Johnny Bright

For the baseball player, see Johnny Bright (baseball).

Johnny Bright
No. 24
Bright depicted in a 1959 football card
Born:(1930-06-11)June 11, 1930
Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.
Died:December 14, 1983(1983-12-14) (aged 53)
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Career information
Position(s)FB, LB
Height6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Weight217 lb (98 kg)
CollegeDrake (1949–1951)
High schoolCentral (Fort Wayne, Indiana)
NFL draft1952, round: 1, pick: 5
Drafted byPhiladelphia Eagles
Career history
As player
1952–1954Calgary Stampeders
1954–1964Edmonton Eskimos
Career highlights and awards
CFL West All-Star6× (1952, 1957–1961)
Awards
Honors
Retired #sDrake Bulldogs No. 43
Records
Edmonton Elks
  • Most rushing yards in a career: 9,966
  • Most rushing yards in a season: 1,722 (1958)
  • Most 100-yard games in a career: 36
  • Most 100-yard games in a season: 9 (1957)
Career stats
Rushing yards10,909
Rushing average5.5
Rushing touchdowns70
Interceptions7

John Dee Bright (June 11, 1930 – December 14, 1983) was an American professional football player in the Canadian Football League (CFL). A troubling racist incident he endured as a college football player in the U.S. caused rule changes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. After his emigration to Canada, he played a starring role as an Edmonton Eskimo (today's Elks) and also became a school principal and an important role model for black Canadians and aspiring athletes in Edmonton.[1]

Bright played college football for the Drake Bulldogs. He is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame, the Edmonton Eskimos Wall of Honour, the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, and the Des Moines Register's Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1951, Bright was named a first-team All-American, and was awarded the Nils V. "Swede" Nelson Sportsmanship Award. In 1969, Bright was named Drake University's greatest football player of all time. Bright is the only Drake football player to have his jersey number (No. 43) retired by the school, and in June 2006, received honorable mention from ESPN.com senior writer Ivan Maisel, as one of the best college football players to ever wear No. 43.[2] In February 2006, the football field at Drake Stadium was named in his honor.[3] In November 2006, Bright was voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (No. 19) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.[4]

On October 20, 1951, Bright was the victim of an intentional, racially motivated, on-field assault by an opposing college football player from the Oklahoma A&M Cowboys that was captured in a widely disseminated and Pulitzer Prize-winning photo sequence, and eventually came to be known as the "Johnny Bright incident".

  1. ^ "Jasper Place and the Black Community – Then and Now – Jasper Place Community History Project". jasperplacehistory.org. Retrieved September 10, 2024.
  2. ^ "Johnny Bright's Football Jersey Number Recognized". DrakeBulldogs.org. June 30, 2006. Archived from the original on July 11, 2006. Retrieved July 8, 2006.
  3. ^ "KCCI-TV8 Des Moines, Iowa – Drake Names Football Field After Johnny Bright: OSU Apologizes For Player's Actions". KCCI.com. February 23, 2006. Archived from the original on March 7, 2006. Retrieved August 12, 2006.
  4. ^ "TSN Top 50 CFL Players". TSN.ca. November 28, 2006. Retrieved April 28, 2007.