David "Kosse" Johnson (July 13, 1932 – September 3, 1996) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

, led the

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference included schools from Oklahoma an ...

in rushing and scoring in 1953, and was selected as a first-team back on the 1953 All-America college football team.

Early year

Johnson was born in 1932 in

Kosse, Texas Kosse is a town in southern Limestone County, Texas, United States. The population was 464 at the 2010 census. Kosse calls itself "A Little Town with a Big Heart." Geography Kosse is located at (31.307452, –96.630267). It is situated ...

. He moved with his family to

Baytown, Texas Baytown is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, within Harris and Chambers counties. Located in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area, it lies on the northern side of the Galveston Bay complex near the outlets of t ...

, in 1942. He played football at Baytown Junior High School and Robert E. Lee High School in Baytown.

Rice University

He played

at the

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

position for the

Rice Owls football The Rice Owls football program represents Rice University in the sport of American football. The team competes at the NCAA Division I FBS level and compete in the American Athletic Conference. Rice Stadium, built in 1950, hosts the Owls' home f ...

team from 1950 to 1953. He became Rice's second-leading career rusher with 1,907 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns. In the fall of 1953, he led the

in both rushing yards (944) and scoring (62 points) during the regular season. He was also rated as a great punter and played at the

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

position on defense. He was selected by the

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, the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

, and ''Look'' magazine as a first-team player on their respective

1953 College Football All-America Team The 1953 College Football All-America team is composed of college football players who were selected as All-Americans by various organizations and writers that chose College Football All-America Teams in 1953. The eight selectors recognized by the ...

Family and later years

Johnson married Barbara Sue Bradbury in February 1953 while still a student at Rice. He later worked as a high school football coach in Texas. He was inducted into the Rice Athletic Hall of Fame in 1972. Johnson died in 1996 at age 64 in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

due to complication from cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Kosse 1932 births 1996 deaths People from Kosse, Texas Players of American football from Texas American football fullbacks Rice Owls football players Coaches of American football from Texas High school football coaches in Texas