Cecil Johns was an outspoken Northern California AA Pro BMX racer of the 1980s who ranked in BMX Action's 1987 Terrible Ten as an amateur, then coached the Boss Racing team into a powerhouse. He was inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame in 2004, the year he died.

Did Cecil Johns own the Boss BMX brand?

No. Boss Bicycles / Boss Racing Frames was founded and owned by Carlo Lucia in Oakland, California. Cecil Johns was a rider and, per his own BMX Hall of Fame record, the person who coached, formed, and shaped the Boss Racing team — a team role, not brand ownership.

What is Cecil Johns credited with in BMX culture?

Per his BMX Hall of Fame biography, Cecil Johns is credited with creating 'Nor Cal Pride' and the NCB ('Nor Cal Boys') identity Bay Area racers ran on their number plates in the late 1980s, and with coining BMX slang including 'pimpin', 'treatin', and 'pull' or 'full pull.'

When did Cecil Johns die?

2004. He was inducted into the BMX Hall of Fame the same year.

Cecil Johns

NorCal's AA Pro and the Voice Behind Boss Racing

A Legend Bike Co. rider page · researched from the BMX Hall of Fame record and period magazine coverage

At a glance

Scene Northern California / Bay Area
Era Amateur to AA Pro, mid-to-late 1980s
1987 BMX Action Terrible Ten Ranked #4 among the nation's fastest amateurs
Team Boss Racing
BMX Hall of Fame Inducted 2004
Died 2004

Cecil Johns raced fast enough to matter and talked loud enough that nobody who was there forgot him. He came up through the amateur ranks in Northern California, turned pro, and became the loudest, most recognizable voice of the Bay Area's BMX scene at a moment when Southern California assumed it owned the sport. Then, in the same year the BMX Hall of Fame inducted him, he died.

The 1987 Terrible Ten

BMX Action's annual "Terrible Ten" picked the ten fastest amateur racers in the country each year, and making the list was one of the sport's real honors. Cecil Johns ranked #4 in the 1987 edition, the same year Eric Carter, Mike King, and eventual BMX Hall of Famer Terry Tennette also made the cut. He turned pro not long after and kept climbing.

The Body-Building Pro

Once he turned pro, Johns became, in the words of his own BMX Hall of Fame record, the leader of the "body-building" pro class of the mid-to-late 1980s — racing with professional training techniques and, at times, a weight belt. He was fast. According to his Hall of Fame biography, the speed sometimes got overlooked because of his flamboyant personality and straight-forward speak. He was, by every account checked for this page, one of the most outspoken AA Pros the sport ever had.

Nor Cal Pride

Johns is the rider the BMX Hall of Fame credits with building "Nor Cal Pride" into a real identity. Bay Area racers in the late 1980s ran the letters NCB — Nor Cal Boys — on their number plates, and Johns, alongside fellow NorCal pro Terry Tennette and what his Hall of Fame bio calls "the entire Calabazas crew," turned a small regional rivalry with Southern California into something much bigger. "So. Cal. was played out," he said, in his own words as recorded by the BMX Hall of Fame. He's also credited there with coining a run of BMX slang that outlasted his career: "pimpin'," "treatin'," and "pull" or "full pull" for a rider laying down real power.

Boss Racing — Coach, Not Owner

Johns rode for Boss Racing, the Oakland-built brand Carlo Lucia founded and ran through several ownership changes. His own Hall of Fame record credits him with more than just riding for the team: it says he was "responsible for helping put Boss, the official Bike of Nor. Cal, on the map; coaching, forming and shaping the incredible underdog team, Boss Racing, to the powerhouse it became." That's a team-building role, not brand ownership — Boss itself belonged to Carlo Lucia, and later to other owners, across its run. Boss counted a run of BMX Hall of Famers among its riders over the years, Johns among them alongside Frank Post, Cheri Elliott, Ronnie Anderson, Steve Veltman, Terry Tennette, and Charles Townsend.

2004

Cecil Johns died in 2004. The BMX Hall of Fame inducted him that same year, calling his death "a shock to the BMX community and a sad end to one of the all-time most outspoken AA-pros the sport has ever seen." In 2020, Calabazas Cyclery in San Jose — the shop tied to the same Calabazas crew his Hall of Fame bio names — commissioned Kelly Bike Company in Northern California to hand-build three tribute mountain bike frames, the CJPro 26, modeled after the 1990s dual-slalom frames Johns had helped design. One went to Phil Wood & Co. as a shop bike. Johns's family supported the project.

Where the record runs thin: Cecil Johns's birth date, hometown, and a full national results ledger beyond his 1987 Terrible Ten ranking are not documented in the sources checked for this page. A claim circulating in some general web summaries that Johns "had his own BMX brand called Boss" and "imported and represented Grossman bikes in the US" could not be corroborated by any primary source checked here — bmxmuseum.com's own Boss Bicycles record credits Carlo Lucia as founder and owner, not Johns, so that specific claim is left out of this page rather than repeated unverified. If you have firsthand knowledge of Cecil Johns's racing record or his years with Boss Racing, Legend Bike Co. wants to hear from you.

Where Cecil Johns fits in the bigger story

Team: Boss Racing. Riders: Darwin Griffin, the young Boss amateur BMX Action described as following in rookie pro Cecil Johns's footsteps in its 1988 Terrible Ten coverage. The bigger arc is in our History of BMX series.

Sources

USA BMX / National BMX Hall of Fame, official Cecil Johns Hall of Fame biography (usabmx.com, posted April 22, 2012), the primary source for the Terrible Ten ranking, the body-building pro-class description, the Nor Cal Pride and NCB account, the coined slang, the Boss Racing team-building credit, and the direct quotes used on this page. USA BMX / PULL BMX, "The Terrible Ten Tradition" (usabmx.com), confirming Johns's 1987 Terrible Ten placement and his 2004 Hall of Fame induction year, and the Darwin Griffin cross-reference from the 1988 Terrible Ten. sugarcayne.com, "Cecil Johns Tribute U.S. Boss Racing MTB: CJPro 26" (April 2020, Brad Davis), for the 2020 tribute frame project and the 2004 death date. bmxmuseum.com, Boss Bicycles brand history page, cross-checked for Boss ownership (Carlo Lucia, not Johns). Legend Bike Co.'s own Boss Racing chapter, cross-referenced for team and rider-roster consistency. oldschoolmags.com and bmxsociety.com were checked first per house research standards; bmxsociety.com's "Cecil Johns video tribute" thread could not be loaded through the tools available for this research session, disclosed here plainly.

Country/region