Update: A memorial service will be held for coach CJ Johnson Friday. Details at the bottom of the story
The Charlotte basketball community has lost a beloved coach.
Longtime Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and AAU basketball coach Clarence “C.J.” Johnson suffered a stroke in his home Tuesday morning and never regained consciousness. Johnson was 68.
Sunday morning, more than 500 of his former players, friends, fraternity brothers and colleagues filled the sixth floor of the uptown Presbyterian Hospital as well as the lobby and outside grounds to celebrate him.
His family organized an “honor walk” before taking Johnson off life support Sunday afternoon. Hospital employees rolled Johnson down the sixth floor to the elevator while his friends, family and former players lined the hall, showing their respects.
The family announced his passing Sunday.
Everyone said it was a fitting tribute.
“C.J. was the type of guy who (donated) his organs so that three people can continue to live,” said longtime friend and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brother Paul Stoney. “That’s what today’s walk was about. C.J. is the kind who gave of himself and the kind who never met a stranger. He embraced all kids. He’ll truly be missed.”
Stoney, 67, and Johnson are both from Queens, N.Y. They went to high school together and both attended college at Johnson C. Smith University, near uptown Charlotte. Johnson came here to play football in 1976. Stoney came the year after.
While in college, Stoney said the two friends started planning what became the Belmont Summer League, which became a staple for basketball players in the area in the late 1970s and early ‘80s when Stoney and Johnson were working at Charlotte-area Boys Clubs.
“We patterned it after the Rucker League in New York,” Stoney said. “We had both played high school basketball in New York and when we came down here, we saw a need. How do we get these children, many of whom were without fathers, to come to the Boys Club to be impacted by what it had to offer. One of those things was organized basketball, and we shared that with the community.”
Johnson had a series of jobs working with troubled and endangered youth, including being the executive director of the St. Francis Job Program, which taught life and work skills, and as executive director of Jacob’s Ladder Job Center, a free program that helped people get out of poverty and become independent.
And while he did all that, Johnson always coached.
He helped develop the local AAU scene in Charlotte. In 1992, Johnson coached the Charlotte Sonics’ 17-and-under team to the national championship game in Winston-Salem. That team featured three top 20 national recruits: Jeff McInnis (North Carolina), Jerry Stackhouse (North Carolina) and Jeff Capel (Duke).
Johnson was also an assistant at Boston University and Johnson C. Smith. He was head coach at Central Piedmont Community College.
In 2009, he was named head girls’ coach at Mallard Creek. While there, Johnson built a state power. He coached the Mavericks until 2022. Johnson retired with a record of 248-66 and was named the Charlotte’s Observer Mecklenburg County coach of the year three times, second-most in history.
His teams won seven regular-season and eight conference tournament championships at Mallard Creek.
“He touched so many kids, girls’ and boys basketball players,” said McInnis, a former NBA player who is now an assistant at College of Charleston. “He was one of the first AAU coaches who was hard on us. His New York accent and mentality just vibed with us. We just took a liking to C.J. because he was real. He coached us hard but he always showed he loved us. I can’t say enough about C.J. I’m just broke, bro. This has got me messed up.”
Charlotte city councilman Malcolm Graham said he’s known Johnson since Graham was 19 years old.
“Not only was he my frat brother,” Graham said, “but he became a big brother to me and literally helped me raise my daughter for four years when she was at Mallard Creek. He’s family. He’s meant so much to the community and helped put so many kids through college. These girls have master’s degrees and jobs and benefits and bright futures, and all that is due to the seeds C.J. planted through basketball. He’s a community asset, man, and he’s going to be missed.”
▪ Johnson is survived by a son, Kendall, and a daughter, Tomika, along with a brother, Patrick McDonnough, as well as a host of family and friends, including his goddaughter Amber, the daughter of Paul Stoney and his wife, Allison.
Stoney said the memorial service for Johnson will be Friday, April 12, at 10 a.m. at St. Paul’s Baptist Church, 1401 Allen St. in Charlotte.
PHOTOS: Honor Walk for Clarence Johnson
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