Robert Walter "Whirlwind" Johnson (April 16, 1899 – June 28, 1971) was an American physician, college football player and coach, and founder of the American Tennis Association Junior Development Program for African-American youths, where he coached and fostered the careers of Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson.

[1] Johnson graduated in 1924 from Lincoln University, a historically black college in Pennsylvania.

[6][7] Johnson was the first African-American physician to receive practice rights at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia.

[9] In these years in the segregated South, they had no public courts where they could learn tennis, and many did not have money for lessons.

Johnson was instrumental in encouraging the athletic careers of both Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, whom he coached.