11.21.24
Shocker hoops great mentors schoolkids “one step at a time”
Lynbert “Cheese” Johnson ’79 is a big name in Shocker basketball. Johnson helped lead Wichita State to the 1976 NCAA Tournament, for starters, and went on to rep WSU in the pros. These days, this multiple Halls of Fame athlete is scoring name recognition with a totally new audience — Wichita-area middle school students.
“I’m at Collegiate today,” Johnson says over the phone while in action for his UJUMP Inc. mentoring and entrepreneurial program, which he founded in 2020. The program, a 501(c)3 non-profit, centers on providing participating 4th-7th grade students guidance, support and a variety of learning experiences. He and other program administrators work closely with parents, school principals and teachers to develop individual and small-group game plans to help students gain success both in and out of the classroom.
“Our UJUMP classes are small, just about five students per school,” says Johnson, who visits each school in the program once a week and meets with students individually and as a group. “We also go on field trips and visit local businesses and colleges and sports facilities. We try to show students every point from A to Z for them to be successful.” Students are selected by school principals, with feedback provided by teachers and parents. UJUMP is supported by community sponsors, which allows student participation at no cost the school districts, schools or families.
As a high school senior in his native New York City, Johnson was rated among the top 15 high school basketball players in the nation in 1975. Recruited by Ralph Miller, he chose to play college ball at Wichita State and helped lead the team to the NCAA Tournament and a Missouri Valley Conference title in 1976, the same year he garnered MVC Newcomer of the Year accolades. The 6-5 forward earned all-conference honors in 1977, 1978 and 1979. During his career, he averaged 17.3 points and 9.3 rebounds per game, amassing 1,907 career points, which still ranks 7th in Shocker sports history, and 1,027 rebounds, which stands at 3rd in WSU record books.
After graduating, he was selected in the third round of the 1979 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors. He played nine games for the Warriors during the 1979-1980 season and went on to play two years in the Continental Basketball Association. He was inducted into the Shocker Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.
After basketball, Johnson worked in Atlanta, Georgia, for 18 years as a manager for Whole Foods. In 2016, he teamed up with two fellow Shocker greats — Aubrey Sherrod ’86 and Xavier McDaniel ’96 — to return to Wichita and host a free-of-charge basketball camp for local youngsters. The Future All-American Basketball Camp, Johnson is quick to share, will be celebrating its 10th year next summer.
In 2018, he made Wichita his home base again with a focus on giving back to the community he had grown to love. “Wichita has so many nice, friendly people,” he says. “This is where I want to be.” Plus, there’s far less travel time involved in attending basketball games at Koch Arena, where he most recently watched the Shockers defeat their old conference rival Northern Iowa, 79-73. As excited as Johnson can get about Shocker basketball, his long-term vision is on UJUMP and its mission of serving Wichita-area youth — as he puts it: “shaping the future” by helping boys and girls get a good start on their futures, “one step at a time.”
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