HE STEPPED UP: Rafer Johnson didn’t know he would be the final torch-bearer at the Coliseum until the Games’ organizer, Peter Ueberroth, told him about 10 days before the opening ceremony.
(Damon Winter / Los Angeles Times)
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
(Associated Press)
July 23, 1960: Rafer Johnson demonstrates physical fitness to some 900 Boy Scouts taking part in two-day Camporee at UCLA.
(Bob Potwin)
(UCLA)
Rafer Johnson competes in the shot put, one of the events in the decathlon, at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
(Associated Press)
(Jim Pringle/Associated Press)
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Rafer Johnson lights the Olympic torch during opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
(Associated Press)
(Associated Press)
(Robert Riger/Getty Images)
Rafer Johnson and C.K. Yang during the Olympic Games.
(Keystone / Getty Images)
Images of the Rafer Johnson VIP reception .
(LA84 Foundation)
Rafer Johnson holds the torch after lighting the cauldron during the opening ceremony for the World Games at the Coliseum.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
(Joel P Lugavere/Los Angeles Times)
(Gerard Burkhart/Los Angeles Times)
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