"I don't want to go back to the south. I want to stay in Detroit. Detroit is my home." – Lydia Johnson
 
DETROIT (2/25/2020) -- The dawn. The death. The fight until the final bell. For many African-Americans in the Jim Crow south, there was nothing to call their own except ignominy and degradation. For many, the hope was that equality would be the catalyst for driving the stake through the heart of segregation. The aurora of a new day.
 
The game of basketball has a way of distinctive way of shifting and evolving, enriching the lives of many along the path. For Lydia Johnson, the path was winding, the times were trying, but the love for the game never wavered. The love for the city, so pure. By the time she graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy, it was clear that a rose grew from the concrete.
 
Beginning with the Great Migration, the thought of heading up north to bathe in the well of economic prosperity, whilst being on the ground floor of urbanization seemed within reach.  On the banks of the Alabama River, memorialized in songs such as "Sweet Home Alabama", the same song that swiped at Neil Young reminding him faithfully that, "…a southern man don't need him around anyhow," a precocious, young girl named Lydia was tucked away in Montgomery among a family of nine just hoping to survive and thrive. The thriving took flight when one day in middle school, a chain of events would begin that would change the course of several lives and forever alter the landscape of Titan athletics.
 
"In the seventh grade, we used to play on the trampoline in P.E. It broke one day and the teacher told me that I should play basketball. I had never known about basketball prior to that. I would get dressed and stop and play in the park before going to school. Playground basketball. That's how I got started."
 
If you crossed paths with Lydia Johnson in 1975, you were staring at a future All-American, future Hall of Famer and one of the pillars of women's basketball at the University of Detroit Mercy. By the time she turned 15-years old that same year, she grew to be 6'4", but amidst the trees in her family, she was the runt of the litter, especially with a younger brother who was 7-feet by age 14. Her frequent stops to the playground before school would pay dividends as her skill set began to emerge on the blacktop.
 
Then she had to figure out how to survive.
 
One day, while on a family trip to Birmingham, Johnson was involved in a horrific car accident that claimed the lives of both her grandparents, herself narrowly escaping serious injuries. After the funeral, the decision was made by her mother that her family would seek greener pastures and head north to the Motor City.
 
9275 Wyoming Avenue. David Mackenzie High School. The west side of Detroit cultivated the legends of such athletes such as Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Jerome Bettis and the like. However, for Johnson, the exit to the road to glory seemed miles away. Coming from the south to Detroit was enough of a culture shock, but it was the playground that provided solace and refuge.
 
"I didn't know what to expect and what I was going to face," Johnson said. "The first year of high school at Mackenzie, after the bell I would run straight home. Detroit was a big city and I was scared. As time went on, I got a chance to meet a lot of people, a lot of guys that I played ball with at various playgrounds. And it would get physical. Them with me and me with them. I used to love to play over by Monica and Livernois Avenue. In the wintertime, we shoveled snow and played. We were die-hard about playing ball. That's the love of the game."
 
Toward the end of her stint at Jackson Community College, a chance meeting with then Detroit Mercy Head Coach Sue Kruszewski and her assistant Lydia Sims would entice her to enroll at the University of Detroit Mercy to don the red, white and blue. With the inception of women's basketball at the end of the 1970s, Johnson was again given the chance to get in on the ground floor.
 
During her two years as a Titan, Johnson would start in 43 out of 61 games while averaging 12.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. In her freshman season, the Titans would record a school record 27 wins as Detroit Mercy knocked off every in-state school they faced on their schedule. She would earn All-American, All-State and All- Region honors, and her 364 rebounds and 11.7 rebounds per game during the 1979-80 season rank third all-time in Titan history.
 
Her final year, the Titans went 25-8 and earned a berth to the AIAW National Tournament – the then precursor to the NCAA tournament – and one of only three national tournament appearances in the history of Titan women's basketball. Johnson also ended up as a finalist for the Wade Trophy, recognizing the best player in women's basketball in Division I with past winners including Hall of Famers Nancy Lieberman, Cheryl Miller and Teresa Weatherspoon.
 
Johnson would parlay her successful collegiate career into a stint in the Women's Basketball League (WBL). Her player profile reads of a hard-nosed, physical, menacing defender – 48 steals and 42 blocks her freshman season – with a solid mid-range game, comparable to that of a Rick Mahorn or Kevin McHale.
 
"(Coach) Sue and Lydia. They saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. It was a learning experience for me. To me, Sue was a coach that would teach you how to play the game on and off the court. Lydia would do the same, but she was more than a coach. If you had problems, you could go and talk to her and she was also great at scouting other teams. I learned from Lydia. I was a hard-headed player who ran the steps at Calihan many days because of that. But I learned; listen to the coach. I'm glad I did listen because some players do not and they end up trying to do it their way and end up back at home or trying to go to another college. I wouldn't have been in the Hall of Fame if it weren't for them."
 
After receiving her college degree in 1980, she continues to reside in Detroit and frequently comes back to the university, solidifying her reputation as one of the premiere student-athletes in University of Detroit Mercy history. Being the first in her family to receive a college diploma, she understands the importance of education and that of its' first-generation student body.
 
"If you want to be a leader, you have to show your siblings that it's possible. I try to set a good example for my nieces and nephews. You never know who's looking at you; who's watching you."
 
Congratulations Lydia Johnson on your induction into the Titan Hall of Fame.