32 Facts About Rafer Johnson

1.

Rafer Lewis Johnson was an American decathlete and film actor.

2.

Rafer Johnson was the 1960 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, having won silver in 1956.

3.

Rafer Johnson had previously won a gold in the 1955 Pan American Games.

4.

Rafer Johnson was the USA team's flag bearer at the 1960 Olympics and lit the Olympic cauldron at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

5.

Rafer Johnson's acting career included appearances in The Sins of Rachel Cade, the Elvis Presley film Wild in the Country, Pirates of Tortuga, None but the Brave, two Tarzan films with Mike Henry, The Last Grenade, Soul Soldier, Roots: The Next Generations, the James Bond film Licence to Kill, and Think Big.

6.

Rafer Johnson was born in Hillsboro, Texas on August 18,1934.

7.

Rafer Johnson's family moved to Kingsburg, California, when he was aged nine.

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8.

Rafer Johnson was elected class president in both junior high and high school.

9.

Weeks later, Rafer Johnson competed in a high school invitational decathlon and won the event.

10.

Rafer Johnson won the 1953 and 1954 California state high school decathlon meets.

11.

Rafer Johnson pledged Pi Lambda Phi fraternity, America's first non-sectarian fraternity, and was class president at UCLA.

12.

Rafer 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.

13.

Rafer Johnson was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the 28th round of the 1959 NFL Draft as a running back.

14.

Rafer Johnson read for and got the role, but was forced to turn it down because the Amateur Athletic Union told him it would make him a professional and therefore ineligible for the Olympics.

15.

In 1960, Rafer Johnson began acting in motion pictures and working as a sportscaster.

16.

Rafer Johnson made several film appearances, mostly in the 1960s.

17.

Rafer Johnson worked full-time as a sportscaster in the early 1970s.

18.

Rafer Johnson 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.

19.

Rafer Johnson discussed the experience in his autobiography, The Best That I Can Be.

20.

Rafer Johnson served on the organizing committee for the first Special Olympics competition in Chicago in 1968, hosted by Special Olympics founder, Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the next year he led the founding of the California Special Olympics.

21.

In 1983, Rafer Johnson 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.

22.

Rafer Johnson was elected president and served in the capacity until 1992, when he was named chairman of the Board of Governors.

23.

Rafer Johnson's brother Jimmy is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and his daughter Jennifer competed in beach volleyball at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney following her collegiate career at UCLA.

24.

Rafer Johnson died after suffering a stroke on December 2,2020, in Sherman Oaks, California.

25.

Rafer Johnson was chosen to ignite the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, becoming the first Black athlete in Olympic history to do so.

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26.

In 1998, Rafer Johnson was named one of ESPN's 100 Greatest North American Athletes of the 20th Century.

27.

Rafer Johnson was a member of The Pigskin Club of Washington, DC National Intercollegiate All-American Football Players Honor Roll.

28.

Every year Rafer 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.

29.

In 2010, Rafer 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.

30.

Additionally, Rafer Johnson acted as the athletic advisor to Dan Guerrero, Director of Athletics at UCLA.

31.

Rafer Johnson was Inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame, Class of 2016.

32.

In November 2014, Rafer Johnson received the Athletes in Excellence Award from The Foundation for Global Sports Development, in recognition of his community service efforts and work with youth.