Tom Oates: Mark Johnson richly deserves to be first person in Badgers hockey history to have jersey raised to Kohl Center rafters

Excellent. He deserves it.

I arrived in High School the year after he graduated from Madison Memorial and arrived at UW so I never got on the ice with him. (However, I did get to get whipped by his younger brother.)

But, I remember watching Madison Memorial demolish my future team time and again before I got there. I do not remember any show boating or taunting as they whipped us - perhaps it was because players didn't wear masks, and we did have some farm boys that you wouldn't want to annoy, or perhaps it was because they were solid - I'm going with they were solid until I learn different. But I do remember them just crushing my future team time and time again. It didn't change much when I got there, except we got crushed a little less.

I really enjoyed watching him play in the Olympics and was always hoping for him in the pros. Unfortunately, I think he was in the wrong era and would have done much better in today's NHL.
 
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