Jimmy Johnson, who will enter his 14th year at the Patriot League in the fall of 2023, was promoted to the assistant commissioner for multimedia in July 2018, and he oversees live and on-demand production for the Patriot League on ESPN+.
Johnson joined the Patriot League in August 2009 as a media relations intern and re-joined the Patriot League staff in August 2010 to assume the newly created position of coordinator of multimedia/media relations. Two years later, he was promoted to associate director for communications/multimedia, and in 2013, he was named the director for multimedia.
Johnson has increased the Patriot League’s visibility in multimedia by producing weekly on-demand video content for the League’s social media platforms and streaming partners. He produces several live events for the Patriot League on ESPN each year, including the Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Swimming and Diving Championships, and the Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championship. Johnson also provides production assistance to the League’s member institutions.
Johnson has led the Patriot League to have a pair of productions win SVG College Sports Media Awards over the last five years, with nine other productions (live and ondemand) finishing as finalists. In 2022, the Patriot League had three finalists for the third time, and won the SVG Award for Outstanding Program Series for its #TitleIXat50 series. In 2019, Johnson’s live event production of the Indoor Track and Field Championships was named the Outstanding Live Game Production.
Prior to re-joining the League in August 2010, Johnson served as the Reading Royals beat writer for the Reading Eagle, a daily newspaper in Reading, PA. He also covered college and prep sports for the Reading Eagle from 2007 – 2010.
Johnson also served as the graduate assistant in sports information at Kutztown University from 2007 – 2009. While at Kutztown, he attained his master’s in electronic media producing a weekly video Webcast for the athletic department. Johnson served as the interim sports information director for four months before graduating.
Johnson also has worked for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, The Pitt News, and the Lewistown Sentinel. He was the University of Pittsburgh football and basketball beat writer in 2004 – 2005 and the Penn State football beat writer from 2005 – 2007. Johnson has also written pieces for Street and Smith’s and Sports Illustrated On Campus, and has taught English classes as an adjunct professor at Albright College. He also is a published author, co-authoring a pair of mystery novels, Last Day and Forest Through the Trees, under the pseudonym of Mark Patrick.
A native of Reading, PA, Johnson has a bachelor’s degree in media communications and criminal justice from the University of Pittsburgh. He resides in Allentown, PA with his family.