Rafer Johnson was one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time,winner of the Decathlon at the Olympics and also a fine basketball player for UCLA. He played against Cal's 1959 NCAA Basketball Champions. Cal beat UCLA twice that season, by two points in LA, and by 13 at Harmon.

https://uclabruins.com/news/2020/12/2/track-field-ucla-mourns-the-loss-of-legendary-bruin-rafer-johnson.aspx

He was also a brave man. He was involved in subduing the armed Sirhan Sirhan after he shot RFK at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968.

He lit the flame at the 84 Olympics in LA.

Future Cal Bear Monte Upshaw took 2 wins (LJ, LH) to Johnson's 1 (HH) in the 1954 HS state meet held at Edwards Stadium. Unfortunately, Upshaw's college career was limited by a serious knee injury so he was never able to reach the heights suggested by his national record setting LJ performance as a senior at Piedmont HS.

I had the honor of him running over my foot with his golf cart once.

Thanks for all the great replies.

Rafer Johnson was a starter on a good Johnny Wooden UCLA basketball team. He was a 6-3 forward and averaged 8.2 points and 6.7 rebounds, and I believe had the highest FG% on the team. He was also an outstanding defender, and Wooden named him as one of his five best defenders. Walt Torrance was the team's best player, a guard out of Sacramento, and made the UPI All-American team in 1959. He was tragically killed in an auto accident outside Sacramento. Denny Crum, a long time coach, was also a starter on that team, which gave our Bears all they could handle, as one of the games Cal won by only 2 points.

His younger brother, Jimmy Johnson, was an All-Pro defensive back for the 49ers, and Rafer Johnson was class president in high school in Kingsburg and student body president at UCLA. Wish I could have met their parents and learned about their parenting strategies.

Upshaw couldn't have been sober that day. He aimed for your brain and ran over your foot. Also, although Rafer & Monte competed against each other in 1954( they were both seniors that year) Rafer was almost two years older. ( one year and 9 months to be exact. ) rafer transferred from TexAs in 1945 and, maybe his transcripts got mixed up, but, the fact remains, when Rafer was a senior in 1954, he should have been a soph at UCLA.
That year, 1954, Rafer ran the HH in 14.3 twice..monte twice ran 14.4. in the 180 lows, Monte twice ran 18.8. Rafer managed a 19.0 time. Leamon King was also in that 1954 class. Monte said that 'leamon was a difficult guy to know." No matter. Leamon won thge state 220 as a freshman and lost the 100 that day by one inch.
Those were the days..We had the Fresno relays, Modesto relays, , etc. Most schools had dual meets against each other. In those days, USC had monster teams every year while UCLA was second. Cal & Stanford brought up the rear. We used to travel to Fresno and Modesto by either bus or car...stay in a motel the weekend and watched great track & field events the whole weekend. There were JC and high school events sandwiched in-between the College events. Competitors from all over the US descended to those towns to compete.
Track was like swimming...you could dope the meets down to the most minute fractions...
I miss track & field

helltopay1 said:

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Upshaw couldn't have been sober that day. He aimed for your brain and ran over your foot. Also, although Rafer & Monte competed against each other in 1954( they were both seniors that year) Rafer was almost two years older. ( one year and 9 months to be exact. ) rafer transferred from TexAs in 1945 and, maybe his transcripts got mixed up, but, the fact remains, when Rafer was a senior in 1954, he should have been a soph at UCLA.
That year, 1954, Rafer ran the HH in 14.3 twice..monte twice ran 14.4. in the 180 lows, Monte twice ran 18.8. Rafer managed a 19.0 time. Leamon King was also in that 1954 class. Monte said that 'leamon was a difficult guy to know." No matter. Leamon won thge state 220 as a freshman and lost the 100 that day by one inch.
Those were the days..We had the Fresno relays, Modesto relays, , etc. Most schools had dual meets against each other. In those days, USC had monster teams every year while UCLA was second. Cal & Stanford brought up the rear. We used to travel to Fresno and Modesto by either bus or car...stay in a motel the weekend and watched great track & field events the whole weekend. There were JC and high school events sandwiched in-between the College events. Competitors from all over the US descended to those towns to compete.
Track was like swimming...you could dope the meets down to the most minute fractions...
I miss track & field

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King had the most fluid running style of any sprinter I ever saw, reminiscent of Jesse Owens. That '54 State meet also featured another Bear great, Don Bowden, who set a national prep record in the 880 while running away from the field to win by a huge margin. Bowden, King and Upshaw may well have represented the most talented trio of T&F recruits in Cal history.

If Rafers' brother hadn't gone to UCLA, maybe he would have gone to Cal instead..he & King must talked all the time since they lived close to each other..