IHSA Assistant Executive Director
sjohnson@ihsa.org
Scott Johnson has served IHSA member schools as an Assistant Executive Director since July 2001. Johnson began his career in August 1994 as Data Processing Manager.
During his tenure at the IHSA, Johnson has managed the Association's internal and external computer operations, including the IHSA Web site, and served as editor of IHSA souvenir programs and other publications. Since 2002, Johnson has run the IHSA's team chess tournament. Johnson served as chairman of the NFHS Records Committee, which publishes the National High School Sports Record Book, from 2005 to 2009. He has also served on the NFHS Technology Committee and the Board of Directors of the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
His love of high school sports history and records has earned him the unofficial title of IHSA historian. In 2002, the IHSA published a book written by Johnson and his wife, Julie Kistler. Once There Were Giants commemorates the Hebron Green Giants, who won the 1952 single-class basketball championship with an enrollment of just 98 students. Johnson edited and co-wrote 100 Years of Madness, a history of the IHSA boys' basketball tournament that was published in 2007. In 2018, Johnson wrote Association Work, a biography of C. W. Whitten and H. V. Porter, the first two executives employed by the Illinois High School Association.
Johnson also initiated the IHSA Archives project, a large collection of films and videotapes of IHSA state final events available on YouTube.
Prior to joining the IHSA, Johnson worked for six years as a systems programmer in the University of Illinois' Computer-Based Education Research Laboratory, and before that for seven years at Control Data Corporation in Minneapolis.
Johnson is a graduate of Elgin High School and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He and his wife Julie live in Bloomington.