Veteran banker moving back to the middle. (Walter Johnson) (company profile)

Veteran banker moving back to the middle

Some people reminisce about the past glory of playing on a championship football team. Walter Johnson will always remember working for Allied Bancshares.

For 16 of his 18 years with Allied, Johnson served as president of the holding company's lead bank in Houston, a bank that grew from $150 million to $5 billion between 1972 and 1986.

Now Johnson has signed on with a new team. But he still wants to play the type of ball Allied did at its peak.

Johnson hopes to build Northwest Crossing National Bank into a modern version of the old Allied juggernaut, which made its mark by serving middle-market businesses, companies with about $50 million in annual revenues.

"Allied was probably the best there was is that particular field of endeavor," Johnson says. "We built that bank on the idea that the middle market should not be treated as a training area for new loan officers."

Allied lasted …