Jacob "Jake" Johnson

Jake Johnson died early on the morning of Friday 23 October 2026 at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, aged 45, after a three-year fight with leukemia. His wife, Cassie, announced his death on Facebook, and Millsap ISD confirmed it the same morning in a letter from Superintendent Dr. Harper Stewart, which called him a valued, respected and impactful member of the Millsap community for more than a decade.

At the family's request, the Bulldogs' home game against Eastland at Bulldog Stadium went ahead that evening as an "Orange Out", with fans asked to wear orange, the colour of leukemia awareness. His son Braun played in his honour and ran in a touchdown two plays into the game. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of the first reports.

Jacob Johnson was born on 19 December 1980, according to GM Sports Media. His wife later wrote that he loved his parents and his brother, checked in on them daily, and modelled his own family on his childhood. He attended Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, where he played football; a college teammate, Lancaster assistant coach Kevin Whitley, remembered him by the nickname "Rambo".

Johnson started coaching as a graduate assistant at Southwest Baptist University. He then held assistant coaching posts at Fort Worth Arlington Heights High School and at Richland High School in North Texas.

In 2015 Millsap ISD hired him as head football coach and athletic director of the Millsap Bulldogs, a Class 3A program in Parker County. His overall record at Millsap was 52-71. In 2018 he led the Bulldogs to the playoffs for the first time since 2009, and the team then made the postseason five years in a row from 2020 to 2024. In 2021 Millsap beat Henrietta 36-32 in the bi-district round, the school's first playoff victory since 1999, and the team won seven games in 2020 and six in each of 2021 and 2022.

After a 3-7 season in 2025, the 2026 Bulldogs won six straight games after losing their opener to Jacksboro, going 6-1 overall and 4-0 in District 5-3A Division II. His son Braun, a running back and linebacker in the class of 2028 with an offer from Lamar University, was among the leading rushers in Texas. When his illness returned, Johnson planned to coach from his hospital bed by calling in to his coordinators.

Johnson was married to Cassie Johnson, and they had two children, Braun and Payton. Cassie described him as a man who loved God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength, a devoted husband and an incredible father for whom everything was a teachable moment. Friends and colleagues described him as a man of deep Christian faith who saw coaching as a way to make disciples as well as football players.

He was diagnosed with leukemia about three years before his death. His treatment included intensive stem cell therapy, and he went into remission in the summer of 2026 before the disease relapsed in the autumn.

Johnson's time at Millsap revived a small-town program that had gone years without playoff football, bringing six playoff appearances and the school's first postseason win in more than two decades. The district said his work would shape the lives and values of students for decades to come, and coaches and former teammates across North Texas paid tribute to him as a mentor and a man of faith. His final team, coached through his illness and led on the field by his son, was having its best season in more than a decade when he died.