PEOPLE TO PEOPLE - STUDENTS

Still opening doors for others

Sunday, December 24, 2006

By John Werner

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Rafer Johnson has traveled the world, but part of his soul still belongs in Hillsboro.

The renowned Olympian owns a corner lot in Hillsboro where his grandfather’s house used to stand. Whenever he comes through Texas, Johnson visits the lot to cut down weeds or to simply reflect on the early years of his life in the 1930s.

No matter where his life has taken him, Johnson has never forgotten his roots.

“I’ll probably always hold on to that piece of property,” Johnson said. “I feel a real connection to Hillsboro and to Texas. I remember working with my grandfather in his garden. He grew some of the best vegetables I’ve ever had.”

Rafer Johnson, shown here in 1963, talks with a family who appeared in their Slavic costumes at the International Family Day held in Berkeley, Calif. In 1963, Johnson was the Director of People to People’s West Coast office.

From his early hardscrabble days in Texas, Johnson has fashioned an almost mythical life.

After starring at UCLA, he became a national hero when he won the 1960 decathlon at the Rome Olympics in a nail-biting finish over college teammate C.K. Yang. The USA chose Johnson to light the torch to kick off the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

For nearly 50 years, he’s been a humanitarian and spokesman for many organizations including Special Olympics and People to People. He campaigned for Bobby Kennedy, and helped wrestle assassin Sirhan Sirhan to the ground after he shot the presidential hopeful in Los Angeles in 1968.

In February, Johnson will be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. In a way, he’s come full circle.

“Rafer has always seemed like Superman to me,” said Jimmy Johnson, who followed his older brother to UCLA before becoming a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back for the San Francisco 49ers. “His life seems like it could belong to four people. When I was going to college at UCLA, I began to realize what a vast jigsaw puzzle his life was. He’d be training for the decathlon and he’d still be going here and there to speak to many different clubs and organizations. I’m still in a state of awe about the path he’s blazed.”

Now 71, Johnson lives in Sherman Oaks, Calif., and travels across the country speaking for Special Olympics and various youth programs. He feels driven to reach out to people because he wants to give them hope. His speeches recall the coaches and teachers who gave him the confidence to build a successful life.

“I’ve been able to do a lot of things, but I couldn’t have done them without people helping me out during different stages of life,” Johnson said. “I’ve also found that you’re not going to find success at every corner. I’ve probably learned more from losses than victories.”

Bill Shumard, the president of Southern California Special Olympics, has seen crowds hang on Johnson’s every word.

“I didn’t know how to take Rafer at first because he’s so humble,” Shumard said. “But he speaks from the heart and that makes him highly effective. I’ve seen people truly inspired by him. I remember him giving a speech at the closing ceremonies at our Special Olympics summer games about a brother and sister in their 60s who were in their last competition. He singled them out and it meant so much to them.”

Johnson couldn’t have started life more humbly. He was born in 1935 in Hillsboro where his family lived in his grandfather’s house. Before Rafer’s second birthday, his father took a job as a handyman for Eastman Oil in Dallas, but life in the segregated city was tough with few opportunities for advancement for a black family.

Settling in California

With World War II nearing an end, Johnson’s father moved the family to Alameda, Calif., where he worked in a shipyard. After work dried up there, the family remained unsettled before Johnson’s father found work with the Southern Pacific Railroad in Kingsburg, a small town in Central California.

“We were the first family of color to live in Kingsburg,” Johnson said. “It was a Swedish community and ironically a lot of people were named Johnson. I felt right at home. It was a great situation for me because most of the kids I grew up with were great students. I got a lot of direction from my peers and studied with them. I got involved in student government and sports.”

Johnson emerged as a superb four-sport athlete at Kingsburg High School where he played football, baseball and basketball and ran track. But he saw his future in 1952 when he went to nearby Tulare to watch Bob Mathias compete in the national decathlon championship. Mathias won the Olympic decathlon in 1948 and 1952 and was a hero throughout California’s San Joaquin Valley.

“Everybody in the valley wanted to be like Bob, so I tried to do all the events like him,” Johnson said. “After watching that meet in Tulare, I felt I could have beaten most of those guys. Becoming an Olympic decathlete seemed like a real possibility to me.”

Johnson enjoyed immediate success as he won the California AAU decathlon championship a month later before finishing third in the national AAU championships as a senior.

But he was such a dynamic running back that UCLA recruited him for football. He planned to play for the Bruins like Jackie Robinson did in the 1940s, but was so focused on the decathlon that he never got on the football field. However, he found time to play on UCLA coach John Wooden’s basketball teams for two years.

“Our football coach, Red Sanders, was furious because he wanted Rafer to play football,” said Craig Dixon, UCLA’s assistant track coach from 1953-59. “He had great potential in football because of his height and strength. But he also had great potential as a decathlete.”

Two years after signing with UCLA, Johnson won the national decathlon championship and earned a spot on the USA Olympic team in Melbourne, Australia. Favored to win the gold medal, Johnson was hampered by a swollen knee and a torn atomach muscle and finished second to fellow American Milt Campbell.

“My heart was broken,” Johnson said. “I did OK, but I came there to win the gold. As disappointing as that was, it was a great learning experience because I was much more prepared for the 1960 Olympics.”

Under the tutelage of UCLA track coach Ducky Drake, Johnson trained even harder for the Rome Olympics. Johnson and UCLA teammate C.K. Yang trained together and pushed each other to remarkable heights. After Johnson hurt his back in a car accident, he hit the weights hard and was at his peak as he entered the 1960 Olympics.

An epic battle for all to see

With Johnson representing the USA and Yang competing for his native Taiwan, the pair pitched one of the most storied battles in Olympic history. They were neck and neck throughout the decathlon going into the final event, the 1,500 meters.

“C.K. was probably the better overall athlete and he beat Rafer in seven of 10 events in the 1960 Olympics,” Dixon said. “Rafer had a lot of strength and won the shot put, discus and javelin. But running the 1,500 meters was agony for Rafer. He had just to find a way to hang in there.”

Yang set the pace in the 1,500 but Johnson managed to hang close and finished with a personal best time of 4:49.7. He won the gold medal over Yang with a then-Olympic record of 8,392 points.

“I weighed 214 pounds when I started the decathlon and I was at 192 when I finished it,” said the 6-foot-3 Johnson. “The hardest event of all was the 1,500 because you had already competed in nine events. It was a tough mental and physical battle just to get through it. As much as I loved the decathlon, I was glad that was the last 1,500 I’d have to run.”

Though Johnson achieved his dream, it was bittersweet beating Yang, his friend and teammate.

“I never competed with the idea that I didn’t want to win,” Johnson said. “But it was very difficult competing against C.K. I knew how hard he had worked and how much he wanted to win the gold for his country.”

Hero’s reception

Johnson was a hero throughout the country and received the Sullivan Award as the nation’s outstanding amateur athlete of 1960. Back home in California, his family rejoiced after seeing his long years of training pay off.

“Rafer had dedicated himself so much to winning the gold in 1960 after finishing second in 1956,” Jimmy Johnson said. “He didn’t really have the body type to be a strong 1,500-meter runner, but he hung right on top of C.K. I can’t begin to tell you how exhilarated I was when Rafer won it.”

Winning the gold medal opened a lot of doors for Johnson. He appeared in movies and got involved in humanitarian causes like People to People and the Peace Corps to promote world friendship. In the late 1960s, he jumpstarted California Special Olympics.

Johnson was an ardent supporter of Bobby Kennedy, who was campaigning for the presidency in 1968 when Sirhan Sirhan assassinated the senator in Los Angeles. Johnson will never forget that June day at the Ambassador Hotel when he helped NFL player Rosey Grier and others detain the assassin after the unspeakable tragedy.

“That moment brings back memories I don’t want to feel every day,” Johnson said. “Bobby was a good friend and he would have made a great president. If he had become president, he would have put our country on a different path.”

Johnson’s legacy continued at UCLA when his daughter, Jenny, became an All-America volleyball player who competed for the USA beach volleyball team in the 2000 Olympics. His son, Josh, was a top javelin thrower at UCLA.

Johnson has never stopped opening doors for people. This man who began life in the most humble circumstances in Hillsboro feels compelled to keep spreading his message of hope.

“I’ve seen huge groups of people literally mesmerized by what Rafer says to them,” Jimmy Johnson said. “He’s got the ability to touch people in a profound way.”

jwerner@wacotrib.com