Rafer Johnson, 1960 Olympic decathlon champ, dead at 86

LOS ANGELES — Rafer Johnson, an Olympic gold medal winner and goodwill ambassador, died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home, his family confirmed. He was 86.

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Johnson carried the American flag into Rome’s Olympic Stadium in August 1960 as the first Black captain of a U.S. Olympic team and went on to win the gold medal in the decathlon, The New York Times reported.

Johnson’s legacy was connected with Los Angeles history, beginning with his performance as a world-class athlete at UCLA, and highlighted when he helped disarm Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, at the Ambassador Hotel in June 1968, the Los Angeles Times reported.

During the 1960 Olympics, Johnson waged a memorable decathlon duel with C.K. Yang of Taiwan, his training partner at UCLA to earn the accolade as the world’s greatest athlete, the newspaper reported.

“I planned to stick with him like a buddy in combat,” Johnson told The Los Angeles Times in 1990. “I had one other advantage, and I don’t think C.K. knew this at the time. This was my last decathlon. I was prepared to run as fast as I had to in this last race of my life.”

“I knew he would never let go of me unless he collapsed,” Yang, who died in 2007, recalled years later.

Johnson later received the 1960 Sullivan Award as America’s leading amateur, according to The New York Times.

Johnson also won a gold medal at the Pan American Games in 1955 while competing in just his fourth decathlon, Sports Illustrated reported. Later, at a meet in Kingsburg, California, Johnson set his first world record, breaking the mark of two-time Olympic champion -- and his childhood hero -- Bob Mathias, the magazine reported.

Rafer Lewis Johnson was born on Aug. 18, 1934, in Hillsboro, Texas, Sports Illustrated reported. He moved to California in 1945 with his family, who were farmworkers in Texas.

Johnson would play a role in international relations during the Cold War, the Los Angeles Times reported. Johnson also helped disabled children by co-founding the California Special Olympics in 1969, serving as its president for a decade.

Johnson met Robert Kennedy at an awards ceremony soon after the Rome Games and became part of the senator’s campaign for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination, The New York Times reported.

He was escorting a pregnant Ethel Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, when Robert Kennedy was fatally shot by Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant who had been angry at Kennedy for his support of Israel.

Johnson and former NFL star Roosevelt Grier helped subdue Sirhan.

“My hand clamped down on the weapon,” Johnson recalled in his 1998 memoir, “The Best That I Can Be.” “Rosey’s hand came down on mine. With a dozen others pushing and shoving, we forced Sirhan onto a steam table, then to the floor. I twisted Sirhan’s fingers to free up the weapon.”

Johnson was noted for his sportsmanship and was an advocate for fair play, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“It seems funny to say winning is not all-important -- I always want to win, and no one likes to lose,” Johnson once said. “But when you start out on the field, everyone is equal. That is the important idea.”

Cox Media Group