Russell "Buzz" LaVonne Johnson (November 9, 1921 – February 14, 2006) was an American ice hockey Center who played for

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Career

When North Dakota was preparing to bring back its ice hockey program after

, brothers Buzz and Prince Johnson were playing amateur hockey for the Grand Forks Amerks and came to the attention of

Cal Marvin Calvin Coolidge "Cal" Marvin (April 29, 1924 – May 9, 2004) was an American ice hockey defenseman and coach who led the Warroad Lakers for nearly 50 years and was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1982. Career Marvin's fa ...

, who was leading the effort to rekindle the team. Both players began attending the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...

and made their debuts in the 1947–48 season. The team played well with Johnson on the team, posting their first double-digit win season. The team flagged the following year because Johnson had played well enough to be included on the US national team for the

1949 Ice Hockey World Championships The 16th Ice Hockey World Championships and 27th European Hockey Championships was held from February 12 to 20, 1949, in Stockholm, Sweden. The event was the first World Championships during the presidency of Canadian W. G. Hardy. The Internati ...

. While missing the entire season for North Dakota, Johnson was nearly a point-per-game player over eight games as the US won the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

. He did, however, have an even greater impact after the championship was over; Zdeněk Marek, a member of the

gold-medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

-winning Czech team, had decided to hide in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

rather than return to

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

because he was not a member of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

. During his time playing for the team he had confided his trepidation at returning home to Johnson and his brother. The two promised to assist Marek in earning a student visa so he could defect to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The plan came to fruition when North Dakota offered Marek a scholarship on July 12, 1949. Marek was eventually granted permanent resident status by an act of congress and lived in the United States until his death in 2019. For his senior season, Johnson helped North Dakota to a 15-6-2 record, finishing just behind Colorado College for the second western seed in the NCAA tournament. Johnson's 50-point campaign set a new program record that he shared with his brother and he became one of the first two players in North Dakota history to be named as an AHCA All-American. After the college season had finished, Johnson was again a member of Team USA at the

1950 Ice Hockey World Championships The 17th Ice Hockey World Championships and 28th European Championships were held from 13 to 22 March 1950 in London, England. Canada, represented by the Edmonton Mercurys, won its 13th World Championship. Highest ranking European team Switzerla ...

and finished second on the team in scoring to help the US to a

Silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

. He was unable to repeat his diplomatic coup as the entire Czech team had been prevented from leaving the country when the government discovered that several players were planning a similar tactic as Marek. Johnson was inducted into the North Dakota hall of fame in 1981.

Statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Buzz 1921 births 2006 deaths AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans American men's ice hockey centers Ice hockey people from North Dakota North Dakota Fighting Hawks men's ice hockey players People from Grand Forks, North Dakota