Voted AHS yearbook Best Male Athlete
Murray Johnson lettered in 4 different sports — football, basketball, baseball and track. Bernie Bailey, a former classmate and teammate, remembers Murray in Little League. He didn’t just hit home runs at the little league park on Highland Street. He hit them sometimes over the pine trees. Bernie knew then that Murray was going to be something special. Murray was very active in school and was the student body president. He was also voted best athlete in his class.
We all want to know if it is true that you drank a huge number of milkshakes/frappes during your high school career to gain weight?
To many, Murray was the best or one of the best football players to come out of Amesbury during the 60’s. He went on to the University of Syracuse on a full football scholarship.
In football he played 4 years, lettered 3 years, and was Captain his senior year. He was one of the few athletes that was brought up to the varsity level for the Thanksgiving Day game as a freshman. He was the leading scorer both his junior and senior years. When Dave Bailey, a former head football coach and AD was an 8th grader, he remembers watching Murray when he was a senior. He seemed so large, and we all wanted to be like him. The Thanksgiving Day game was outstanding his senior year. It was a rainy day and Newburyport had a back, Billy Johnson, that was fast and had great moves. But our back Murray Johnson was bigger, tougher, and stronger. Murray ran for a 68-yard touchdown in the 4th quarter and Amesbury won 6-0.
His junior year he was the team’s second highest scorer and received the WNBP Henry Graf most deserving player award.
In his senior year he was being recruited by a number of colleges and a recipient of almost every area award. He was the team’s and the NEC leading scorer with 13 touchdowns and 17 PATs for 95 points. He was the team MVP (Tassinari Memory award), Northeast Conference All-Star. Murray was selected to the first team Boston Herald All-Scholastic team. Spofford Brown 1942, Charlie Paroulias 1944 and Tino Bertolini 1952 were All-Scholastic but selected to the 2nd or 3rd teams. Murray was the first player in AHS football history to be selected to the first team.
Murray was an outstanding basketball player. He scored 104 points his sophomore year, 129 points his junior year, and 253 points his senior year He was elected Captain his senior year and was the team’s MVP.
In baseball Murray was brought up his freshmen year to start as shortstop. He lettered freshman, sophomore, and junior years. He changed to track his senior year for a number of reasons. But the main reason was that the coaches at Syracuse wanted him to bulk up and get in better condition. Therefore, he went out for track to throw the shot put and also ran the 220 and 440. According to his teammates he was very good in the dashes and qualified in the shot put for the states.
It’s too bad that Murray didn’t come back to teach and coach at Amesbury High School like a number of other former athletes. Murray went on to an outstanding career after graduating from Syracuse University. He coached at Idaho State with Roger Calderwood who was another former AHS standout football player. Then he was a high school AD and physical education department chairman. He was also a head football, baseball, and track coach. He was also assistant basketball, golf, and gymnastics coach. He would have been a great addition to the AHS community.
Murray, like many former athletes from AHS, remembers his former coaches and teammates. It’s what made playing sports at AHS so enjoyable and there were so many great memories. How could you not remember coaches like Bikes Wallace, Bert Fecteau, Tino Bertolini, and Ken Hood too name a few. Teachers and coaches had such a great influence on the decisions we made in our lives.
Congratulations to inductee Murray Johnson, Class of 1963.
