At least once a decade, it would seem, an athlete comes along who simply blows everyone else out of the water.In the late 1950s, that athlete would have been Lorne “Tippy” Johnson Jr. of Lynn English.Johnson, who died recently in Florida, was “the 1950s version of Harry Agganis, I always thought,” said Lynn’s Ernie Carpenter, a teammate on the 1956 state championship hockey team – the first of two straight titles Johnson helped the Bulldogs win. “He was a tremendous athlete, and a natural. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do ? I went way back with him, and we had some memorable times.”In high school, Johnson achieved much fame for the three sports he played at English – football, hockey and baseball – but it certainly didn’t end there.In junior high, he was a standout basketball player, Carpenter said. He could also swim, and – according to Harold “Red” Foote, his hockey coach at English, “he could hit he golf ball a little, too.””I think we were all a little jealous of him, to tell you the truth,” Carpenter said.Those who knew him would say his best sport was hockey, even though he was good enough in football to lead the state in scoring his senior year; and good enough in baseball to sign a contract with the Milwaukee Braves, and play in their farm system, after graduating.”Still,” said English principal Andy Fila, two years behind Johnson in school and a former goalie for the Bulldogs, “I’d have to say hockey was his game. If he were around today, there’s no question he’d be a National Hockey League-caliber player.”When Johnson was a sophomore, he, along with Carpenter and Don Spinney (another teammate), went to a tryout with the Bruins.”We stayed right up until the end,” Carpenter said, “and Tippy was one of the two from Massachusetts who got picked. He went up to Montreal, and was all set to leave English and get within their system, and live with a family, but he didn’t last more than a couple of weeks and was back home.””You have to remember,” Fila said, “that there were only six teams in the NHL in those days, and there were no Americans playing. And they didn’t treat you well if you tried to play, either.””I’d say that’s about right,” Carpenter said. “He pretty much told me that he had the bull’s-eye on his back while he was up there.”Montreal’s loss was certainly English’s – and Foote’s – gain. With Johnson skating on right wing, the Bulldogs won back-to-back titles in 1956 and 1957. He scored a hat trick in the ’56 game, a 5-2 win over Malden Catholic.”First goal, he goes all the way around the back of the net, comes back out and tucks it into the corner,” said Carpenter. “Second goal, same thing. Third time around, he goes around, and the goalie goes to the side where he was heading.”Tippy stops, goes back the other way, and puts it in the spot where the goalie vacated,” Carpenter said.”He was probably as good as anyone I ever had,” said Foote. “He was exceptional for a high school player. At least that’s the way I felt about it.”He was responsible for a lot of our success,” Foote said, “and he had exceptional talents and a knack for the game that kids at that age normally do not have.”Fila says that as far as elite hockey talent in this area goes, former St. John’s Prep star and one-time Boston Bruin Bobby Carpenter would have to be the standard, “and I’d say that, for his time, Tippy was right up there with him. He’s certainly up there with guys like (former Lynners) Larry Pleau and Tommy Rowe (currently an assistant with the Carolina Hurricanes),” he said.”His parents encouraged him to go with baseball, because they thought he’d have better opportunities,” Foote said, “but I think he’d have been able to play in the NHL.”As for Bobby Carpenter, “I wouldn’t want to have to pick between them,” Foote said. “They were both very good.”Perhaps Johnson’s best friend growing up was Bob Comeau of Lynn.”He was just a natural athlete in everything he did,” Comeau said. “Back when we were kids, there used to be a big factor