Hall of Fame
Estel “Jelly” Johnson was a great prep player at Dacoma who came to Northwestern in 1930 and helped establish the Rangers as one of the premier teams in Oklahoma during the early part of the decade.
Nicknamed “Jelly”, Johnson was a four-year letterman at forward and guard and served as team captain for two seasons. Johnson led Northwestern to it’s first-ever Oklahoma Collegiate Conference title and helped the Rangers earn a trip to the National AAU Tournament. He averaged 8.8 points per game that season, when at that time, most teams only scored about 30 points per game.
Johnson declined an offer to play professional basketball and instead went into coaching. His first stop was at Billings High School, where he coached from 1935-41. He lead the girls team to the state tournament in 1941 and coached boys all-American Hugh Ford and future governor Henry Bellmon.
He moved to Dacoma in 1942 and built a powerhouse boys program, leading DHS to state tournament appearances in 1953, 1944 and 1950 and coaching such players as current Hall of Famer Wayne Glasgow. Johnson also served as superintendent and left the school system in 1950 to go into private business.
Johnson later became one of the leading advocates for starting women’s basketball at Northwestern. Many of his former players helped establish a men’s basketball scholarship in his honor.
