Track and Field
- Title:
- Head Coach
- As Oregon HC:
- 9th Year
- NCAA Championships:
- 13
- Pac-12 Championships:
- 15
- NCAA Individual Championships:
- 51
Now in his 10th season as the head coach of the Oregon cross country and track and field programs, Robert Johnson has led the Ducks to 14 NCAA Championships and 16 Pac-12 Championships, and is now a 14-time USTFCCCA National Coach of the Year.
Robert Johnson Capsule
10th Year as UO Head Coach; 17th Overall at Oregon
14 NCAA Championships
(4 men’s indoor/4 women’s indoor, 2 men’s outdoor/2 women’s outdoor, 2 women’s cross country)
16 Pac-12 Championships
(8 men’s track and field, 5 women’s track and field, 3 women’s cross country)
62 NCAA event titles
14-Time USTFCCCA National Coach of the Year
10-Time Pac-12 Coach of the Year
Johnson is in his 17th season overall at UO having previously served as the Ducks’ associate head coach.
With 14 NCAA title titles as the Ducks’ head coach, Johnson ranks fourth all-time among NCAA head coaches in cross country and track and field, and ninth overall for Division I head coaches in all sports.
NCAA Titles in the Johnson Era (14)
2012 – Women’s Cross Country
2013 – Women’s Indoor Track and Field
2014 – Men’s Indoor Track and Field
2014 – Women’s Indoor Track and Field
2014 – Men’s Outdoor Track and Field
2015 – Men’s Indoor Track and Field
2015 – Men’s Outdoor Track and Field
2015 – Women’s Outdoor Track and Field
2016 – Men’s Indoor Track and Field
2016 – Women’s Indoor Track and Field
2016 – Women’s Cross Country
2017 – Women’s Indoor Track and Field
2017 – Women’s Outdoor Track and Field
2021 – Men’s Indoor Track and Field
The Men of Oregon won the 2012 NCAA indoor team title with 79 points, the second-highest total in meet history and the most by any team since 1994. The win was the men’s fourth NCAA indoor title under Johnson. The team’s six NCAA titles—60 meters, 800 meters, mile, 3,000 meters, DMR and triple jump—equals the most by one team in a single year.
Collectively, Johnson and the Ducks have racked up a combined 27 NCAA podium—top four—finishes.
Oregon added another NCAA indoor title in 2021 with Kemba Nelson breaking the collegiate record to win the women’s 60 meters. She stopped the clock in 7.05 to surpass the previous mark shared by past UO standout Hannah Cunliffe and Aleah Hobbs (LSU).
The Ducks added four more national titles—men’s 1500 meters, men’s 5,000 meters, women’s 10,000 meters and men’s triple jump—at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field.
Under Johnson’s tutelage, Emmanuel Ihemeje swept the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in the triple jump during the 2021 season. At the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ihemeje produced a winning jump of 17.26m/56-7.5 and in the process, became the No. 6 indoor performer in collegiate history.
On the women’s side, Alysah Hickey and Dominique Ruotolo won the 2021 Pac-12 titles in the long jump and triple jump, respectively. Hickey, also third in the high jump, went on to be named Pac-12 Women’s Freshman of the Year. Later that month, she recorded a wind-aided mark of 6.81m/22-4.25 (+2.3) at the NCAA West Preliminary.
For leading the UO men to the 2021 NCAA indoor title, Johnson was named the USTFCCCA National Coach of the Year for a 14th time in his career. He is also up to 15 USTFCCCA West Region Coach of the Year accolades, including two more during the 2021 campaign.
Johnson is a 10-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year and has led the Ducks to 16 Pac-12 titles: eight men’s track and field (2013-21), five women’s track (2013-17) and field and three women’s cross country (2012, ’14, ’18).
In 2021, the Men of Oregon also won their 14th-consecutive Pac-12 team title—eighth in a row under Johnson’s direction—with a meet record 185 points to outdistance the field by nearly 60 points. It was also a standout Pac-12 weekend for the Women of Oregon who racked up 151 points in a runner-up showing at the conference meet.
The Women of Oregon made history at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships with a thrilling win to complete the historic Triple Crown – NCAA titles in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field in the same academic year. Trailing Georgia by 8.2 points with only the 4x400 relay remaining, the Ducks ran a then-collegiate record of 3:23.13 to win the race, securing the NCAA team title and becoming the first women’s team in NCAA Division I history to complete the Triple Crown.
In addition to the dramatic outdoor win, the UO women pulled out a one-point victory at the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first jewel of the eventual Triple Crown and setting the stage for the dramatics in Eugene after a record-setting performance with a meet-record 84 points at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Johnson became the second coach all-time to earn a career women’s triple crown – national titles in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. The other to accomplish the feat is Texas legend Terry Crawford. With a national title in men’s cross country, Johnson would become the only coach in NCAA history with both men’s and women’s career triple crowns.
As an assistant and associate head coach from 2005 to the end of the 2011-12 season, Johnson helped lead a remarkable resurgence of an Oregon women’s program that won three-consecutive NCAA indoor titles (2010-12), claimed four Pac-12 Championships in a row (2009-12) and were national runner-up in four-straight years at the NCAA Outdoor Championships (2009-12)
The men’s program won an NCAA indoor title and was the NCAA outdoor runner-up in 2009 and won conference titles each year from 2007 to 2012, a streak continued by Johnson when he became the head coach the following season.
In all, Johnson coached 22 conference champions and 70 All-Americans at Oregon before becoming the head coach.
An assistant coach at Appalachian State from 1997 to 2003, Johnson coached 28 individual Southern Conference champions and 14 NCAA qualifiers in the long jump, triple jump, and 55 and 100 meters. He mentored the school’s first All-America performer in Rhonda White, an outdoor triple jump All-American in 2003. He also coached two Southern Conference Freshman of the Year winners and two Southern Conference Athletes of the Year.
Johnson earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Appalachian State (’96) where he was a two-time All-American in the triple jump (1995, ’96), an NCAA qualifier in the high jump (1996) and the school-record holder in the high jump (7-1.75). A member of the ASU Athletics Hall of Fame, Johnson also competed in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Trials.
