Jimmy Johnson receives 2020 Hall of Fame invitation on live TV

The coach who orchestrated the Dallas Cowboys’ dynasty of the 1990s will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he learned Sunday.

The Dallas Cowboys had, for a time being, one of the NFL’s most immaculate list of coaches, overshadowing even the Pittsburgh Steelers. Following directly on the heels of the legendary and iconic Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson arrived in Texas with the most flash and even more substance. He stamped his own legacy in Dallas in immediate fashion, turning the Cowboys from laughing stocks to champions in a few short years and was the first coach to win both a collegiate national championship and a Super Bowl.

Johnson’s Cowboys won back-to-back NFL titles, and his imprint on the organization led to a third ring in four years under a different coach. For a while, his shorter-than-normal tenure seemed to keep him from being officially recognized as one of the game’s best, but no more. On Sunday, during halftime of the NFC divisional round playoff game, Johnson learned that he was finally joining the Pro Football Hall of Fame as its 328th member.

The moment, which played out with Hall of Fame president David Baker personally delivering the news to Johnson on live TV, was riveting to watch.

Few could have imagined that they were looking at a future Hall of Famer when Johnson first arrived in Dallas. Despite having a collegiate national championship under his belt, Johnson inherited a league-worst 3-13 Cowboys squad… and promptly got even worse in his first season on the sideline. The 1-15 season of 1989 remains a low-water mark for the franchise that was most notable for the seemingly-inexplicable midseason trade that sent running back Herschel Walker packing for Minnesota in exchange for a collection of no-name players and future draft picks.

But Johnson was building a dynasty, one that was anchored by quarterback Troy Aikman, whom Johnson selected with the first pick in the 1989 Draft less than two months after being named coach. Aikman, of course, went on to his own stellar 12-year career that earned him a gold jacket and a Hall of Fame bust in 2008.

Aikman, one of the three players most responsible for the team’s meteoric rise under Johnson- was in the broadcast booth at Lambeau Field watching on a monitor as his former coach got his long-overdue invitation in the New York studios.

Of course, Johnson’s job involved a lot more than gameplanning wins and fussing over Xs and Os. The Cowboys of the early 1990s were a legendarily wild and colorful bunch. Johnson’s locker rooms were loaded with undeniable talent but also overflowing with combustible personalities including the likes of Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Nate Newton, Ken Norton Jr., Daryl Johnston, Mark Stepnoski, Erik Williams, Leon Lett, Bill Bates, Jack Del Rio, Russell Maryland, Charles Haley, and Darren Woodson.

Motivating such a diverse band of men and channeling their energies in one direction is perhaps as impressive a feat as taking the Cowboys from the bottom of the heap in 1989 (1-15, worst record in the league) to the top of the mountain in 1992 (13-3, Super Bowl champs).

Several of Johnson’s former players- including the other two-thirds of the famed Triplets- took to social media to congratulate their former coach after Sunday’s news.

Dallas repeated as Super Bowl victors in 1993, putting Johnson in rarified air among NFL coaches. He joins Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Mike Shanahan, and Bill Belichick as the only coaches to win back to-back Super Bowls.

After his second Lombardi Trophy, Johnson and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones famously parted ways in a rather ugly divorce. Johnson went on to coach Miami for four more seasons before retiring with a career coaching record of 80-64 (9-4 postseason) and then segueing into broadcasting.

Johnson, 76, will be enshrined in Canton along with the rest of the Class of 2020 in August.