Local special ed community remembers Olympic champ
Rafer Johnson won an Olympic gold medal, tackled an assassin and became a goodwill ambassador for the United States, but the decathlete might best be remembered in Bakersfield as an advocate for the local special needs community.
Johnson was honored for his commitment to that community when the Bakersfield City School District named Rafer Johnson School in his honor in 1973. But that was really only the beginning of a long relationship.
At that time, the school served students who would now be classified as having moderate to severe special needs. The newly-renamed school decided to hold a track event for the students, and Johnson was invited.
“He came, and then it became an annual event,” said Shirley Nicholas, the director of Instructional Support Services for the Bakersfield City School District.
It was a tradition that lasted 44 years. Johnson brought his wife and daughters. He would walk with student athletes on the track carrying banners bearing their schools’ names. During the events, he would cheer on student athletes. At the end, he would hand out prizes, including awards for the special education teachers and paraprofessionals of the year.
Nicholas said Johnson always made it really clear he was there for the students — rain or shine. When it came time for lunch, he preferred to eat in the cafeteria with the children over staff. He wanted to talk to them and hear their experiences.
And a few years ago when the track day was rained out, he asked how he could make the most of the day.
“He said, ‘I’m here for kids,” Nicholas said.
So district staff took him out to classrooms where he could visit the students he might otherwise have seen on the track.
Nicholas was amazed that he would continue coming out to Rafer Johnson Day well into his 80s. She said despite his high profile, he was always humble.
“He was approachable to everyone, teachers and staff,” she said.
Johnson had been involved in the first Special Olympics, founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Johnson opened and also presented ribbons to the winners of the Kern area Special Olympics in 1972.
Bakersfield City School District’s annual track meet for special needs students was a way of continuing the spirit of the Special Olympics at the school level. Even now, the school now known as Rafer Johnson Community Day School, is called “Home of the Olympians.”
Nicholas said she appreciates that the Central Valley native lent his name and time every year to such a good cause.
“He had a talent, he had a name and he used it for the greater good,” Nicholas said. “BCSD was a benefactor of that.”
Johnson, who won the decathlon at the 1960 Rome Olympics and helped subdue Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin in 1968, died Dec. 2. He was 86.
He died at his home in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, according to family friend Michael Roth. No cause of death was announced.