Reyna from the Whitecaps right now. Then again, we always think we were better than we were”...

remembered Glen Johnson in 2018, “I could only go up and play three games with Firefighters, but my debut was on a Sunday afternoon at Callister Park against Columbus. That’s like the hottest, biggest, most hatred-filled match that you could enter. So I made my debut, but mid first half, my first ‘meeting’ with Mr. Bob Hazeldine was a chest trap, six studs to the middle of the chest.” Laughing, Johnson explained “It damn near killed me. Art Hughes broke into the Columbus dressing room at half time and grabbed Hazeldine by the throat and told him to leave the kid alone, which was me”...