Rafer Johnson, who carried the American flag into Rome’s Olympic Stadium in August 1960 as the primary Black captain of a United States Olympic crew and went on to win gold in a memorable decathlon duel, bringing him acclaim because the world’s biggest all-around athlete, died on Wednesday at his residence within the Sherman Oaks part of Los Angeles. He was 86.
Michael Roth, a household good friend and spokesman, confirmed the loss of life.
Johnson by no means competed after that decathlon triumph. He grew to become a good-will ambassador for the USA and a detailed affiliate of the Kennedy household, taking a management position within the Special Olympics, which have been championed by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and becoming a member of Robert F. Kennedy’s entourage throughout Kennedy’s presidential marketing campaign in 1968. He was remembered particularly for serving to to wrestle the senator’s murderer to the bottom in Los Angeles in 1968.
Johnson’s nationwide profile was largely molded on the 1960 Olympics, probably the most celebrated within the historical past of the Video games, a second when a number of African-American athletes burst triumphantly onto the world stage. Muhammad Ali, recognized then as Cassius Clay, captured boxing gold within the light-heavyweight division. Wilma Rudolph swept to victory within the ladies’s 100- and 200-meter dashes and mixed together with her Tennessee State teammates for gold within the 4 x 100 relay. Oscar Robertson helped take the USA basketball crew to a gold medal.
Johnson had been chosen to talk on behalf of the American Olympians at a sendoff rally at Metropolis Corridor in New York.
He “flawlessly referred to as out the names of the handfuls of teammates who stood at his aspect,” David Maraniss wrote in “Rome 1960: The Olympics That Modified the World” (2008). “He had a agency grasp of the event, and crew officers took discover. His efficiency in New York, alongside along with his stature because the gold medal favourite within the decathlon, satisfied the officers that Johnson needs to be the U.S. captain in Rome and the primary black athlete to hold the U.S. flag at an Olympic opening ceremonies.
“There might be no extra priceless determine within the propaganda warfare with the Soviet Union, which wasted no alternative to denounce the racial inequities of the USA.”
Johnson’s slender decathlon victory over C.K. Yang of Taiwan and U.C.L.A., good friend, offered an exciting second in its personal proper.
Johnson, a 25-year-old graduate of U.C.L.A. and a chiseled 6 toes 3 inches and 200 kilos, was the favourite going into the two-day decathlon, a 10-event take a look at of versatility, power, pace and endurance that included sprints, excessive hurdles, pole-vaulting, the excessive leap and broad leap, the javelin and discus throws, and the 1,500-meter run.
He had gained silver within the decathlon on the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, ending behind Milt Campbell of the U.S., who turned to professional soccer afterward. He had bested Vasily Kuznetsov of the Soviet Union at a meet at Lenin Stadium in Moscow in 1958, inspiring spectators to place apart Chilly Conflict points and cheer his achievement. And he scored a world-record 8,683 factors within the decathlon on the 1960 Olympic monitor and discipline trials in Oregon.
However he confronted a stiff problem in Rome from the 27-year-old Yang, who was representing Formosa, the Olympic designation on the time for Taiwanese athletes. Each have been educated by Elvin Drake, referred to as Ducky, the U.C.L.A. monitor and discipline coach.
The decathlon duel was determined in its remaining occasion, the 1,500 meters, through which Yang was particularly sturdy. Johnson, main on factors, didn’t must win the occasion to seize the gold medal, however he did want to complete inside 10 seconds of Yang.
“I deliberate to stay with him like a buddy in fight,” Johnson informed The Los Angeles Occasions in 1990. “I had one different benefit, and I don’t suppose C.Okay. knew this on the time. This was my final decathlon. I used to be ready to run as quick as I needed to on this final race of my life.”
Yang, who died in 2007, recalled, “I knew he would by no means let go of me except he collapsed.” Johnson completed 1.2 seconds behind Yang, ok to seize gold, with Yang getting silver and Kuznetsov capturing bronze.
Johnson later acquired the 1960 Sullivan Award as America’s main novice athlete. After that, he launched into new chapters in his life.
He met Robert Kennedy at an awards ceremony quickly after the Rome Video games and have become a part of the senator’s marketing campaign for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination.
He was escorting a pregnant Ethel Kennedy by a crowd of supporters on the Ambassador Resort in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968 — moments after her husband had claimed victory within the California Democratic major — when Kennedy was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant who had been indignant at Kennedy for his assist of Israel.
Johnson and his fellow Kennedy supporter Roosevelt Grier, the previous star defensive deal with for the Giants and the Los Angeles Rams, joined with others, together with the creator George Plimpton, in subduing Sirhan.
“My hand clamped down on the weapon,” Johnson recalled in his memoir, “The Finest That I Can Be” (1998, with Philip Goldberg). “Rosey’s hand got here down on mine. With a dozen others pushing and shoving, we pressured Sirhan onto a steam desk, then to the ground. I twisted Sirhan’s fingers to unlock the weapon.”
Rafer Lewis Johnson was born on Aug. 18, 1934, in Hillsboro, Texas, south of Dallas, to Lewis and Alma (Gibson) Johnson. When he was about 18 months previous, his dad and mom moved to an African-American neighborhood in Dallas, the place they lived amid poverty and segregation.
The household went to California when Rafer was a teen and ultimately settled in Kingsburg, within the agricultural San Joaquin Valley. The city had many individuals of Swedish descent, and he would keep in mind that they welcomed his household. However life was nonetheless onerous.
His father labored in a cannery, amongst different jobs, and for a 12 months the household lived in a close-by railroad boxcar. However as Johnson recalled it, issues have been much better than they’d been in Texas.
“I don’t care if I by no means see Texas once more,” he as soon as informed ESPN. “If my household had stayed in Texas, I not solely wouldn’t have represented the USA within the Olympic Video games, I wouldn’t have ever gone to varsity.”
Johnson excelled in soccer, basketball and baseball in addition to monitor and discipline in highschool, however he centered on the decathlon, impressed by seeing the Olympic gold-medalist Bob Mathias in motion in close by Tulare, Calif.
He entered U.C.L.A. in 1954 and performed for the famend coach John Picket’s basketball crew there whereas coaching for decathlons. He additionally grew to become president of the coed physique.
His Olympic triumph behind him, Johnson visited many international locations within the early Sixties as a good-will ambassador for the State Division. He acted on tv exhibits and in Hollywood motion pictures, together with “Wild within the Nation” (1961) with Elvis Presley and Tuesday Weld. He was additionally a sports activities broadcaster in Los Angeles.
In 1968, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a driving drive within the creation of the Particular Olympics for folks with mental and bodily disabilities, drew Johnson into the group. He grew to become a founding father of its Southern California chapter and was later named its chairman. He additionally did promotional work for Hershey, Reebok and different firms.
Johnson married Elizabeth Thorsen in 1971. She survives him, alongside along with his brother Jimmy Johnson, a former cornerback for the San Francisco 49ers and a member of the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame; two kids, Josh Johnson and Jennifer Johnson Jordan, who was a member of the U.S. ladies’s seashore volleyball crew on the 2000 Sydney Olympics and is now a volleyball coach at U.C.L.A.; and 4 grandchildren.
Johnson’s remaining second within the Olympic highlight got here when he climbed a precarious 99 steps on the Los Angeles Coliseum to mild the caldron for the 1984 Video games.
“I used to be, in a way, an Olympian once more, making ready to will my physique to do one thing distinctive,” he wrote in his memoir. “Was I involved about making it to the highest of the steps? Sure. Was I occupied with whether or not I would journey or fall? Sure. Did I’ve any doubt that I might come by? No.”
Alex Traub contributed reporting.
