{"id":2228,"date":"2013-12-20T19:06:57","date_gmt":"2013-12-20T19:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2013-12-20T19:06:57","modified_gmt":"2013-12-20T19:06:57","slug":"los-fresnos-remembers-its-no-1-fan-of-almost-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=2228","title":{"rendered":"Los Fresnos Remembers Its No. 1 Fan of Almost 30 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Edson and Sidney Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

Since 1984, Edson Johnson has been a supporter of girls\u2019 athletics at Los Fresnos High School, in an era when they did not get much support.<\/p>\n

Girls\u2019 basketball and volleyball had few followers when their programs started in the 1970s. But one person would go to all of their home games as often as he could — Edson Johnson, many times with his wife Sidney.<\/p>\n

Mr. Johnson passed away Tuesday, December 10, 2013, \u00a0at the age of 94.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been our No. 1 fan for many years,\u201d Los Fresnos girls\u2019 volleyball coach Becky Woods said. \u201cHis health has not allowed him to come as often in the last few years, but we always knew he would support us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edson and Sidney, now 87, lived in Los Fresnos area for more than three decades. Sidney was a Reading and ESL teacher at Los Fresnos High School in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe principal appointed me to be the faculty representative of the girls\u2019 booster club,\u201d Sidney remembered. \u201cI told him that I needed some help, so Edson tagged along. Before you knew it, he enjoyed the games so much that he wanted to come to all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sidney retired in 1991, but that did not stop Mr. Johnson from supporting the Lady Falcons.<\/p>\n

\u201cHardly anyone would come to the games in the 1980s, so he wanted to show the girls that someone would always be there to support them,\u201d said Paul Johnson, his son. He just loved to watch volleyball and basketball. Later when softball started, he would watch the softball teams too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson was not only a fixture at the games, he and Sidney would make treats for the girls at practices as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would bring cookies, cupcakes and sliced apples for the girls just because,\u201d Woods remembered. \u201cThere have been hundreds of girls who have played here who knew him and Mrs. Johnson very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson came to the Lady Falcons\u2019 volleyball bi-district game against San Benito in November. Paul brought him to the game in a wheelchair so that he could watch his favorite team play.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would like to watch the Los Fresnos girls play when they were in Brownsville too,\u201d Sidney said. \u201cHe would be trying to talk Paul into driving him to every game if he could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson was the Registrar at Texas Southmost College in the 1980s, and supported volleyball at TSC and later UTB\/TSC as well. Even after his retirement, he would go watch the Scorpions play their home games.<\/p>\n

Johnson would also give the girls\u2019 advice on playing their sports. Well past retirement, he continued to push students about the importance of attending college.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere he would go and see young people, prior to passing away, he would be telling them what they needed to go to college, Paul said. \u201cHe was always pushing education.\u201d<\/p>\n

A memorial service was planned for Johnson at 11 a.m. last Saturday at Central Christian Church in Brownsville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 1984, Edson Johnson has been a supporter of girls\u2019 athletics at Los Fresnos High School, in an era when they did not get much support. Girls\u2019 basketball and volleyball had few followers when their programs started in the 1970s. But one person would go to all of their home games as often as he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2230,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228\/revisions\/2230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}