He recalls New Zealand Breweries had done a great cartoon, urging everyone from 35 to 78 to be playing sport. Ironically several years later he ended up working for them.
Johnson was approaching the 40-year-old mark himself, was a husband and father and could relate to the emotions of wanting to play.
A professor from Long Beach University in California had wanted him to bring a group of oldies to play there but Johnson decided staging it in New Zealand would give it the best base to grow.
It proved to be the right move as a 17-team event in Auckland evolved into 49 in Los Angeles, blossoming into an international event that boasted a festival atmosphere which offered opportunities to travel overseas.
Johnson himself played for a Horowhenua rugby team, the Crusaders, modelled on a South African team, and wore Harlequin-type jerseys sporting square colours of blue, green and yellow.
"It was a very attractive looking jersey," he says, revealing he soldiered on as an oldie until he was 57.
Johnson isn't sure if he will attend the 2018 festival but suspects Bay teams might.
Next year's event will be the first time Golden Oldies sports festivals will be held for 10 different codes over four weeks in the one city and six months out organisers say they are on track to host the biggest sports event ever to be held in Christchurch.
Johnson, who started Golden Oldies Rugby in 1979, said that while it was difficult to get the concept started, once it was up and running he instinctively knew it would be successful.
"I always felt if rugby could be a success there was no reason why a number of other sports couldn't join the Golden Oldies fold and be as successful," he says.
Golden Oldies Rugby began in the era of amateur rugby and Johnson says players in the early days were mainly former provincial representatives who wanted to play like they were All Blacks.
"The weather could not have been worse for the first rugby festival held at Auckland in 1979. It rained persistently through every day of the tournament, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as matches tended to be played with the same intensity of former glory days and the horrendously wet fields slowed down the pace of games and meant fewer injuries."
According to Johnson, it also meant the off-field activities were a big focus, laying the foundations of the fun, friendship and fraternity ethos that has become a hallmark of the Golden Oldies movement.
A former provincial rugby player and New Zealand Rugby councillor, Johnson says he became increasingly concerned at the drop out from rugby of players in their mid-20s as work or marriage and family commitments took over.
"I wanted to find a way that players who were passionate about rugby but had limited time available could stay in the game and enjoy both the health and fitness benefits and also the sociability that rugby provides.
"At a personal level, the Golden Oldies concept also provided the opportunity to involve my wife and for us to travel to great destinations.
"By putting all these factors into the mixing bowl, the concept of Golden Oldies emerged," says Johnson.
Along with rugby, sports on the programme at Christchurch next April are cricket, netball, hockey, softball, golf, soccer, squash, basketball and lawn bowls, the latter four making their first appearance as Golden Oldies sports.
