About Inductee

For a sports personality who either grew up in Alabama or came from elsewhere to gain fame within its borders, nothing quite compares to enshrinement in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame at Birmingham. But perhaps a close second would be similar recognition from the community where you and your wife and children now call home. Alfonso Buck Johnson has experienced both honors in the past three years. In 2007, the former University of Alabama All-America basketball player was inducted into the state Hall. Now he goes into the 2010 Class of the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame. Born in Birmingham on Jan. 5, 1964, Johnson was a two-time All-State star at Hayes High School before going on to Alabama and then to the NBA. He and his family have been residents of Harvest in Madison County for the past 13 years. At Hayes, Johnson played for current Butler High coach Jack Doss. Johnson averaged 24 points and 12 rebounds as a senior at Hayes. Following a spirited recruiting battle between Alabama and UAB, Johnson signed with the Crimson Tide. Johnson, who made the All-SEC team three straight years (1984-86), is Alabamas fourth leading all-time scorer and ranks eighth on the schools all-time rebounding list. Selected in the first round of the 1986 NBA Draft, he helped lead the Houston Rockets to the NBA playoffs in five of his seven years at Houston. His best season was 1989-90, when he averaged nearly 15 points per game. During his NBA career, he played in 505 games and scored 4,617 points. After playing for the Washington Bullets in 1992-93, Johnson played overseas for eight years with various professional teams in Turkey, Israel, Spain and Greece, making the European Leagues All-Star team six times. He remains close to Jack Doss, his mentor in high school. He has been like a father to me, Johnson said. Hes the reason we wound up in Huntsville. But it was his grandmother, Callie Echols, who made an earlier indelible impression. She had the most influence on my basketball career, Johnson said. She saw the athletic talent in me at a very early age. She would call up north to speak to her niece and would go on and on about how great a player I was even before I was actually on my middle school team. This drove me to become the best player I could possibly be. There was no way I was going to let her down. Johnson is now a business development manager for ReCast, Inc. in Huntsville. He and his wife Felicia have three children: Alfonso III, Jamal and Trey.