Rafer Johnson: The Complete American Champion

By Robbert Wijtman

8/23/2026

                   

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LOS ANGELES, July 28, 1984. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Rafer Johnson stood tall at the base of the steep, temporary staircase. Gina Hemphill, Jesse Owens' granddaughter, had just handed him the official Olympic torch. With the world watching, Johnson began his climb up the 99 precarious steps toward the Olympic cauldron. The black dots painted in the center of each step helped him stay balanced on the unsteady construction. His heart pounding so hard, he could feel it in his forehead. At the top, standing on a platform barely a foot wide with nothing behind him, he gripped a custom fiberglass handhold. Steadying himself, he raised the flame and ignited the cauldron. This iconic moment opened the 1984 Summer Olympics and cemented his role as the first Black athlete in Olympic history to light the cauldron.

 

The segregated South, where Rafer Johnson spent his early childhood, was hard. Born in Hillsboro, Texas, in 1934, he grew up in a tiny three-room home without running water or electricity. At five, he had learned to pick cotton. He felt the full economic and social weight of racial inequality.

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Looking to escape systemic oppression, his family moved to Kingsburg, California, when he was nine. Kingsburg had fewer institutional barriers, but the Johnsons were initially the only Black family in town. They lived in a converted railroad boxcar. Young Rafer did well in school and was elected class president in both junior high and high school.

 

In 1954, Johnson entered the University of California, Los Angeles. At UCLA, he became a national star under legendary coach Elvin "Ducky" Drake. Johnson’s campus leadership broke major social barriers. His mostly white peers voted him student body president. He was a visible symbol of Black excellence during a volatile time in America.

Beyond track and field, he played starter minutes for Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden and was later drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL.

 

In 1956, Johnson traveled to the Melbourne Olympics. He was the world record holder and heavy favorite for the decathlon. A bad knee and stomach issues, however, afflicted his performance. He fought hard in the ten events, but was forced to settle for the Olympic Silver medal behind teammate Milt Campbell. Campbell became the first Black man to win an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon.

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At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union exploited the Olympics to project communist superiority. Soviet media highlighted the injuries and difficulties of high-profile American athletes. They argued that the capitalist system broke its citizens. Soviet propaganda exploited American racial segregation and civil rights clashes. Johnson’s and Campbell’s victory over their champion, Vasili Kuznetsov, and how the Black men were treated after returning home were openly politicized.

 

Four years later, Johnson returned to the 1960 Rome Olympics as Team USA's historic first Black flag bearer. He competed in what is considered the greatest decathlon duel in history against his own UCLA training partner and closest friend, C.K. Yang of Taiwan. After an intense two-day battle, Johnson won the final 1,500-meter run, beating Yang by a few points.

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The Soviet Union had invested in its champion, Vasili Kuznetsov. He was seen as the ideal Soviet "superman" destined to win the decathlon. He had finished third to Johnson and Campbell in the prior Olympics. Johnson’s win changed everything. Soviet media tried to downplay the loss by framing American track dominance as a product of racial division. By showing character, Johnson dismantled the Soviet narrative. He publicly embraced his rival Kuznetsov, built deep cross-cultural friendships, and was named a U.S. State Department goodwill ambassador. His grace, combined with his status as a Black student body president, countered the Kremlin's narrative by showing the global community the strength of a diversifying American democracy.

 

After his athletic retirement, Johnson channeled his childhood inequality into a fierce, urgent drive to advance civil rights. This drive led him to become a close friend and loyal campaign worker for Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

On June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, just after Bobby Kennedy delivered his California primary victory speech, assassin Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed Kennedy. Johnson charged Sirhan Sirhan, tackled him, pinned him down, and wrestled the pistol from his hand.

 

Traumatized by Kennedy's death. He chose to honor his late friend and fulfill his own lifelong devotion to equality. He and RFK’s sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics later that year. He also established the California Special Olympics in 1969.

The man who conquered the world stage, broke Soviet propaganda, and subdued an assassin spent the rest of his life making sure individuals with intellectual disabilities had a place to run, compete, and belong. In his climb of those 99 steps in 1984, he wasn't just lighting a flame for a game—he was carrying the torch for the very best of humanity, a path that began in segregated Texas.

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Rafer Johnson’s legacy lives on in the Special Olympics. He should be known for so much more. He is a true American Hero.

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