Touchdown!
Former football player Steve Johnson goes on to build a fortune in business

by Joan Tupponce
for Virginia Business
June 2007

A knee injury may have sidelined Steve Johnson’s professional football career, but it hasn’t stopped the former tight end from making a name in sports and business.

While growing up in Huntsville, Ala., Johnson dreamed of playing professional football. After a high school career at Oneonta High School, Virginia Tech recruited him to play in 1983. Johnson helped lead the Hokies to victory during Tech’s first-ever Peach Bowl in 1986 — a 25-24 victory over North Carolina State.

In 1988, dreams of gridiron glory seemed to be within reach when the National Football League’s New England Patriots drafted Johnson. He played for the Patriots two years before moving to the Dallas Cowboys in 1990. Then came a knee injury during preseason, and Johnson’s football days were over.

The blow was cushioned by his marriage that year to college sweetheart Kim Nicewonder. Johnson met his wife, who attended New River Community College in Pulaski, after matchmakers at Virginia Tech encouraged a meeting. He took her out for ice cream at Baskin-Robbins, recalls Johnson. “We’ve been together ever since.”

In 1991, Johnson joined his father-in-law, Don Nicewonder, a wealthy Southwest Virginia coal baron, to develop The Virginian Golf Club. Johnson owns 15 percent of the upscale golf/residential community in Bristol, Va. The success of that venture led him to open Johnson & Associates in 1995, a commercial real-estate development firm that helped him build a fortune of more than $80 million.

Yet, success didn’t come overnight. “After developing The Virginian, we found out there wasn’t enough pent-up demand to sell out the membership or the real estate,” says Johnson. So, he marketed the project to areas outside Bristol to reach second-home owners and retirees.

Johnson also beefed up the project’s amenities by building a 14-screen theater, restaurants and a shopping center on land he purchased near I-81 — investments welcomed by Bristol.

Today, Johnson’s company develops strip shopping centers across the country. He al so owns the Dixie Pottery, a well-known Southwest Virginia store that sells gifts from around the world. Johnson credits part of his company’s growth to relationships with prospering tenants whose businesses have also been growing.

He occasionally serves as a consultant to other football pros who want to get into real estate. NFL career rushing leader Emmitt Smith, a former Dallas Cowboy who played with Johnson, enlisted his help. “He understands the real estate industry real well,” says Smith. “He helped me focus on what I needed to learn to understand the business.”

The Johnsons divide their time between Bristol and Wellington, Fla., where some of their children compete in equestrian events. The family owns a dozen hunters and jumpers, but the 6-foot-6 inch, 250-pound Johnson doesn’t ride. “My feet would probably drag the ground.”

Besides, he’s already got a ride. At 41, John son races cars in the Rolex Series of the Grand Am, sanctioned by the Great American Road Racing Association. What started as a hobby in 2003 developed into a professional pursuit. In 2006, Johnson had eight top-10 finishes with his factory-built Porsche. “Going 180 miles per hour is easy,” he says. “Making that 90-degree right-hand turn at the end of the straightaway is the hard part.”

The racing doesn’t surprise Smith. “Everything he does, he does full throttle,” says the football star. “He brings his fire and desire from football into the business world.”

Back in Virginia, the Johnsons center philanthropic efforts on the United Way. “He did our campaign several years ago and increased the goal by $250,000,” says Lisa Cofer, executive director of the United Way of Bristol.

Kim, crowned Miss Virginia USA in 1989, stays busy with pageant business. She owns and directs the Miss Virginia USA and Miss Virginia Teen USA pageants. For the Johnson family, it all comes down to balance. “Family, work and what you love to do,” says Steve Johnson. “You have to know your priorities.”