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11-08-2006, 09:41 AM
Grandfather gives Wylie linebacker the gift of life
By Nathan Sanders / sandersn@reporternews.com
November 8, 2006
Greg Johnson's recollections of July 10, 1993, are hauntingly vivid.
He remembers the five-pound catfish he caught.
He remembers climbing into a Chevrolet Blazer for the short ride back to the family farm south of Austin.
He remembers the Blazer drifting off the road, his cousin overcompensating and losing control, the smashed speed limit sign brushing past his head as he flew through the windshield at 50 mph.
Most importantly, he remembers G.V. Reedy.
Reedy is Johnson's grandfather, the man who taught Greg about baseball and the outdoors. On that July day, Reedy gave Greg a lasting lesson about sacrifice.
When the Blazer swerved, Reedy wrapped his arms tightly around his 4-year-old grandson and held on as both were jettisoned from the flipping vehicle. He didn't let go until they landed, sending Greg sliding down the asphalt on his back.
''As soon as I hit the pavement, it knocked me out,'' Johnson said. ''I woke up a few minutes later and saw my cousin trying to wake my grandpa up.''
Reedy and Johnson were taken to a hospital in La Grange, then transported via helicopter to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin. When Karen Johnson first saw her young son, he looked like a mummy.
''All you could see was the whites of his eyes,'' she said. ''He was bandaged from head to toe.''
Greg spent 10 days at Brackenridge, rolling from room to room in a little red wagon because a wheelchair would agitate his wounds.
Reedy never woke up. He had broken his neck. After a week on life support, he was pronounced dead at age 58.
Greg's cousin walked away from the accident with only a scratch on her leg. He hasn't spoken to her since.
http://mas.scripps.com/ABIL/2006/11/07/1108Johnson_e.jpg
Wylie fullback Greg Johnson (34) fights his way
through Big Spring defenders toward the
endzone in the first quarter of the
Bulldogs’ 52-14 win Sept. 22
at Wylie’s Bulldog Stadium.
Today, Johnson is a hard-hitting senior linebacker/running back for the District 7-3A champion Wylie football team. The scrapes on the back of his head and the 18-inch scar on his back are the only visible reminders of that day.
But he doesn't need reminders. The memory of Reedy is always with him.
''I'll definitely never forget that,'' he said. ''I just can't believe he loved me enough to take his own life to protect me.''
The cruelty of fate wasn't finished with Greg, however. In the final two-a-day practice of last August, he tore the ACL in his right knee in a tackling drill and missed the entire 2005 football season. The ''Why me?'' question was inevitable.
''Yeah, I asked myself that, but I knew it was all God's work, and I just had to work hard to get back to where I was,'' he said. ''I'm still working to get there.''
Johnson worked hard enough to make it back in time for baseball season in the spring. Every doctor he visited had told him he would never play catcher again. He took pleasure in proving them wrong x96 much like he did when doctors said he would never regain full use of his right side after the accident.
Now in his long-awaited first season as a varsity football player, Johnson is making an impact. He is fourth on the team with 49 tackles (28 unassisted), and he rushed for a touchdown against Sweetwater.
''He's basically playing with a sophomore's experience, so when the season started I think he was a little more hesitant,'' Wylie coach Hugh Sandifer said. ''But as the season has gone on, his confidence level has gone up. He's playing with a lot more intensity and a lot more confidence.''
Johnson loves contact in football and baseball, but he admits he isn't fearless. He doesn't like speed, and he doesn't do roller coasters. Given his past, it's understandable.
''Going fast and not being able to be in control of it just gets me,'' he said. ''I'm terrified of that.''
Karen Johnson lost her father in that June 1993 accident, but she is thankful for his final gift to her: the survival of her son.
''I will always think that there is something great out there for Greg that we don't know about, that there was a reason he lived through the wreck,'' she said.
Greg just wants to make his grandfather proud.
''It just makes me want to make something of my life,'' Greg said. ''It feels like I'm here for something.
By Nathan Sanders / sandersn@reporternews.com
November 8, 2006
Greg Johnson's recollections of July 10, 1993, are hauntingly vivid.
He remembers the five-pound catfish he caught.
He remembers climbing into a Chevrolet Blazer for the short ride back to the family farm south of Austin.
He remembers the Blazer drifting off the road, his cousin overcompensating and losing control, the smashed speed limit sign brushing past his head as he flew through the windshield at 50 mph.
Most importantly, he remembers G.V. Reedy.
Reedy is Johnson's grandfather, the man who taught Greg about baseball and the outdoors. On that July day, Reedy gave Greg a lasting lesson about sacrifice.
When the Blazer swerved, Reedy wrapped his arms tightly around his 4-year-old grandson and held on as both were jettisoned from the flipping vehicle. He didn't let go until they landed, sending Greg sliding down the asphalt on his back.
''As soon as I hit the pavement, it knocked me out,'' Johnson said. ''I woke up a few minutes later and saw my cousin trying to wake my grandpa up.''
Reedy and Johnson were taken to a hospital in La Grange, then transported via helicopter to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin. When Karen Johnson first saw her young son, he looked like a mummy.
''All you could see was the whites of his eyes,'' she said. ''He was bandaged from head to toe.''
Greg spent 10 days at Brackenridge, rolling from room to room in a little red wagon because a wheelchair would agitate his wounds.
Reedy never woke up. He had broken his neck. After a week on life support, he was pronounced dead at age 58.
Greg's cousin walked away from the accident with only a scratch on her leg. He hasn't spoken to her since.
http://mas.scripps.com/ABIL/2006/11/07/1108Johnson_e.jpg
Wylie fullback Greg Johnson (34) fights his way
through Big Spring defenders toward the
endzone in the first quarter of the
Bulldogs’ 52-14 win Sept. 22
at Wylie’s Bulldog Stadium.
Today, Johnson is a hard-hitting senior linebacker/running back for the District 7-3A champion Wylie football team. The scrapes on the back of his head and the 18-inch scar on his back are the only visible reminders of that day.
But he doesn't need reminders. The memory of Reedy is always with him.
''I'll definitely never forget that,'' he said. ''I just can't believe he loved me enough to take his own life to protect me.''
The cruelty of fate wasn't finished with Greg, however. In the final two-a-day practice of last August, he tore the ACL in his right knee in a tackling drill and missed the entire 2005 football season. The ''Why me?'' question was inevitable.
''Yeah, I asked myself that, but I knew it was all God's work, and I just had to work hard to get back to where I was,'' he said. ''I'm still working to get there.''
Johnson worked hard enough to make it back in time for baseball season in the spring. Every doctor he visited had told him he would never play catcher again. He took pleasure in proving them wrong x96 much like he did when doctors said he would never regain full use of his right side after the accident.
Now in his long-awaited first season as a varsity football player, Johnson is making an impact. He is fourth on the team with 49 tackles (28 unassisted), and he rushed for a touchdown against Sweetwater.
''He's basically playing with a sophomore's experience, so when the season started I think he was a little more hesitant,'' Wylie coach Hugh Sandifer said. ''But as the season has gone on, his confidence level has gone up. He's playing with a lot more intensity and a lot more confidence.''
Johnson loves contact in football and baseball, but he admits he isn't fearless. He doesn't like speed, and he doesn't do roller coasters. Given his past, it's understandable.
''Going fast and not being able to be in control of it just gets me,'' he said. ''I'm terrified of that.''
Karen Johnson lost her father in that June 1993 accident, but she is thankful for his final gift to her: the survival of her son.
''I will always think that there is something great out there for Greg that we don't know about, that there was a reason he lived through the wreck,'' she said.
Greg just wants to make his grandfather proud.
''It just makes me want to make something of my life,'' Greg said. ''It feels like I'm here for something.