DECATHLETE STILL A HUMBLE HERO; SUCCESS STARTED IN TINY KINGSBURG FOR RAFER JOHNSON.

Byline: San Jose Mercury News 

Outside San Jose's Fairmont Hotel on Wednesday, the clock inched toward 8 a.m. and the horn-honking commute traffic signaled a routine 1997 morning.

But inside the hotel ballroom, time rolled back to 1960 as the tall, slim man at the podium gave a sellout crowd an emotional step-by-step account of his final 1500-meter race in the Olympic decathlon competition.

Everyone in the room knew Rafer Johnson, keynote speaker at the YMCA's 20th community prayer breakfast, won the race and the gold medal. But the audience was spellbound by the account of his battle with the runner-up, his friend and UCLA teammate, C.K. Yang.

Despite his elation over capturing the prize 37 years ago, Johnson said he still ``felt awful'' beating his buddy. People who finish second are forgotten, Johnson said.

``But's important to remember them. It's important to remember C.K. Yang,'' said Johnson who pointed out he himself finished second in the 1956 Olympics.

``You know, getting a silver is pretty good,'' he said.

Yang (pronounced Young) and Johnson are still good friends. They chatted on the phone the night before Johnson's San Jose speech.

Despite the dapper suit and obvious ease addressing large crowds, Johnson in many ways is still the country boy raised in Kingsburg, a tiny town off Highway 99 in the San Joaquin Valley. The population was 2,500 when Johnson was growing up and in the 1990 census was still only 7,265.

He still loves Kingsburg, ``the town that made me feel special. When my family moved there (from Texas) we knew no one. But the people in that town, they cared about the Johnson kids. I got a chance to go to school, to compete. That was the beginning of the whole thing.''

The Kingsburg phone book was a litany of Swedish names and Rafer's father was just one of the Johnsons listed. Johnson's San Jose audience laughed with him when he told how he overheard some men rating the athletes before a teenagers' 100-yard dash.

``One of the men said he heard there was a good Swedish kid named Rafer Johnson,'' he said. ``I'd like to have seen his face when I was introduced.''

A key person in his life and career, Johnson said, was his high school coach as well as adviser at the local YMCA, Murl Dodson.

Frustrated because he couldn't run as fast as a Delano boy, or jump longer than another California kid, Johnson told the coach he didn't know what he should do.

``In 1952 Murl took me to Tulare where I watched another athlete prepare,'' Johnson said.

This other San Joaquin Valley youngster, Bob Mathias, who successfully defended his 1948 Olympic championship in the grueling decathlon later that year, became a hero to Johnson.

``I decided I wanted to be the best in the world, too,'' he said. ``It wasn't ego. I just wanted to accomplish it and it was a giant step.

It was one of the key things that happened to me. Once I told someone what I wanted to be, it freed me as an athlete.''

In 1995, Johnson was invited to return to Rome to be part of a film on the 1960 Olympic games along with Mohammed Ali, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson.

``I was supposed to walk into the stadium for the film and when I did, it was so emotional for me, I just broke down,'' Johnson said. ``It was the first time I'd been there in 35 years.''

His high school coach often told his charges `Do the best that you can do in everything you do','' said Johnson who several time repeated this mantra for the audience, adding ``It's all you can do.''

It works, he said, giving as an example a little girl who'd been working with Special Olympics for four years. The child won a race, recalled Johnson, a founder and current member of the Special Olympics in California.

``She called out to the stands `Look, Mom. Look, Dad. I won.''' Johnson said.

``I went over to meet her and she introduced me to her relatives and when she said their names, each of them burst into tears. Everybody was crying and I didn't know why. Then, through her tears, her mother told me, `It's the first words she's ever said.' ''

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Rafer Johnson touches the Olympic Torch to the Olympic Rings during the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

Daily News File Photo

(2) JOHNSON