Larry Johnson has mastered the art of giving

BY GAVIN PATRICK

Sports Editor

In 2023, Larry Johnson was in Birmingham, Alabama, with his cousin for a typical round of target practice. Shooting is a retirement hobby for Johnson, and he was used to homing in on his target and firing.

Johnson went to pull the trigger, but a bullet got jammed. He tried for one minute to get it dislodged. It finally did. But the gun was pointed the wrong way.

The bullet came from a downward angle. It hit Johnson’s stomach liner, kidney liner and main artery. He lost three liters of blood. Next thing he knew, Johnson was lying in a hospital bed in Birmingham and stayed there for the next seven days.

As a strong Christian man, those seven days in the hospital gave Johnson a lot of time to think about how his life could be better.

“Thinking about what the Lord had laid on my heart and [what] I needed to [give back], I said, ‘Tarleton actually had a part in shaping my life,’” Johnson said.

It was time to find a new purpose.

Johnson hadn’t been back to Tarleton State since he left the university in 1970. He played football there for one year in 1969, but it only delayed the inevitable.

“If Tarleton hadn't given me a scholarship to play football, I knew I was going straight to Vietnam at that age and at that time,” Johnson said.

Johnson was drafted into the military in 1972 and served three years in the Army’s 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell (Kentucky) and in Italy until the war ended in 1975. But he was never sent to Vietnam, like he would have been in 1969 had he not been attending Tarleton. For that, Johnson is forever thankful.

“Who knows, I may have come back in a body bag instead of having a life of freedom here in the United States,” Johnson said.

So now, considering what Tarleton did for him, and with the bullet from the accident still lodged in his lower back, Johnson was inspired to give back to the school and community that made him the man he is today.

But giving back is an art, and few people have mastered the art like Larry Johnson. 

In 2024, Johnson and his wife, Lori, signed up for a six-year endowment to donate thousands of dollars to Tarleton State Athletics. 100% of the funds are given to student-athletes, much like NIL money.

“Those go to help student-athletes that are short of scholarship money, and it helps the school to retain those athletes,” Johnson said.

The idea for the endowment stemmed from a conversation Johnson had with Matt Miller, a stockbroker in Stephenville, who he met spontaneously at a restaurant.

“We didn't know each other, so with my personality I struck up a conversation pretty quick,” Johnson said. “... I said, ‘This is what I'd like to do, and here's my plans.’ And he said, ‘Mr. Johnson, I tell you what, I'm going to make a couple of phone calls, and I promise you within two days, you'll be hearing from someone from Tarleton.’”

Sure enough, within two days, Johnson was talking to alumni and was introduced to the university’s Associate Vice President for Development, John Gladchuk.

“John, he's a doer. He doesn't let dust settle on his feet,” Johnson said. “He gets the job done.”

The two met for lunch, along with Gladchuk’s boss, Tony Vidmar, and they discussed the details for the endowment. Johnson was also informed of other avenues he could contribute to for different causes.

One thing led to another. Johnson made donations to the football, women’s basketball, baseball and track & field programs (separate from his endowment) and to the Purple Pantry, Alumni Association, President’s Circle and Texan Excellence Fund. These are on top of the donations Johnson has made for years to his church in Willow Park.

“There's so many opportunities to donate money [to Tarleton],” Johnson said. “But if you don't have a giving and a willing heart, it's kind of all in vain.”

Johnson also gives his time back to Tarleton by being a mentor to student-athletes.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when possible, Johnson drives to campus from his home in Granbury to visit with players from the football, baseball and basketball teams. He tells them about how he has profited spiritually from giving and encourages them to live life with the right priorities.

“Our priorities in life [are] our faith, our family and the friends that we surround ourselves with,” Johnson said. “... It's up to you to pick whatever’s important after that. … I share that with all the young athletes that I possibly can.”

So what did Johnson do for 50 years from the time he left the military to when he came back to Tarleton in 2024?

Johnson worked in the oil and gas industry for 28 years as a sales manager for Hobas Pipe USA, retiring in December 2018. He became an expert working in oil fields, providing decisive leadership and sustaining long-term relationships with key decision-makers.

When Johnson embarked on his journey of giving back, he thought it’d be a good idea to put that knowledge to good use.

One day, Johnson, Gladchuk and Tarleton’s Dean of Engineering, Dr. Rafael Landaeta, were having a conversation in Midland about starting a new program at the university. They were standing in the middle of an oil field. It made too much sense.

“Why don't we start a petroleum engineering degree here?” Johnson said.

Gladchuk had mentioned starting a petroleum engineering program to Landaeta soon after he started at Tarleton in June 2024. When Gladchuk met Johnson, he discovered that Johnson had knowledge and connections that could accelerate the process.

Two of those connections were Johnson’s close friends (he calls them brothers) from Midland, Mike Curry and Tommy Lent, who have extensive backgrounds in petroleum engineering.

Landaeta started meeting weekly with the three of them to go over their vision for the program. They also did a market analysis of other petroleum engineering programs in Texas and designed the curriculum for the concentration and major.

“Although [Larry]’s not an engineer, he has all the technical experience in oil and gas,” Landaeta said. “As a matter of fact, Tommy offered to give a two-day course [in petroleum engineering] to the faculty of Tarleton… and Larry was there helping Tommy deliver some of the very important hands-on, real-world experience that they had in decades working in oil fields.”

Johnson and his friends were doing so much that they eventually became part of the program's advisory board. They also pitched in hefty donations to kickstart the program’s development.

“I called [Mike] and the company that he worked for. They donated $10,000 right up front,” Johnson said. “[Tommy], he reached out to some of his old people, and within a month, he donated $50,000 and will probably donate more at a later time.”

Curry and Lent are not even Tarleton alumni. They went to Texas Tech. It was their attitude of giving and tight bond with Johnson that empowered them to turn in their efforts without compensation.

Johnson didn’t need the money, either. He had accomplished his mission, which was to provide for the education of the next generation.

“The biggest compensation that he got from me was a hug and a ‘thank you, brother,’” Landaeta said. “He did all this out of his spirit to give back to his alma mater and to give back to the profession.”

Tarleton’s petroleum engineering concentration is set to be offered in spring 2026. The major is expected to be offered next fall, pending additional fundraising and approval. 

“If we didn't ever get any recognition or anything back, we're still giving with the right heart,” Johnson said. “We're proud to say that we'll do that, and we're going to continue doing that.”

Who would have thought that a man who hadn’t been back to his alma mater in 55 years would suddenly come back and do more for Tarleton State than maybe any common man has ever done?

All because of a giving spirit and a shooting accident.

“There's no secret to it,” Johnson said. “Just bone up and say, ‘What's my purpose today?’ And I've got a purpose.”