TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Roselawn Cemetery in Tallahassee is where Johnnie Stephens’ life and legacy are remembered and celebrated.
Stephens was killed in action, ambushed in Vietnam on April 22, 1969.
“I go to the door, and there’s a man in uniform, and he came in, and he said how sad he was to notify him,” said Sally Stephens Sperling, his widow, about the night she found out Stephens had been killed.
Sperling first met her future husband at Raa Middle School. They started dating in the 9th grade and married in 1967.
“I knew the beginning of our senior year at Leon that he was the man for me,” she said. “I loved him because he was the most honest, decent person, whether anyone was watching or not.”
That’s what made Stephens a standout football player, even though he stood just over six feet tall and less than 200 pounds.
“I really don’t believe he was 6′1,” laughed David Wilson, a local veteran historian. “You know how the colleges they stretch the statistics and everything? He was undersized, but he was a great effort guy.”
First, as a multi-sport athlete for the Leon Lions.
“They would be so thirsty and exhausted,” remembered Sperling. “The practices on that hot Leon field that they would crawl down like they’d been tackled and drink out of mud puddles.”
Later, for the Florida State football team.
“Johnnie loved football. He wanted to play,” said Sperling. “I think he picked FSU and coach Peterson because they’d give him playing time.”
“He had a hall of fame career, he had a hall of fame attitude, he had a hall of fame work ethic,” said Wilson. “What he didn’t have was a hall of fame body, but he made up for it with hall of fame effort.”
Stephens started every game and played every snap at center his junior year, and while his legacy on the field is what’s grabbed the bylines, his impact off is what keeps his memory alive today.
In 1968, during integration, Stephens took a Black Carabelle senior football player on a recruiting trip through the segregated South.
“In some parts of the south, there was great resentment about Vietnam, and there was great resentment about integration,” said Wilson. “For Johnnie to do that, to me, was a great act of courage. It was also an act of courage on Roosevelt’s family. It showed the trust they had in Johnnie.”
“He was really good, and when they say the good die young, you wonder,” said Sperling.
“Wars rob us of potential. I can only think of the potential of Johnnie,” added Wilson. “In 23 years, the impact he had on people and what he might have done had he lived past that day.”
According to Wilson, Stephens is one of just two college football players from the state of Florida killed in combat. The other was Donald Coles Woodruff, who played at Florida A&M.
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