6 November 2023
MANHATTAN (KSNT) – Most people never think twice about their name, unless they share it with someone else, especially a person who’s well-known. That’s the case for one Kansas State student.
Avery Johnson is a K-State junior, and she happens to have the same name as the football team’s true freshman quarterback, Avery Johnson. Not only do the two share the name, but they also have similar blonde, curly hair.
Johnson, who is one of two 2024 Student Ambassadors at K-State, says this is new territory for her.
“I went to a small school, and I was the only Avery Johnson, or Avery in my school,” Johnson said. “So, I’m like okay this is weird, but we’ll roll with it. Like there’s a lot of Sarah’s and Hannah’s, just sort of feeling like that.”
The junior from Beloit, Kansas told 27 News that when ‘the football Avery’ got to campus, her name started to get more recognition. She recalled her favorite memory from picking up a to-go order at Chipotle not too long ago.
“I hear this guy, ‘I know it wasn’t him I told you guys,'” Johnson said. “And one of my friends was over there and I was like ‘What is going on?’ And they’re like, ‘We waited here for 20 minutes because we thought Avery Johnson the football player had a mobile order, but it was actually you.’ And I was like, ‘Sorry to disappoint.'”
Johnson embraces the situation, laughing off each coincidence at they come her way. She said she even had someone send her a text about an NIL deal that was meant for Avery, the football player.
Her sorority sisters have even racked up a few funny moments of their own by being close to Avery, the Student Ambassador.
“When we’re talking here with my friends, we’ll be like, “Oh, Avery Johnson had that really cool thing,’ and they’re like, ‘Which Avery Johnson?'” Sadye Patterson, a K-State sophomore said. “And we’re like, ‘No, no, no, football.’ So we kind of have to clarify, but it’s funny.”
Patterson brought a sign with pictures of both Avery’s on it to K-State’s home football game against Houston on Saturday.
K-State announced that Johnson won the 2024 Student Ambassador job before the game, bringing even more attention to the sign. Johnson’s friends say, she made the sign herself as a joke during her Student Ambassador campaign.
“When she was going through the interview process, she had made a sign for her interviews,” Patterson said. “So with the company she used, she got a free print.”
Johnson made sure that free print was used on something good.
“And I look at my camera roll and the last thing that was on my camera roll is a side-by-side of me and Avery Johnson the quarterback,” Johnson said. Because I had just sent it to my mom and I was like, ‘We have the same hair, we can maybe do a little hair routine mix, show what each other uses.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, this is kind of funny.’ So I was like I’ll just print it, it’s one free print anyway. So I print it, and I was like, ‘It’s going to make my sorority sisters laugh nonetheless.’
Most people would be sick of all the attention by now, but Johnson is a pretty good sport. She told 27 News this is something she’s going to tell her kids about someday.
According to Johnson, there’s actually four people named ‘Avery Johnson’ on campus that she’s aware of. If anything, Johnson said, it’s added some funny moments to her college memories, and makes for a great conversation starter.