Rafer Johnson, a vaunted decathlete who won Olympic gold for the US at the 1960 games and later tackled the assassin of Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, died Wednesday.
He was 86.
Johnson died at his Los Angeles home, according to family friend Michael Roth, who did not disclose the cause of death.
The Texas-born, California-raised Johnson was seemingly destined for athletic greatness, playing football, basketball, baseball and track and field in high school.
From the mid-1950s through the early-1960s, Johnson established himself as among the world’s best all-around athletes — a run that started while he was still a teen.
As a freshman at UCLA, Johnson dominated the 1955 Pan American Games, winning gold while setting records in the international gauntlet.
In 1956, Johnson won the national decathlon championship and a spot on America’s squad for the Olympic games in Melbourne, Australia.
He won silver, finishing behind fellow American Milt Campbell — while hampered by a pulled stomach muscle and a strained knee.
At the 1960 games in Rome, Johnson clinched gold in the decathlon, going out on top as he retired from competitive athletics.
“He stood for what he believed in and he did it in a very classy way with grace and dignity,” said fellow US Olympic champion Janet Evans, a swimmer. “He didn’t want credit.”
DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty ImagesOff the field, Johnson gravitated to acting, sportscasting and humanitarian work.
In the turbulent summer of 1968, he found himself working on the White House campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Kennedy.
During a June 5 campaign event at Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel, Kennedy was shot three times by Palestinian militant Sirhan Sirhan, wounds that would prove fatal the next day.
Johnson was among a group who disarmed and subdued the assassin, holding him until the authorities could take over.
“I knew he did everything he could to take care of Uncle Bobby at his most vulnerable moment,” Kennedy’s niece, Maria Shriver, said Wednesday. “His devotion to Uncle Bobby was pure and real. He had protected his friend. Even after Uncle Bobby’s death he stayed close.”
Johnson later called the murder “one of the most devastating moments in my life.”
Johnson is survived by his wife of 49 years, Elizabeth, their daughter, Jenny, son, Josh, and four grandchildren.
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