As news of Howard Johnson’s death shook the North Bend community over the weekend, memories of the coaching icon soothed the pain of the tragic accident that took his life Friday night.

Johnson, who coached North Bend’s football team for most of the 1970s and 80s and later was the school’s athletic director before retiring from education, was killed as he and current athletic director Boyd Bjorkquist traveled to North Bend’s Far West League football opener at Sutherlin. Bjorkquist was treated and released from a Roseburg hospital after the 5:45 p.m. accident.

Johnson made an impression on current North Bend track coach Steve Greif and his wife, Joan, from the first time they met him.

The two were just entering their senior year when Johnson arrived in August of 1971 — Steve was the football team’s quarterback and Joan one of the cheerleaders — and Johnson called all the players, cheerleaders, parents and any other interested residents to a community meeting at the high school cafeteria.

“He jumped up on a table, and the first thing he yelled out was, ‘Enthusiasm,’” Steve Greif said. “It was unlike anything we had ever seen.”

Johnson went on to explain that the team was going to have a lot of fun and a lot of school spirit.

“That’s the way I remember him coaching,” Greif said. “He coached with his heart on his sleeve. He was a very excited coach.”

Johnson kept that enthusiasm for North Bend athletics well after his retirement, taking an active role in the school’s booster club, serving on its stadium committee and attending sports events for all the school’s athletes.

“Howard’s hobby after high school was North Bend athletics,” said current baseball coach Brad Horning. “Everybody calls him North Bend’s No. 1 fan.”

Horning never played varsity football for the Bulldogs. He was the quarterback on the junior varsity team his junior year when he suffered his third concussion, effectively ending his football career.

But he has great memories of Johnson.

“Before every game we prayed, and the one thing Howard prayed was that both teams would play hard and both teams come out healthy,” he said.

“When you’re a coach, he’s one of the guys you want to be like. He was a classy guy.”

Jamie McCarty, who graduated with Horning, was a ball boy for Johnson’s teams starting when he was 7 years old — McCarty’s father, Bruce, and Johnson were close friends.

“He was kind of a mentor for me,” McCarty said. “I remember him being out there in his Bulldog sweats and his Bulldog sweatshirt and clipboard and running a heck of a football program.

“He was North Bend football to me.”

McCarty played wide receiver and safety for Johnson and remained close after graduation.

“I remember Howard always had a smile on his face,” McCarty said. “Every time you entered a room he was in, he always made sure to say, ‘Hi,’ and make sure you felt welcome.”

Tom Younker coached alongside Johnson for two decades, and said he was always dedicated to his fellow coaches and his players.

“He cared a lot about kids,” Younker said, adding that Johnson was always looking to find the best positions for his players.

“He worked well with kids. That was his magic.”

North Bend High School Principal Bill Lucero played for Johnson as a quarterback and led the Bulldogs to an 8-1 record in the regular season and playoff wins over Milwaukie and Aloha before a loss to Medford in the state quarterfinals his senior season in 1980. That was one of three trips to the quarterfinals among seven playoff berths for North Bend in Johnson’s tenure, which ran from 1971 to 1992.

Lucero remembers talking with Johnson a couple of weeks ago about how fun football was back then.

That joy was about more than just success, though.

“He was about more than football,” Lucero said. “He was about doing the right thing.”

Greif said that spread to Johnson’s role as athletic director, when he treated all the school’s sports fairly.

“One of his best qualities was he was honest,” Greif said. “You had a sense of morality about him. He always wanted to do things the right way.”

Johnson also was loyal and continued his passion for the school through his many volunteer activities, especially work on stadium improvements.

“He was right smack in the middle of all of it,” Lucero said, adding that Johnson helped with planning and more than pulled his weight in the actual labor.

Though he retired more than a decade ago, Johnson remained popular with students today, in part because of how much interest he kept in the teams, watching both home and away games.

“I think it means a lot to them that it means enough to him to go watch,” Lucero said.

News of Friday’s accident hit the football players hard when they learned about it after the game. The reaction was the same Saturday morning when the school’s cross country team traveled to Philomath for a meet, said Greif, an assistant coach for that sport.

“Howard was a pretty active guy in his Mormon church,” Greif said. “There were quite a few kids who knew him through that. They were devastated.”

Greif said one runner considered Johnson almost like a grandfather because of his role in the church.

Younker said Johnson’s spirituality was one of his many great qualities.

“He was a very religious man,” Younker said. “His church was a real important part of his life. He lived that.”

Johnson also was passionate about horses, and was an active member in the Coos County Mounted Sheriff’s Posse, taking part in the Coos County Fair each summer, as well as various parades.

In the days before the accident, he was helping repair a fence at a horse arena in Hauser, living like he was far younger than his 72 years.

“He never aged to me,” Greif said. “He always remained the same.”

Johnson likely will be most remembered for his passion for North Bend High School.

He always emphasized pride in the North Bend program, from painting the grandstands when he first arrived to ensuring the uniforms were sharp and the field was in top shape, Younker said.

Lucero credits Johnson with the phrase “Bulldog pride inside,” and said his impact in the community likely will be seen in his memorial service, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at the high school’s gymnasium.

“I think there will be 1,000 people there,” he said. “It will be the biggest turnout to any event like that in the history of North Bend High School.”