Rafer Johnson Video | Olympic Competition Highlights

Rafer Lewis Johnson (born August 18, 1935) is an American former decathlete and film actor. Johnson was born in Hillsboro, Texas, but the family moved to Kingsburg, California, when he was nine. For a while, they were the only black family in the town. A versatile athlete, he played on Kingsburg High School's football, baseball and basketball teams. He was also elected class president in both junior high and high school. At 16, he became attracted to the decathlon after seeing double Olympic champion Bob Mathias compete and told his coach, "I could have beaten most of those guys." He... MORE

Rafer Lewis Johnson (born August 18, 1935) is an American former decathlete and film actor. Johnson was born in Hillsboro, Texas, but the family moved to Kingsburg, California, when he was nine. For a while, they were the only black family in the town. A versatile athlete, he played on Kingsburg High School's football, baseball and basketball teams. He was also elected class president in both junior high and high school. At 16, he became attracted to the decathlon after seeing double Olympic champion Bob Mathias compete and told his coach, "I could have beaten most of those guys." He competed in his first meet in 1954 as a freshman at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His progress in the event was impressive; he broke the world record in his fourth competition. He pledged Pi Lambda Phi fraternity, America's first nondiscriminatory fraternity, and was class president at UCLA. In 1955, in Mexico City, he won the title at the Pan American Games. Johnson qualified for both the decathlon and the long jump events for the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. However, he was hampered by an injury and forfeited his place in the long jump. Despite this handicap, he managed to LESS