Rafer Johnson, one of only seven American athletes to win an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon, died Wednesday of a stroke at the age of 86.
An American hero after having won the decathlon at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Johnson was also a reluctant hero in one of America’s tragic events: Johnson and two other men, football player Rosey Grier and journalist George Plimpton, tackled Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin, moments after Sirhan fired the shots that killed the Democratic presidential contender at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968.
An acclaimed athlete, Johnson won the Sports Illustrated magazine Sportsman of the Year award in 1958, when he was a basketball player at UCLA. In 1959, he was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the 28th round of the NFL draft.
Johnson was one of the few athletes in the world to both carry the flag for his nation’s Olympic delegation, in 1960, and light the Olympic torch in his home nation, at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Johnson was an advocate for the Special Olympics, serving as president of the organization from 1983 to 1992, when he was named chairman of the organization’s board.