COLUMN: Generals, Johnson finally reach elusive moment with state title

GALLERY: Scenes from Saturday’s Class 7A boys Championship game between Robert E. Lee and Mountain Brook at the BJCC Arena. The Generals won their first-ever state title in basketball, 40-38. (Photos by Tim Gayle)

By GRAHAM DUNN

BIRMINGHAM – Moments after Robert E. Lee had secured the 2020 Class 7A state championship, coach Bryant Johnson took to the microphone to talk about Saturday’s hard-fought 40-38 victory over Mountain Brook.

He was honest. He was modest. But mostly, he was satisfied.

Lee had finally reached the pinnacle in a sport that had been somewhat of a bane to the program since the beginning.

On a night when the backdrop of the Legacy Arena was seemingly a florescent yellow thanks to Brookie T-shirts, the “Hi-Liter” would be a sea of red in the end.

Lee basketball finally found its place among the championship teams the school has produced in its glorious history of athletics.

It also expunged so many adverse moments that have haunted the school for two decades.

In the middle of discussing the monumental effort by his team, Johnson paused to thank the legacy of Lee alumni with a shout-out to the entire Lee nation going back to the day the doors opened at the school in 1955.

“This is a heartfelt moment for me,” he said. “Knowing what this means to the former students and alumni, the staff… it’s a great day.”

The author of this new chapter had a simple beginning. Hired by then-football coach and AD Gene Allen 16 years ago, Johnson was initially brought in to coach quarterbacks but also to take over the boys basketball program, almost as an afterthought.

Bryant would battle through all of the controversy that tainted the proud school over those years (shootings, academic fraud, scandalous behavior) and the pain of losing former players to untimely death.

He watched as his rivals – Floyd Mathews at Sidney Lanier, Terry Posey at Jeff Davis and James “J.J.” Jackson at G.W. Carver - all hoist the championship trophy, hoping he would get that chance.

It was those guys who encouraged him, reminding him it was bound to happen soon.

“J.J. told me I was the ‘Last of the Mohicans,’” Johnson said with a smile. “He said it’s my turn and he told me before the season, ‘you’re next, Coach.’ All of them said they were rooting for me and to keep going. They were real positive role models for me.”

Through it all, he was blessed with an influx of talent from what he believed was due in part to the closing of St. Jude back in 2014. Each year, Johnson’s teams were good, sometimes great, but were never quite great enough.

Standing in the middle of a postgame celebration that spread across east Montgomery was a group of basketball players that more than likely had little idea of the passage it took to earn the school a title in a sport that has been – at times – an enigma. The immediate history was hard enough.

Proud alumni have been ready to celebrate a title on numerous occasions only to be disappointed. Pick a year – 1975, 1992, 1997 or 2015. One or two of those might have been considered the greatest to never win a title.

“We were all aware of coming up short in the past,” Lee senior Jamari Smith said. “We were determined we would not let that happen again.”

A few days prior to the win, former Lee star Henry Ruggs, III wowed the pro football world with exploits in the NFL Combine that probably cemented his draft status as a first-rounder.

On Saturday, he was back with his former coach, celebrating and remembering his greatest supporter, Rod Scott, whose life was taken in a car accident on a trip to Birmingham to watch the state tournament.

It’s a lot of history to take in.

To say it all came full circle would be somewhat insolent to those who have lived through so much more.

But for one night, a community of fans and alumni could enjoy a moment that had been elusive for so long and at times so painful.