 Johnson in 2016 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Rafer Lewis Johnson |
| Born | (1934-08-18)August 18, 1934 Hillsboro, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | December 2, 2020(2020-12-02) (aged 86) Sherman Oaks,California, U.S. |
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.90 m) |
| Weight | 201 lb (91 kg) |
Spouse | |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
Event | Decathlon |
| Club | Southern California Striders, Anaheim |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personalbest(s) | 100 m – 10.3 (1957) 220 yd – 21.0 (1956) 400 m – 47.9 (1956) 110 mH – 13.8 (1956) HJ – 1.89 m (1955) PV – 4.09 m (1960) LJ – 7.76 m (1956) SP – 16.75 m (1958) DT – 52.50 m (1960) JT – 76.73 m (1960) Decathlon – 8392 (1960)[1] |
Rafer Lewis Johnson (August 18, 1934 – December 2, 2020) was an Americandecathlete and film and televisionactor. He was the 1960 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, having won silver in 1956. He had previously won a gold at the1955 Pan American Games. Johnson was the U.S. team's flag bearer at the 1960 Olympics and lit theOlympic cauldron at the1984 Summer Olympics.
In 1968, Johnson, football playerRosey Grier, and journalistGeorge Plimpton tackledSirhan Sirhan moments after he hadfatally shot Robert F. Kennedy.
After he retired from athletics, Johnson turned to acting, sportscasting, and public service and was instrumental in creating the CaliforniaSpecial Olympics. His acting career included appearances inThe Sins of Rachel Cade (1961), theElvis Presley filmWild in the Country (1961),Pirates of Tortuga (1961),None but the Brave (1965), twoTarzan films withMike Henry,The Last Grenade (1970),Soul Soldier (1970),Roots: The Next Generations (1979), the James Bond filmLicence to Kill (1989), andThink Big (1990).
Johnson was born inHillsboro, Texas on August 18, 1934.[a][3][4] His family moved toKingsburg, California, when he was aged nine.[5] For a while, they were the only black family in the town.[6] A versatile athlete, he played onKingsburg High School'ssoccer,baseball andbasketball teams. He was also elected class president in both junior high and high school.[6] The summer between his sophomore and junior years in high school (age 16), his coach Murl Dodson drove Johnson 24 miles (40 km) to Tulare and watchedBob Mathias compete in the 1952 U.S. Olympic decathlon trials.[7] Johnson told his coach, "I could have beaten most of those guys."[6] Dodson and Johnson drove back a month later to watch Mathias's victory parade. Weeks later, Johnson competed in a high school invitational decathlon and won the event. He also won the 1953 and 1954 California state high school decathlon meets.[7]
In 1954, as a freshman at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), his progress in the event was impressive; he broke theworld record in his fourth competition.[6] He pledgedPi Lambda Phi fraternity, America's first non-sectarian fraternity, and was class president[6] at UCLA. In 1955, inMexico City, he won the title at thePan American Games.[3]
Johnson qualified for both the decathlon and thelong jump events for the1956 Summer Olympics inMelbourne. However, he was hampered by an injury and forfeited his place in the long jump. Despite this handicap, he managed win silver in the decathlon behind compatriotMilt Campbell. It would turn out to be his last defeat in the event.[6]
Due to injury, Johnson missed the 1957 and 1959 seasons (the latter due to a car accident), but he broke the world record in 1958 and again in 1960.[2] The crown to his career came at the1960 Summer Olympics inRome. His most serious rival wasYang Chuan-Kwang (C. K. Yang) ofTaiwan. Yang also studied at UCLA; the two trained together under UCLA track coachElvin C. "Ducky" Drake and had become friends. In the decathlon, the lead swung back and forth between them. Finally, after nine events, Johnson led Yang by a small margin, but Yang was known to be better in the final event, the 1500 m. According toThe Telegraph (UK), "legend has it" that Drake gave coaching to both men, with him advising Johnson to stay close to Yang and be ready for "a hellish sprint" at the end, and advising Yang to put as much distance between himself and Johnson before the final sprint as possible.[8][9]
Johnson ran his personal best at 4:49.7 and finished just 1.2 sec slower than Yang, winning the gold by 58 points with an Olympic record total of 8,392 points. Both athletes were exhausted and drained and came to a stop a few paces past the finish line leaning against each other for support.[8] With this victory, Johnson ended his athletic career.[3]
At UCLA, Johnson also played basketball under legendary coachJohn Wooden and was a starter for theBruins on their1958–59 team.[10] Wooden considered Johnson a great defensive player, but sometimes regretted holding back his teams early in his coaching career, remarking, "imagine Rafer Johnson on the[fast] break."[6]
Johnson was selected by theLos Angeles Rams in the 28th round (333rd overall) of the1959 NFL draft as a running back.[11] Johnson was also selected as a guard by theLos Angeles Jets as one of their two territorial selections in the inaugural 1961ABL draft alongsideGary Phillips.[12] However, he would never play for either Los Angeles based team or in either professional sports league.
While training for the 1960 Olympics, his friendKirk Douglas told him about a part inSpartacus that Douglas thought might make him a star: the Ethiopian gladiator Draba, who refuses to kill Spartacus (played by Douglas) after defeating him in a duel. Johnson read for and got the role, but was forced to turn it down because theAmateur Athletic Union told him it would make him a professional and therefore ineligible for the Olympics under the rules of the time. The role eventually went to another UCLA great,Woody Strode.[6] In 1960, Johnson began acting inmotion pictures and working as a sportscaster. He made several film appearances, mostly in the 1960s. Johnson worked full-time as a sportscaster in the early 1970s. He was a weekend sports anchor on the local NBC affiliate in Los Angeles,KNBC, but seemed uncomfortable in that position and eventually moved on to other things.[13]
Johnson worked on thepresidential electioncampaign ofUnited States SenatorRobert F. Kennedy, and on June 5, 1968, with the help ofRosey Grier andGeorge Plimpton, he apprehendedSirhan Sirhan immediately after Sirhan hadassassinated Kennedy at theAmbassador Hotel inLos Angeles, California. Kennedy died the following day atGood Samaritan Hospital. Johnson discussed the experience in his autobiography,The Best That I Can Be (published in 1999 by Galilee Trade Publishing and co-authored with Philip Goldberg).[5]
Johnson served on the organizing committee for the firstSpecial Olympics competition inChicago in 1968, hosted by Special Olympics founder,Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the next year he led the founding of the California Special Olympics.[2] Johnson, along with a small group of volunteers, founded California Special Olympics in 1969 by conducting a competition at theLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum for 900 individuals with intellectual disabilities. Following the first California Games in 1969, Johnson became one of the original members of the board of directors. The board worked together to raise funds and offer a modest program of swimming and track and field. In 1983, Rafer ran for President of the Board to increase Board participation, reorganize the staff to most effectively use each person's talents, and expand fundraising efforts. He was elected president and served in the capacity until 1992, when he was named chairman of the Board of Governors.[14]
Johnson married Elizabeth Thorsen in 1971. They had two children and four grandchildren.[15]
Johnson's brotherJimmy was a member of thePro Football Hall of Fame and his daughterJennifer competed inbeach volleyball at the2000 Olympic Games inSydney following her collegiate career at UCLA.[1] His sonJoshua Johnson followed his father into track and field and had a podium finish in the javelin throw at theUSA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.[16]
Johnson participated in theArt of the Olympians program.[17]
Rafer Johnson died after suffering a stroke on December 2, 2020, in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 86.[18]
Johnson was namedSports Illustrated'sSportsman of the Year in 1958[19] and won theJames E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States in 1960, breaking that award's color barrier. In 1962, he received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[20] He was chosen to ignite theOlympic Flame during the opening ceremonies of the1984 Summer Olympics inLos Angeles, becoming the first Black athlete in Olympic history to do so.[6] In 1994, he was elected into the first class of the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame.[13]
In 1998, Johnson was named one ofESPN's 100 Greatest North American Athletes of the 20th Century. In 2006, theNCAA named him one of the 100 Most Influential Student Athletes of the past 100 years.[21] On August 25, 2009,Governor Schwarzenegger andMaria Shriver announced that Johnson would be one of 13California Hall of Fame inductees inThe California Museum's yearlong exhibit. The induction ceremony was on December 1, 2009, inSacramento, California.[22] Johnson was a member ofThe Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C. National Intercollegiate All-American Football Players Honor Roll.[23]
Rafer Johnson Junior High School inKingsburg, California is named in his honor, as are Rafer Johnson Community Day School and Rafer Johnson Children's Center, both inBakersfield, California.[24] The latter school, which has classes for special education students from the ages of birth-5, also puts on an annual Rafer Johnson Day. Every year Johnson himself spoke at the event and cheered on hundreds of students with special needs as they participated in a variety of track and field events.[25]
In 2010, Johnson received the Fernando Award for Civic Accomplishment from the Fernando Foundation and in 2011, he was inducted into the Bakersfield City School District Hall of Fame. Additionally, Rafer acted as the athletic advisor toDan Guerrero, Director of Athletics at UCLA. He was Inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame, Class of 2016.[26]
In November 2014, Johnson received the Athletes in Excellence Award fromThe Foundation for Global Sports Development, in recognition of his community service efforts and work with youth.[27]
In 2005, Johnson was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) degree fromWhittier College.[28]
I'm sure that in 1946 no one thought twice when they heard that another family named Johnson had moved into town; it was the most common name in Kingsburg.
At that moment, (Coach Elvin 'Ducky') Drake was like a master chess player competing against himself. He saw the whole board and was making the best moves for both sides.
| Olympic Games | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Flagbearer for United StatesRome 1960 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Final Olympic torchbearer Los Angeles 1984 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Final Summer Olympic torchbearer Los Angeles 1984 | Succeeded by Chung Sun-Man, Sohn Mi-Chung andKim Won-Tak |
| Preceded by | Track & Field Athlete of the Year 1960 | Succeeded by |
| Records | ||
| Preceded by | Men's decathlon world record holder June 11, 1955 – May 18, 1958 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Men's decathlon world record holder July 28, 1958 – May 17, 1959 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Men's decathlon world record holder July 9, 1960 – April 28, 1963 | Succeeded by |
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