Bearcat Track & Field News
Alex Johnson's used to confusion [04/14/2009]
By BUCK MAHONEY, Hub Sports Editor
KEARNEY — They first learned of each other on the baseball diamond, when one was six years old and the other five. The older one recalls: “We were sitting in a circle and they got to him and said, ‘What’s your name?’ He said, ‘Alex Johnson,’ and I went, ‘Whoa. That’s weird.’
“Then they came around and to me and said, ‘What’s your name?’ And I said, ‘Alex Johnson, too.’ “They looked at the roster and said, ‘We’ve got something wrong here.’” No, nothing wrong. Just confusion.
“It happens less often than you think, but it still happens,” the older Alex Johnson said. It will happen today. In the first Hub Territory Track Leaders published in today’s Hub, the Alex Johnson name appears in the shot put, the discus, the 800 and the 1,600. It’s junior Alex Maxwell Johnson who is among the leaders in the shot put and discus, and senior Alex Steven Johnson who is among the leaders in the distance races.
“He runs, I throw,” Alex M. Johnson said. “I’ve always been a sprinter or a thrower.” He jokes that the farthest he’s ever run is 200 meters. “I don’t like running that much,” he said.
And Alex S. Johnson isn’t a weight man. “I never have actually thrown. I threw weights in junior high but once I got to high school, I realized I was a little smaller than the average Joe, so they put me in the distance events and I’ve been with it ever since,” he said.
He’s been a member of the Kearney High cross country team, giving up football after his sophomore year. He gave up baseball and basketball while in junior high.
Alex M. Johnson attended Meadowlark Elementary and Sunrise Middle School before coming to Kearney High. He still plays baseball and football, and his first recollection of the other Alex Johnson is from his freshman year. “When I found out, it was pretty surprising somebody had the same name I do,” he said.
Being a year apart, and having gone to different elementary and middle schools — Alex S. Johnson attended Park Elementary and Horizon Middle Schools — they’ve never been close friends. But the similarity of their names has given them a unique bond. They have to deal with others’ misunderstandings.
“It gets confusing a lot. Just the other day … we got all our gear and put it in bags with your name on it so you get all your stuff. He comes in and says, ‘I think this is yours.’ … I had ordered a long-sleeved t-shirt that’s a medium and he ordered one that was an XL. So we got a little mixed up there. It happens all the time,” Alex S. Johnson said.
It happens in school, too. “Just last week, there was in the paper that he got a scholarship that pays his whole tuition to Chadron State,” Alex M. Johnson said. “Everybody was telling me it was me, and I didn’t remember signing up for anything.”
He soon figured out that the scholarship went to the other Alex Johnson. Generally, they have a better understanding of the circumstances than anyone else.
“People always ask me if I still run,” Alex M. Johnson said. Alex S. Johnson gets similar questions about the exploits of the other Alex Johnson.
“When people let me get away with it … I take credit for him all the time. I always tell people I throw the shot, the discus and run the 800 and mile. I’m just that good at everything,” Alex S. Johnson said.