Rafer L. Johnson*

Rafer Johnson was born in 1935 in Hillsboro, Texas. When he was a toddler, he and his parents moved to Dallas, where they lived until he was nine. Then they moved to Kingsburg, California. For a while, the family lived in a railroad boxcar near a cannery where Johnson's father worked on the railroad. Later, his father got a job as a handyman, and his mother began working as a domestic helper. Those jobs allowed them to move into a small house.

Johnson attended the University of California at Los Angeles, where he competed in his first decathlon in 1954 as a freshman. He broke the world record in his fourth competition; in 1955, he won the title at the Pan American Games in Mexico City. Johnson qualified for both the decathlon and the long jump events for the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. An injury kept him from competing in the long jump, but he earned a silver medal in the decathlon. In 1960, at the Rome Olympics, he won the gold medal in the decathlon.

Johnson was elected to the National Track & Field Hall of Fame and the Black Athletes Hall of Fame. He was one of the Junior Chamber of Commerce's Outstanding Young Men in the United States in 1960, the same year he was named AP Athlete of the Year and Sports Illustrated's Athlete of the Year.

In 1960, he began acting in motion pictures and worked as a sportscaster. In 1968, while working on the presidential election campaign of Senator Robert Kennedy, he and others helped wrestle Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, to the floor. In 1984, he ignited the Olympic Flame during the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Johnson devoted much of his time to the mentally and physically disabled, particularly with Special Olympics. He served as president, national head coach, and member of the national board of California Special Olympics, and on the national board of Reebok's human rights program. Johnson has worked with the California Interscholastic Federation and spoke at numerous coach and student seminars.

In 1998, Johnson published his autobiography, The Best That I Can Be. "The great thing about sports and athletics, and everything in life, is that you make the most of what you have at the time," he said. "That's the only criterion you can use to judge how you performed. When I was competing, I think the athletes were as good as they could be, and I don't think anybody can ask any more than that."