Growing up the son of legendary hockey coach "Badger Bob" Johnson, it was no wonder Mark Johnson would go on to achieve greatness. Raised in the Badger State, Johnson went on to play hockey at the University of Wisconsin and led the Badgers to the 1977 national championship during his freshman campaign—garnering WCHA Rookie of the Year honors along the way. Johnson would emerge as a star in Madison, becoming the school's second all-time leading scorer with 256 points in just three seasons. In addition, the two-time first team All-WCHA pick and a two-time All-American was named as the 1978-78 WCHA MVP as well.

From there, Johnson went on to represent USA Hockey as a player in 13 international tournaments. Most notably, he led the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team's gold medal-winning effort with 11 points, including two goals in the "Miracle-On-Ice" game against the Soviet Union. Following his Olympic experience, Johnson embarked on a successful 11-year NHL career, garnering 203 goals, 305 assists and 508 points with five different teams from 1980-90.

Johnson's coaching career began when he led the expansion Madison Monsters to a 37-30-7 mark in the 1995-96 season, while earning Colonial Hockey League Coach of the Year honors. He also led a pair of area high schools, serving as the head coach for Verona for 1994-95 and as the assistant coach for Madison Memorial for 1993-94. Johnson served as an assistant coach with the 2000 World Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia as well as the 2002 U.S. Men's National Team that competed in the 2002 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Sweden.

From 1996-2002, Johnson was an assistant coach with the University of Wisconsin's Men's Hockey Team and in 2002 he took over the head coaching reigns of the University of Wisconsin Women's Hockey Team—earning WCHA Co-Coach of the Year honors that next year.

Among Johnson's many honors and accolades, he is a 1999 inductee into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame, a 2003 inductee into the State of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame and is also a charter member of Wisconsin's National W Club Hall of Fame. And, in addition to being inducted with the 1980 Gold Medal Olympic Team into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004, the Vince Lombardi Charitable Funds named Johnson as its 2004 Vince Lombardi "Award of Excellence" honoree.