Photo illustration by azcentral sports.
Position, years at UA: Running back, 1981-84
Honors, accomplishments at UA: Earned first-team All-Pac-10 honors as a sophomore in 1982. … Led team in rushing in 1981 and 1982. … Scored 20 rushing touchdowns and 11 receiving touchdowns.
Why he made our list: Much like Chuck Levy a decade later, the sum total of Vance Johnson’s numbers don’t tell the full story of the kind of breathtaking big-play ability he provided the Wildcats.
As a senior, he caught touchdown passes of 51 and 50 yards. Earlier in his career, he had a 93-yard kick return for a touchdown and a 79-yard scoring run. He had a 99-yard run and a 93-yard kick return called back because of penalty.
Johnson, a Cholla High grad who would go on to NFL acclaim as a receiver, was mostly used out of position as a 170-pound running back for coach Larry Smith. A broken left hand in 1983 preventing Johnson from playing that season as a slot receiver.
He had one of the best true freshman seasons at UA for a skill position player; for a while in 1981, Johnson was the only freshman starter in the Pac-10. That season, he scored the go-ahead, fourth-quarter touchdown on an 11-yard sprint to the outside in an 18-14 victory at Oregon, and his 13-yard reception late in the third quarter was the final score in UA’s epic 13-10 upset at top-ranked USC.
When he finished his UA career, Johnson had 4,343 all-purpose yards, which then ranked third in school history and is now seventh.
Johnson, who always said he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds, also was the 1982 NCAA long-jump champion and finished second in that event — to Mike Conley — in 1984.
Life after college: Johnson was the third pick in the 1985 second round, going No. 31 overall to Denver, where he spent his entire NFL career, ending in 1995. He was part of the Broncos’ famous “Three Amigos” receiving corps (with Mark Jackson and Ricky Nattiel), finishing with 415 catches for 5,695 yards and 37 touchdowns. Johnson played in three Super Bowls.
Johnson’s life outside of football was troubled, including multiple incidents of spousal abuse. He appeared on a tearful episode of the “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1996 to talk about it, and reflected on his past with Oprah on her cable network in 2011 (see video below).
His 19-year-old son Vaughn was killed in 2007 when a SUV turned into the path of his motorcycle.
Johnson, who previously worked in real estate and the mortgage business, opened a barbecue restaurant, VJ’s Outlaw Ribbs, in Parachute, Colo., in 2007. He had a second restaurant, Vance’s Epicurious, in Grand Junction, Colo., for about three months in 2012 before a sudden closure.
In partnership with the Arizona Republic, we are counting down the top 50 football players in Arizona Wildcats history. Leave your top 10 at AG’s Wildcat Report on Facebook, and check out azcentral.com for the countdown of ASU’s Top 50 football players.
Arizona’s top 50
No. 50 — LaMonte Hunley
No. 49 — Hubie Oliver
No. 48 — Rob Gronkowski
No. 47 — Jim Donarski
No. 46 — Ontiwaun Carter
No. 45 — Steve McLaughlin
No. 44 — John Fina
No. 43 — Glenn Parker
No. 42 — Bobby Lee Thompson
No. 41 — Marcus Bell
No. 40 — Fred W. Enke
No. 39 — Ka’Deem Carey
No. 38 — Juron Criner
No. 37 — Dana Wells
No. 36 — Tom Tunnicliffe
No. 35 — Bruce Hill
No. 34 — Chuck Osborne
No. 33 — Brandon Sanders
No. 32 — Sean Harris
No. 31 — Mike Thomas
No. 30 — Bobby Wade
No. 29 — T Bell
No. 28 — Joe Salave’a
No. 27 — Eddie Wilson
No. 26 — Chuck Levy
No. 25 — Allan Durden
No. 24 — Nick Foles
No. 23 — Tony Bouie
No. 22 — ‘King Kong’ Nolan
No. 21 — Bill Lueck
No. 20 — Walter “Hoss” Nielsen
No. 19 — Trung Canidate
No. 18 — Mark Arneson
No. 17 — Chris Singleton
No. 16 — Mike Dawson
No. 15 — Max Zendejas
No. 14 — Dennis Northcutt
No. 13 — Jackie Wallace
No. 12 — Antoine Cason