MARCUS HOOK — One by one, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson’s army of dignitaries, coaches and teammates showed up at the Marcus Hook Community Center to affirm what the overwhelmed public already knew.
The proud product of Marcus Hook, Chichester High and Widener College honored with a larger than life statue on this glorious Saturday will always hold a place in his heart where it all began.
Family, friends and community stalwarts celebrated the electric returner and wide receiver who made multiple All-Pro and Pro Bowl teams, the NFL All-Decade member of the 1970s and most recently the semi-finalist of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Johnson’s trademark touchdown dance is immortalized in the statue.
“I look back and I’m so thankful, so thankful to the people who came out here today,” Johnson said. “People in middle school, high school, college and the NFL. Dance? OK, just because it’s my hometown. And I’ll hang on to the podium just in case.
With that, Johnson, now 70, performed the Funky Chicken on demand as aesthetically as if he had just scored on a punt return, reception or rush. He didn’t need the podium. Just a little energy from his friends.
The list of personalities who celebrated Johnson is too large to be fully documented here. All of this was off the official agenda, as Johnson set standards and cultivated friendships on the track as well as on the football field.
There is perhaps no bigger White Shoes fan than Ted Cottrell, All-Delco Chester High football player, famed NFL defensive coordinator and now Johnson’s friend in the Atlanta area, who has spoke at the statue ceremony.
“I look in the program, I think it’s page 11 and it says, ‘six touchdowns against Chester,'” Cottrell said. “Chester, we were terrible at football back then. Terrible. But I spoke to my sister Nadine about it. She was in the color guard of the Chester High School band, and at the time, that band spanned three city blocks. So they come to the game, and it’s raining that day, so they don’t go out on the pitch because it’s muddy. She said that before they could get the group into the stands, the score was 7-0. Billy had scored a touchdown on the opening kickoff. She said all of the players’ shirts were muddy except for one. And she said when the game ended, it felt like it had just started – clean as it should be. They never touched him. Even his white shoes were still white. He scored six touchdowns against my school.
The audience also included Widener’s legendary football coach, Bill Manlove, who lost count of how many times Johnson wowed him with extraordinary moves during practices and games. There was Chi’s former track coach Bob Shoudt, Don Clune, the Penn catcher who competed against Johnson on the track, Ed Dougherty the pro golfer, the former mayor of Marcus Hook, the chairman of the county council of Delco and Congressman Curt Weldon, Widener’s former teammate and the New Jersey Supreme Court. Judge FJ Fernandez-Vina, football historian Ray Didinger and Harry Chaykun, who chronicled Johnson’s achievements to The Daily Times with the late Ed Gebhart.
Johnson applauded Gebhart for giving him the nickname “White Shoes” which became a personal brand, event organizer James “Boog” Laird of the Hook for championing his Hall of Fame cause and power of the statue sculpted by Jennifer Frudakis-Petry, who has an eye for detail.
Before Johnson came out, he glanced at Cottrell.
“It wasn’t six touchdowns, Ted, it was seven,” Johnson said in a chorus of laughter. “I always knew you had academic challenges.”
Cottrell nearly fell out of his chair, which is by the way. It’s just impossible to stay in one’s place when Billly “White Shoes” Johnson is playing.
