About Our Namesakes

Mike Johnston

Mike Johnston Field at Legacy Stadium

A native of the Houston area, Mike Johnston grew up in Galena Park. His penchant for football was evident during his high school years in the 1964 state finalist football team. While attending Stephen F. Austin State University, he continued his love of the game and played linebacker and center for the Lumberjacks. There, he would be coached by future Katy ISD administrators Jack Rhoads and Gordon Brown.

Johnston’s coaching career began at Hull-Daisetta High School. He then worked for Nacogdoches, Beaumont Forest Park and Abilene High Schools before landing in Katy. In 1980, Johnston took the role of assistant coach at Katy High School and, only two short years later, was named head football coach and campus athletic coordinator.

There wasn’t much winning happening when he took the head coaching position at Katy High School. In fact, the culture was such that many were reluctant to show off their school colors. However, Coach Johnston made it his business to be engaged in the lives of his players and his students with whom he came in contact. He made it his goal for every student, and particularly the football players, to become ambassadors for their school.

Johnston served as a role model and leader for students and teachers alike. He set high expectations and believed in accountability and attention to detail, which were demanded both on and off the field. There were lessons of sacrifice and teamwork. His program was designed to teach students that they were always capable of achieving more than they realized. It was to develop skills in teamwork, perseverance, coping with failure and pushing one’s self and others beyond their comfort zone.

His character and commitment to excellence created an atmosphere of school pride that carried over on to other extra-curricular activities. A breakthrough season finally came in 1986 when the Katy High School Tigers made the playoffs for the first time in 23 years.

With a career as head coach that extended from 1982 until his retirement in 2003. He led a program’s growth and success that included 13 district titles, five state title appearances and three state championships.

With accolades that extend beyond the state championships, Johnston was the Coach of the Year for the State of Texas, the Houston Touchdown Club, the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Post and seven times for the district. He has given his time to serve as the Director and President of the Texas High School Coaches Association (THSCA). In addition, he was bestowed one of the highest honors by the THSCA and was placed in the THSCA Balfour Hall of Honor. One of his most rewarding accomplishments was when the 2010 Texas Football Magazine Winter Edition hit the newsstands. They listed the Top 50 Coaches in Texas for the First Fifty Years. The list included professional and college coaches, such as Tom Landry and Darrell Royal. Johnston was recognized as #14 on the list.

Mike Johnston became the first high school coach to be inducted as a Gridiron Legend in the same year, alongside such greats as Bob McNair, Bum Phillips, Dan Pastorini and Joe Washington.

Johnston brought excitement, enthusiasm and pride to the game of high school football. Moreover, that fervor extended beyond his players and to the fine arts directors and students who absorbed and continued the same lessons of teamwork, individual commitment and a strong work ethic.

His classroom may not have had four walls. His legendary red suspenders were a reminder of the “heart of a champion” and to never give up. Whether Johnston’s teams were competing or practicing during the heat of the day, or in torrential rain, there was always a lesson to be learned, an experience to be had, a demand to expect nothing less than the best from one’s self.

Jack F. Rhodes

• Jack Francis Rhodes grew up in Huntsville, Texas, where he gained his formal education, graduating from Huntsville High School at the age of 16.  He then enrolled in Sam Houston Teachers College to further his secondary education where he became an outstanding athlete in football, basketball and track.

  He was formally inducted into the Sam Houston Hall of Honor in 1982, being recognized for his athletic prowess.

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  He lettered in each sport in his four years at Sam and was recognized as the Lone Star Conference’s discus and javelin champion in 1934.  He helped lead the 1934 basketball team to the Lone Star Conference championship.

  While attending Sam Houston, he met and married Jesse Glover, who was pursuing her degree.  They would later have two sons, Jack F. Rhodes, Jr. and John Glover Rhodes, both of whom would graduate from Katy High School in 1959 and 1964 respectively.  

  After graduating from Sam Houston, he accepted a coaching assignment in Madisonville, Texas, but the next year he filed for the professional football league draft and was drafted by the New York Giants.  He soon learned that his true calling was to teach and coach, so he returned to Texas and accepted the head coaching position at Webster High School from 1937 until the early 1940s. Due to the escalation of WWII and the demand for workers to help with construction of tanker ships, he went to work for Todd Shipyards on Pelican Island near Galveston.

  In September of 1945, Jack Rhodes accepted and took over duties as the head coach at Sugarland High School until receiving a call in 1947 from the new Superintendent of Katy  I.S.D., James E. Taylor. He accepted the position of head coach and athletic director at Katy and would remain with Katy for the balance of his career.

  In 1954, he became the principal of Katy High School and continued in that capacity until he stepped down in 1968, at which time he returned to his initial love, the classroom, teaching math and science. He remained in that capacity until the late 1970’s when he became K.I.S.D.’s personnel director.  Jack F. Rhodes formally retired in May of 1980.  He and his wife would remain together in Katy until his death in 1982.

  Because of his service and dedication to the fields of education and athletics, the new football stadium, built in 1981, located at Katyland Drive, was dedicated and named in his honor.  His wife, Jesse, was present for the ceremony in January, 1984 and remained in Katy until she passed away in April of that year.