Bob Johnston in the press box at Wildcat Stadium. Photo by Kathy Tran.
Turn off the lights at the Boneyard. Bob Johnston, “The Voice of Lake Highlands,” has died.
Johnston began announcing games at The Cat, Lake Highlands High School’s baseball field in the spring of 1984, and he joined the press box crew at Wildcat Stadium to announce football in the fall of 1986. Since then, he’s been the ubiquitous man with the booming voice, faithfully showing up to support neighborhood student athletes.
“I’m very proud and satisfied to know I must have done a good job,” Johnston said earlier this year when the baseball team named their broadcasting booth The Bob Shack. A proclamation from the city of Dallas was read in his honor.
“I love seeing the kids develop and grow in the game,” he said. “I enjoy seeing them get bigger and better and do all the work they need to do to improve. I also love seeing the other teams, seeing how good our competition is.”
Johnston had been delighted in recent years to find that some athletes he was following were the children of students he announced years ago. He was tickled to recognize a name, or, better yet, to have a dad walk up and sheepishly ask, “Do you remember me?”
Johnston, friendly almost to a fault, enjoyed stopping to chat with folks he met along his daily stops. He often joked that he was the most unrecognized celebrity in the neighborhood.
“I’m in the press box, nobody sees me,” he told the Advocate last year. “I will be in the grocery store talking to somebody and they’ll ask, ‘Are you the announcer for the Lake Highlands Wildcats?’ And so I say ‘yes, of course.’”
And the rare few not sitting in bleacher seats on game night? They found a way to listen to Johnston, too.
“I’ve got people here in the neighborhood who live fairly close to the stadium,” Johnston explained. “They say they let their dogs out on Friday night because the dogs enjoy hearing my voice.”
In recent years, Johnston had hinted at retiring from his gig in the press box, but he returned this season to announce games as the Wildcat football team earned a bi-district title. Alongside him were Doug Williams, who provided stats, and Steve Brooks, who spotted athletes. Williams posted this message to social media:
“Bob was an icon in Lake Highlands, and he will be sadly missed by all. Bob left me with great memories calling high school football games together, I worked in the press box with him for 19 years. Many times, we would announce Jr High games one night, then either Freshman or JV games the next night, and finish off the week with Varsity games on Fridays. I’m going to miss Bob tremendously, he was the best. I’ll also miss him saying ‘Welcome to the Boneyard!’ Here’s to the Voice of Lake Highlands – Bob Johnston. Prayer for the family at this time.”
Bob and Jeri Johnston at The Bob Shack
Bob Johnston speaks at the Bob Shack dedication
