He wanted an easier way to water the soccer field. 

Dr. Eric Johnson was the soccer coach at Loras College in the 1990s, and one of his tasks was making sure the field, which was used by the men's and women's teams for practices and games, was ready each fall. 

"I had to water it with a two-inch hose and move the hose around all summer to keep (the field) green," Johnson said. "So every day, in the morning, I moved the hose, and then every night, about 10 o'clock, I would run over to the field and move the hose again. I had to do that all summer to keep that field as healthy as possible, to make it through the season. 

"And they kept telling me, 'Oh, we're going to get you a water wheel', which has the self wind-up hose. Just start it, and then it shuts off by itself. They kept saying they were going to do it, and then in the spring budget meeting it would get cut." 

The last time they denied it, in 1997, Johnson went to the NCAA website to look for another job and he saw an NCAA Division I opening as the men's head soccer coach at Western Illinois University. He applied, got the job, and began a historic run with the Leathernecks. Johnson, who announced his retirement this week, became the program's all-time winningest head coach, leading WIU to six NCAA tournaments, four regular-season conference titles and six conference tournament titles in the Mid-Continent Conference and Summit League, and won five conference coach of the year awards. 

The decision to step down, Johnson said, was "really hard." 

"When you start looking like I do, people were saying, 'What are you doing?'" Johnson quipped with the sense of humor that he has become known for within the department and the Macomb community. "I still have a love for the game and for coaching, so that made (the decision) pretty tough." 

Johnson, a Denver, CO, native, earned his bachelor of arts degree in physical education from Calvin College in 1980 where he was an All-Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association selection. He earned his master's degree in physical education from Florida Atlantic University in 1985 and his doctorate in sports administration from the University of New Mexico in 1995. Johnson has been a USYSA Midwest Regional coach since 1999 and a head age group coach for most of those years. In 2022, he led the 2006 National ODP team to the finals at Dallas Cup. He had five years experience as Loras' head coach in men's and women's soccer, as well as men's tennis. All of those resumé points helped him get the job at WIU. 

"The post was part-time coaching, part-time teaching," Johnson said. "And the requirements were, minimum master's degree and United States Soccer Federation B license, preferred were the USSF A license and a PhD. And I look at it and I go, 'Well, there's no one else in the country with both an A license and coaching (experience) and a PhD. I'm going to get this job if I apply for it." 

Once Johnson got to WIU, he was able to find success. But he also found a home. 

"My kids were really happy here, they had a really good experience in school here," Johnson said. "It was harder on my wife, she was an RN-BSN, with a master's degree in Nursing Administration. So she worked in Peoria, Pekin and Galesburg. She was a car-killer." 

It was his wife who helped convince Johnson to stay when he was interested in another Division I coaching job. 

"I had a phone interview with a university that put a little bit more money into (soccer)," he said. "I thought that's what I wanted. And she said, 'What are you doing? Everyone is happy, including you. Are you going to be happier just because you have more money to spend on trying to win?' Well, maybe not more happy, but it might be easier. She goes,' Yeah, but you're winning here. So why do you want to leave?' So she put an end to that, that was the last time I applied for a job outside of Western." 

Johnson knew he had to build a winning culture within his program. 

"The key was recruiting — finding guys, and then figuring out who you can get to come to Macomb and stay in Macomb," he said. "Then it was how fast can you put a team together. You've got to create something special in terms of attitude, effort, team, family — that culture of winning that can be hard to put together." 

During the 2000 season, Johnson coached Mid-Continent Newcomer of the Year Justin Langan. Langan was a first-team Mid-Con All-Conference selection from 2000-03, but what made him unique was he was also a kicker on WIU's football team. Johnson knew of Langan when he was coaching at Loras. 

"When I got the job at Western, he was a senior (in high school), so I immediately called him, because now I thought I had a chance at recruiting him, and he said, 'Well, Coach, I'm going to go pre-med. I don't want my parents to pay one dime for my college education. I think I can get a Division I kicking position (in football)," Johnson said. Johnson spoke to football coach Don Patterson about recruiting Langan to play both sports, and help with his scholarship. 

"Don said, 'If you can scholarship him the first year and he wins the starting job (the next spring in football), we'll take him, and we'll put him on a full football scholarship, and we will allow him to play soccer as long as he's at every football game for us," Johnson said. "We covered him with a partial soccer scholarship and then academic scholarships, because his academics were top of the charts. Then in the spring he won the football kicking job." 

Langan went on to be not only a great soccer player, but also one of the top kickers in WIU's football history. 

"We flew him to games, his parents drove him from soccer to football and vice versa," Johnson said, laughing. "We took special van trips for him, I changed all my game times so he could play both." 

Johnson remembered one game against IUPUI where Langan kicked in the football game, then came over to play the second half of the soccer game. Langan had gotten a red card in a game against IUPUI the previous year. 

"He shows up after the soccer game had started because the football game went longer," Johnson said. "Shows up on the golf cart — the equipment manager drove him over. He's in his football uniform. He throws everything off behind the bench. The guys crowd around him. He puts on his soccer uniform. He runs right to the center flag to sub without even looking at me. He didn't look at me. I'm sitting there thinking, 'Now is not the time to make a statement. Let him make a statement.' "Within 10 minutes, he scores a goal. He doesn't celebrate with his teammates. He just runs over to me, points to me, and says, 'That's for last year.'" 

It was getting a chance to coach those kinds of athletes that made Johnson enjoy his job. Johnson also served as the women's head coach from 2016-2021. 

"That was when my hair really started to turn gray," Johnson said, laughing. "It was really a challenge, because you're coaching the women's team at 3 p.m. for practice, and then you've got the men at 4:30. You've got games at two different places. … I put a lot of mileage on rental cars and traveled from one game to another to meet the team, and I had a lot of help with the staff. They were all cooperative and everything. It was great those six years, the fastest six years I ever had here." 

Telling his team that he was retiring was difficult, Johnson said, but the emotions really didn't come out until the next day. 

"I think the memories have brought up some of the emotions," he said. "Coaching takes a lot of energy, though, and I think that I felt like I had had that energy. But I don't want to be in a place where people think, 'He's hanging on too long, he can't do it anymore,' or whatever, and so that's part of it. And think my players need, maybe, a new voice. It's a pretty good group that I'm leaving." 

Johnson would like to stay to help the Leathernecks in a volunteer capacity. He also wants to spend time with his grandchildren, do some hunting and fishing, and do some work as "an amateur carpenter," he said. The move he made to Macomb, he said, worked perfectly. There is a punch line to all of it. 

"Guess what we water the field at Western with," Johnson said. A water wheel? "You got it," he said, laughing.