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THIS ISSUE:
90th
Anniversary
Swedish Institute on-line newsletter for our students, faculty and community.
John N. Johnson, P.T.(NJ), L.M.T.
Class of 1937
In the early 1930’s, when John N. Johnson graduated from high school in southern New Jersey, he thought
about becoming a doctor. But the depression had a grip on the country, and there was no way he could afford
medical school. Then he heard about the Swedish Institute and saw it as his opportunity to be in the health
care field helping people, which was what he wanted. With financial help from a supervisor at his
part-time job, Mr. Johnson paid the $500 for a year's tuition and went to live with his aunt in Brooklyn.
He made the daily trip into Manhattan by subway, which cost five cents.
John Johnson is still working happily in the field he chose nearly 70 years ago. He is part of the athletic
training team for the New York Giants, a program he helped start over 50 years ago. He has only recently
retired as Manhattan College's head athletic trainer, a position he held simultaneously for 56 years. And
though he has L.M.T. after his name instead of M.D., the athletes he cares for affectionately call
him "Doc." The skills he learned as a student at the Swedish Institute gave Mr. Johnson his start.
When he started the program in 1936, the focus was physiotherapy, which included massage techniques,
rehabilitative exercises, external applications like short wave diathermy and heat lamps, and colonics.
School hours were 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with classes in the morning and supervised internships at local
hospitals in the afternoon.
Mr. Johnson discovered his calling at an internship at the Jewish Hospital, where he was assigned to the
physical therapy department. (It wasn't until years later that physiotherapy split into two distinct
professions of physical therapy and massage therapy.) "I always approached massage as a focused, medical
intervention," he said, "and really had a chance to practice that way at the hospital clinic. At that time,
many of the patients we treated were at the tail end of a polio epidemic. A clinic appointment cost 25
cents."
His first job out of school was in a YMCA as director of physical services. During World War II he
served in the physical therapy department of the Air Force. After the war he was working in the Navy as
a civilian athletic trainer when he learned that Manhattan College was looking for a head athletic
trainer.
Athletic Trainer's Focus
"When I first started out as a trainer, I was one of the few who'd had formal training of any kind. Most
of the time it was learned on the job," Mr. Johnson said. As an athletic trainer, his work included muscle
stimulation, infra-red lamps, massage, taping and first aid. "As head trainer it was my job to get the
athletes ready, physically, to perform," he said. Like today's L.M.T., it was not in his scope of practice
to diagnose problems, so he always worked under the direction of a team doctor. When injuries did occur,
he administered rehabilitative exercises prescribed by the team physician.
"Even if an injury wasn't serious, I never told any of the athletes with an ache or a pain that 'it's
nothing.' I always put my hands on them, because that always made them feel better. I wanted to let them
know that someone was there to listen and to care."
While he was working with Manhattan College athletes (referred to as the "Jaspers" after their first
trainer, Brother Jasper), Mr. Johnson also began to work for the New York Giants. He started as their
head trainer in 1948. "I would work with the Giants in the morning," he said, "and then go to the college
in the afternoon. It was a long day, but I loved it." Mr. Johnson maintains his licenses as a massage
therapist (NY) and a physical therapist (NJ).
Reaping Accolades
Mr. Johnson's philosophy for longevity is simple: "Watch your diet, exercise and try to be a little happy
in life. I think it's important to laugh at things as often as you can, and love what you do."
His love for his work has not gone unnoticed. He has been honored by the Giants with dinners, plaques,
signed footballs and portraits. Manhattan College awarded him the distinction of a Diploma of Benefactor
from the Brothers of Christian Schools, an honor that has to be approved by the hierarchy of the Catholic
Church in Rome. In addition, Mr. Johnson received achievement awards from the Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference (1997), the American College of Sports Medicine (1998) and National Invitational
Tournament/Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (2000). When he retired from Manhattan College,
his colleague and former student Dr. Lisa Toscano said to the hundreds of well wishers, "Tonight is not
an ordinary night, but 'Doc' is not an ordinary man. The guests in the room span six decades of athletes,
but the common denominator is that he has taken care of all of them."
Photos
Top: Jewish Hospital, circa 1937. Source: National Archives and Records
Administration. Photographer: Alfred Cook.
Center: John N. Johnson at his home in New Jersey.
Bottom: The Manhattan College Jaspers at a game in the 1940’s.
Source: Portrait of New York by Cecil Beaton. B.T. Batsford, Ltd., London, 1948.
All photos in the newsletter not otherwise specified are by Barbara Goldschmidt and are the
property of the Swedish Institute ©2006.