GRANBURY ? Johnny Perkins, ACU's all-time leader in receiving yards and an NAIA all-America selection in 1975, died Wednesday morning after suffering complications from recent heart surgery. He was 54.
Perkins' funeral will be Sunday (April 29) at 2 p.m. at the Granbury Church of Christ. The visitation is scheduled for Saturday (April 28) from 6-8 p.m. at the Wiley Funeral Home in Granbury.
Perkins was a three-year letterman at ACU and played wide receiver for the New York Giants in the NFL for eight years. He is still the highest draft choice (32nd player overall) in ACU football history after his second-round selection by the Giants in the 1977 NFL Draft.
Perkins finished his career in 1976, helping ACU to a 9-2 finish and a win over Harding University in the Shrine Bowl in Pasadena, Texas. Perkins ? who teamed with fellow wide receiver Cle Montgomery and quarterback Jim Reese to form one of the most lethal passing games in college football ? is ACU's all-time leader in receiving yards (2,529 yards), third in touchdown catches (22) and sixth in receptions (116).
“Johnny was the best wide receiver I'd ever seen when he got here,” said Reese, the Wildcats' quarterback from 1974-76. “He was so much fun to throw the ball to because he caught absolutely everything. I never remember him dropping a ball. The other thing I remember about him is that we never got angry with each other, no matter what happened during a game.
“He was the perfect combination of personality, disposition and friend,” Reese said. “I never found anything negative about Johnny Perkins, and that's hard to say about a lot of people. I'll definitely miss him.”
Perkins joined the Wildcat football program in 1974 after one season at Ranger Junior College where he played after a standout career at Granbury High School. Wally Bullington ? then ACU's head football coach and now the school's athletics director emeritus ? echoed Reese's comments about Perkins' ability.
“Johnny had great hands and outstanding speed,” Bullington said. “The thing about Johnny was that he was deceptive because he was tall and smooth. The cornerbacks he faced wouldn't give him the cushion he should have gotten, and he was able to run right by them. Consequently, we threw him the deep ball quite often, and more often than not he caught the ball.”
Perkins, in fact, had five touchdown catches of at least 71 yards in his all-America career, including catches of 88 yards against East Texas State in 1975, 84 yards against Cameron in 1976 and 82 yards against Texas A&I in 1975. The 88-yard catch against ETSU was part of a day that saw him catch eight passes for 217 yards and two scores in a 20-18 loss to the Lions. That 217-yard day is still the fourth-best single-game total in ACU history.
And it was in the biggest games, Reese recalled, where Perkins was at his best.
In a 1975 game against rival Howard Payne, Perkins caught 10 passes for 185 yards and three scores. And on Oct. 23, 1976, when Reese threw for a still-standing conference record 564 yards against Angelo State, Perkins caught five passes for 147 yards and one score.
“Nothing ever rattled him,” Reese said. “We could be in the middle of a real tight game and he would have the same attitude as he had in practice. He was just such a happy-go-lucky guy in everyday life, and that carried over to the field. I think that kept us all loose.
“I remember in the East Texas game in 1975 that we completed ?60 Special' to him for the 88-yard touchdown pass,” he said. “And then we played Howard Payne and they had beaten us pretty soundly in 1974 ... probably because they were still mad at us for running it up on them in 1973. But we completed several deep balls to Johnny for touchdowns, and they never covered it. Wow ... when I think back about it now after more than 30 years, we really had some special times together.”
And that's what Bullington will remember most about Perkins.
“He just made the locker room better,” Bullington said. “He got along so well with his teammates, and he was a great team player. The things he did on the field put the spotlight on him, but he never put those things above the team and the accomplishments of the team.
“I've talked with several of his teammates (today), and they're all just torn up about it,” Bullington said. “Everyone loved Johnny Perkins, and we'll all miss him. I'm so glad that I was able to talk to him about six weeks ago before he went in for surgery, and he told me, ?Coach, whatever happens, I'm ready for it.' He had a great faith and a great belief in where he was going. And I know this: Johnny wouldn't have wanted to go on living the way he had been living the last few weeks.”
Perkins was an all-Lone Star Conference selection at wide receiver and punter for the Wildcats. His other honors include team MVP, LSC Lineman of the Year, first team NAIA all-America and second team Associated Press Little all-America. He was named to the all-decade team of the 1970s at ACU, and he played in the Senior Bowl and Blue-Gray all-star games after his senior season in 1976.
In November 1990, he was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame, and in August 2005 he was voted to the ACU Football all-Century Team as a first team wide receiver, along with Montgomery and Ronnie Vinson. And last November he was one of 75 former players and coaches honored on the LSC's 75th anniversary all-time team.
Perkins led the nation in receiving for the Wildcats as a junior in 1975, catching 50 passes for 1,195 yards and 12 touchdowns. In 29 games in his ACU career, he had a school-record 12 100-yard receiving games.
Perkins is survived by his wife, Debra, a son, Jasmine, and a daughter, Jia, a former all-Big 12 basketball player at Texas Tech University.
