Julie Heinz Johnson

Ground-Breaking Athletic Director

Julie Heinz Johnson was Ripon’s first female athletic director, the Red Hawks’ winningest women’s basketball coach, and a beloved ambassador for Ripon College.

She was born Sept. 16, 1965, in Ipswich, South Dakota. She earned her B.S. in health, physical education and recreation from Dakota State University, where she was a three-time all-conference selection with the Trojan basketball team and earned the 1987 Dakota Athletic Conference Most Valuable Player as well as the NAIA District XII Player of the Year.

At South Dakota State University, she earned an M.S. in exercise physiology and discovered a love of coaching.

She arrived at Ripon College as a 24-year-old basketball coach and exercise science teacher in 1990 and spent her entire career at Ripon. She served as professor and chair of exercise science and head coach of golf, softball, and, most notably, women’s basketball.

In 2010, she became the College’s first female athletic director, a position she held for nine years.

As a coach, Johnson led the women’s basketball team to a career record of 303-237 (.561), becoming the program’s winningest coach and one of only four coaches in Midwest Conference history to record more than 300 career victories and one of four coaches to win at least 200 conference games.

Her teams won four MWC Championships and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in all four of those years (1996, 2004, 2005 and 2009). She coached four All-Americans, five All-Region performers, three MWC Players of the Year, and 41 all-conference selections.

As athletic director, Johnson led the Red Hawks to unprecedented growth and success, attracting record numbers of student-athletes, introducing new sports and multiple new coaching positions to support the department’s 21 programs, generating historic alumni engagement and increasing donor support.

Under Johnson’s leadership, she created a culture of inclusivity across the department through her dedication to Title IX programming and sensitivity training, and to making community service a top priority among all her teams.

She served the Midwest Conference as chair of the membership committee and chair of the nomination committee; the NCAA Division-III as a member of the Championship Committee and PROPS Committee; the National Association of Collegiate Director of Athletics, Women Leaders in College Sports; and the Ripon Rotary.

In her honor, along with Men’s Basketball Coach Emeritus Bob Gillespie, Ripon College renamed the basketball court in Willmore Center in their names. Her other accolades include the Midwest Conference Coach of the Year award four times (1995, 2004, 2005 and 2009); NCAA Women’s Basketball Central Region Coach of the Year in 2004; induction into the Dakota State University Hall of Fame and Dakota State University Alumni Coach of the Year in 1996; and induction into the Ripon College Hall of Fame in 2005.

However, she was most proud of the successes of her student-athletes. “At Ripon, we take pride in our ability to develop competitive athletic teams year after year with student-athletes who demonstrate an enormous depth of talent both on and off the playing fields,” she said. “We are honored by the sheer volume of student-athletes from Ripon who go on to achieve academic all-conference mentions and similar accolades from the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association).

“We’re even more proud of our graduates’ records of achievement after leaving Ripon. As part of the team experience at Ripon College, our student-athletes show responsibility to their teams, but they also grow and mature as individuals. Practice and competition provide the opportunity for growth in all areas of life. They develop self-esteem, character, healthy relationships, and a healthy lifestyle, while learning to manage their coursework and other responsibilities.”

She died of cancer June 13, 2019, at the age of 53.