Chuck Johnson Email & Phone Number

Chuck Johnson, a career sports journalist, covered major league baseball and boxing for USA TODAY, was Sports Information Director and Program Supervisor of Media and New Media for Detroit Public Schools (DPS), and was a contributing boxing writer for HBO.com. With DPS, Johnson was charged with generating and facilitating media coverage that publicized the Detroit Public School League, its student-athletes and school district. His mission increased scholar-athlete participation, stoked fan interest and maximized college scholarship opportunities for scholar-athletes. Before returning to the district from which he received his K-12 education, Johnson covered major league baseball for most of his 20 years at USA TODAY. He is a Hall of Fame-voting member of both the Baseball Writers' Association of America and the Boxing Writers Association of America. A graduate of Detroit Northern High and Michigan State University, Johnson's career spans parts of five decades as a sports journalist. He has also reported on the NFL and NBA. Prior to joining USA TODAY, he was a sports writer and columnist for nearly 13 years at the Flint (Mich.) Journal where he was the Detroit Pistons and NBA beat writer for Booth Newspapers. He also covered boxing for Booth's eight-paper chain of Michigan dailies, reporting on the Thomas Hearns-Sugar Ray Leonard welterweight showdown in 1981 among other major fights during Detroit's renaissance as a boxing hotbed in the 80s. Johnson is a long-time member of the National Association of Black Journalists. His body of work earned him recognition as the 2000 NABJ Sports Journalist of the Year. Johnson portrayed himself in a cameo speaking role in the 2006 movie Rocky Balboa. In 2008, he was inducted into the (Michigan) State News Alumni Association Hall of Fame. He was honored by the Michigan Chronicle as one of its 2012 Men of Excellence. The fourth of eight siblings, Johnson is father of two children, daughter Janay, and son Julius, and two grandsons, Jace and Drue.