Narrator: In a galaxy of African-American sporting pioneers, Johnny Bright was a star that deserves mention among the elites.

Bright's story has been largely unknown, but his impact in both America and Canada cannot be denied.

The team behind the production of the documentary "The Bright Path: The Johnny Bright Story," would like to thank and recognize the sponsors who made this project possible.

They are... McGill Junge Wealth Management, State Farm, Great Southern Bank, Prairie Meadows Casino, Racetrack, and Hotel.

♪♪ Man: There can be no doubt that John was one of the greatest athletes of the day.

Woman: And such a powerful figure in our history.

♪♪ Announcer: Fullback Johnny Bright charges straight over center.

Bright powers his way for 24 long yards and he's finally stopped by... Man #2: At one point, the best average per carry in all of pro football was Johnny Bright -- number one, Jim Brown -- number two, and Barry Sanders -- number three.

That's pretty good company.

Man #3: He rewrote the record books.

He scored 70% of their points.

He got on the ground 70% of their yardage, all right?

He was the threat.

And they couldn't stop him.

Announcer: Climaxing in Edmonton, Bright has carried 68 yards in 11 remorseless plays.

Man: He just had an ability that transcended everyone else.

♪♪ Man #4: We need to acknowledge that what was going on here was racism.

Woman #2: See, that's the part of trailblazing that America forgets.

The emotions, the fear, the uncertainty.

Man: And while a lot of people define his career by that incident, he didn't allow it to be defined by that incident.

♪♪ ♪♪ Narrator: Few spectacles compared to the pageantry, tradition, and passion of college football.

Celebrated over generations, the popularity of college football has transformed the sport into a billion-dollar business.

In today's game, a majority players on Division 1 teams are African-American.

These black athletes are often touted as multitalented trailblazers, the new physical prototype, the first of their kind.

But there was one player before them who truly revolutionized the game.

A player who was 70 years ahead of his time.

Johnny Bright.

Bright was the original dual threat, exceptional at both passing and rushing.

Rhoden: Johnny Bright, man, was one of the most dominant football players in America.

You know, his versatility, what he did as a running back, the great athlete that he was, you know -- football, basketball, track.

This guy was tremendous.

You know, I appreciate a lot of what Johnny Bright went through in his career.

It was definitely an inspiration for me, reading the stories about guys like that, like Johnny Bright, on what they had to go through in order to play a position that they loved.

Knowing what these guys had gone through before me, it made me just a little bit tougher that, hey, if these guys can do it and get to where they wanted to, then I can do it, too.

Narrator: The playing days of Johnny Bright look far different than how college football is played today.

Back then, virtually all the players were white, and if you were one of the few African-American players on a predominantly white team, you faced the potential of racial animosity and even violence on the field.

Michigan player George Jewett, the first black player to compete in the Big Ten, had to endure the endless chants of "Kill the coon" while competing in away games.

In the 1930s, Iowa Hawkeye running back Ozzie Simmons constantly faced a prospect of injury.

It was alleged that his teammates would intentionally not block for him.

In one game, he was knocked out three times.

Simmons continually ran up against issues with his teammates.

So one paper called him "the lad who ran alone" because there were insinuations that his white teammates failed to block for him.

Can you imagine the humiliation and the disappointment and the rejection?

Your own team doesn't fight for you.

Usually, if you were a brother, you were the only one, and so you were targeted for extra punishment in an already brutal game.

I mean, the game of football is brutal.

And so you could cover a lot of racism with the brutality of the game.

"Well, we weren't being racist.

We were just being brutal."

[ Laughs ] You know.

And a brother usually was, like, one of the best players on the team, so they said, "Well, we got to get him out."

Narrator: The unchecked racial targeting and violence against black college football players took the most tragic turn with Iowa State player Jack Trice.

Demas: Jack Trice was the first black athlete at Iowa State University.

And at basically his second game, the team traveled to the University of Minnesota.

And the night before the game, Trice was staying in a hotel.

They were practicing racial segregation at the hotel in the sense that he was separated from his teammates when he ate meals and these types of things.

He had to stay in his room, eat in his room.

He had a single, and that's when he wrote the letter, you know, to talk about, you know, his place.

And the thing about it is he knew his place.

He wasn't comfortable with it.

But those were, you know, the times.

To whom it may concern -- My thoughts just before the first real college game of my life.

The honor of my race, family, and self are at stake.

Everyone is expecting me to do big things.

I will.

My whole body and soul are to be thrown recklessly about on the field tomorrow.

Every time the ball is snapped, I will be trying to do more than my part.

He sees himself and his football playing as far more important than just a game.

And so it's a note to sort of pump himself up for the game the next day.

October 6th, they take the field.

And one of the first plays of the game, Trice hurts his shoulder.

And his coach says, "Are you okay?"

And he says, "Yeah, I'm fine.

I'll keep playing."

Later in the game, something happened where Trice ended up on his back, and he was trampled by several members of the Minnesota backfield.

Dr. Sailes: Because he was black, I have no doubt that that influenced their strategy.

"We want him out of the game.

I want his legs broken.

I want his ribs cracked.

Anything that you can do."

And they broke his collar, and he continued to play, and it wasn't enough.

So they stepped up their violence against this young man.

He made a body block.

You know, a body block, where you throw yourself horizontally against someone.

And while he was on the ground, three guys went over to him, and he was laying on his back, and they were stomping him.

And then he rolled over to his side, and they continued to stomp him.

And he had internal injuries, obviously.

Schultz: They roll into Ames and they immediately rush him to the infirmary, and doctors check him out there, and they determine that his sore shoulder was actually a broken collarbone.

But even more significant, he had sustained severe abdominal and intestinal injuries.

They summoned a specialist from Des Moines, and the specialist examines Trice and determines that his injuries are so severe that he can't risk surgery.

And there was really nothing that he could do.

So they call for Trice's wife, and she runs to his bedside in this moving moment she recalls.

You know, she said, "Hello, darling.

He looked at me but never responded."

She hears the bell chime 3:00.

It's October 8th, 1923, and he was gone.

[ Bell chiming ] ♪♪ The Jack Trice story was poignant and heartbreaking, but it was just significant.

I mean, it was just symbolic of the sort of state-sponsored violence that had been directed against African-Americans in general.

And it just happened to coalesce at a football game.

♪♪ Announcer: And 51 nations are represented here today.

The six fastest sprinters in the world are getting ready.

Narrator: Despite living with racial obstacles, African-Americans found ways to break through barriers and excel.

Black achievement and exceptionalism were most visible in sports In the 1936 Olympics, Jesse Owens won four gold medals and broke two track-and-field world records.

[ Announcer shouting indistinctly ] ♪♪ From 1937 through 1949, Joe Louis was the world heavyweight boxing champion.

Jackie Robinson broke through the barriers of segregation in Major League Baseball.

And in the early 1950s, Johnny Bright, a trailblazer in his own right, would change the game of college football forever.

Born on June 11, 1930, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Johnny Bright was the second oldest of five brothers.

Bright's family lived under the constant surveying eye of his mother, Emma Bates.

Ms. Bates was a very accomplished woman determined to place her children on a path toward success.

My great-grandmother was a legend.

So, his mom was rumored to be one of the first black women to own a house in Fort Wayne.

So for her to have five kids and get to a level of "I'm going to own my house" -- not just the house, the property -- is incredible.

For her to be, you know, a single mother with five boys to own a good-sized house and land, like, they weren't poor.

I think they definitely were in a working-class neighborhood.

Narrator: Johnny Bright's exceptional athleticism shined at an early age.

Whatever sport he played, he would naturally dominate.

The buzz surrounding Bright's accomplishments in basketball, track, and football became widespread when he attended Fort Wayne Central High School.

♪♪ It was well-known in Indiana that he was a stellar athlete.

He excelled at a number of sports.

In high school in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he played basketball, football, track and field.

He was apparently an exceptional softball pitcher.

Basketball might have been his best sport.

He was an all-around star.

I think he took his high-school basketball team to the semi-finals twice.

He won state championships in, I think, five different track events.

Chapman: He saw, I think, athletics as a vehicle to propel himself upwards.

There's a great story when he was a freshman.

A senior upperclassman was a little bit jealous of all the notoriety Johnny was getting and challenged him to a boxing match.

And the football coach was running the PE class, and he was watching from a distance, and he thought, "I need to watch this really carefully.

Johnny's going up against a veteran, much more seasoned boxer, and I might have to step in and put a halt to this."

Well, he finally did step in and put a halt to it because it was Johnny was beating the tar out of this seasoned veteran, so that just -- he was moving and bobbing and weaving, it said in the account I read, and I thought, "He's got a little Muhammad Ali in him."

Johnson: Until, you know, people saw what an athlete he was, college was something you heard about, you read about.

There were some black colleges in the South, but it wasn't a mainstream part of the life plan like it is today, especially in the black communities.

My great-grandmother did a really good job of making sure that people at church, in the school, that he had a strong network of males to talk to him about like, "This is a huge opportunity.

Don't blow this."

That piece of it started at a young age.

People telling him, like, "These are things you can do."

Narrator: Johnny Bright graduated from Fort Wayne Central High School as one of the most talented and exceptional athletes in the country.

But Bright had very few prospects to attend college.

One of the schools in the state said, "We already have enough black players on our squad."

I mean, what an incredible statement.

Finney: He was not recruited by Notre Dame, which did not allow black players.

And Purdue showed no interest.

And I think it shows our history of stupidity when it comes to underestimating and devaluing black people and black men as a whole.

So he went to Michigan State for a few weeks, but he didn't feel comfortable on the East Lansing campus.

And so he came back home, and he just wasn't sure what the future held in terms of where he was going to go to college.

♪♪ Narrator: Drake University is located in Des Moines, Iowa, and was heralded for its academic excellence and its equality and openness to students of all races.

This university was founded in 1881 through the efforts of George Carpenter and Francis Marion Drake and, from its inception, made it very clear that it was open to all students of any race, religion, or gender.

Johnny apparently was excited.

He'd heard a lot about Drake.

It's a small college setting in the middle of Iowa, 5000 students or so.

But originally, they told him, "We're going to give you scholarship aid, but it's just for basketball and track."

The word was that it was very tolerant toward all different types of groups.

And so he felt comfortable, but he did have a caveat.

He said, "I want to be able to try out for football, too."

And they said, "Yeah, yeah, okay."

Back then, freshmen couldn't play football, and they thought maybe he'd change his mind after he'd been here a year or so.

But praise the Lord, he didn't change his mind.

There can be no doubt, based on statistics or any other measure that you would like, that John was one of the greatest athletes of the day and for many years afterwards, just based upon his feats in coming to Drake.

I mean, he played basketball.

He ran on the track team.

He gave those things up his freshman year.

But yet he he did well in all of them.

Johnson: And he got to be, you know, what he wanted to be.

He got to study education.

He got to do multiple sports.

But he really got to take advantage of everything college has to offer.

And I think it's incredible that he had the vision and wherewithal to do that at a time when you didn't have visibility to other people doing it.

Like, you really had to be a trailblazer.

Narrator: That trail led him straight to the football field.

New coach Warren Gaer promised to bring an innovative style to Drake football, but he just needed the right personnel.

As luck would have it, Johnny Bright was a walk-on for the team his sophomore year.

Schultz: He's ineligible to play varsity as a freshman, but he joins the varsity squad as a sophomore.

So this would have been 1949.

And the first game of the season, he doesn't start.

And coach Warren Gaer decides he's going to put him in and give him a chance.

And it was probably the smartest thing that that coach ever did because by the end of the game, Bright had scored two touchdowns, passed for a third, and finished the game with 250 yards of offense, right?

So after that moment, the coach smartened up and they start to design their single-wing offense around Johnny Bright.

They nickname it BRP, which stands for "Bright Run or Pass," because he's tremendous at both.

Chapman: In just his second game against South Dakota, They won the game easily, but Johnny was incredible.

He completed nine of 10 passes, and he ran for 246 yards.

And it was the all-time Drake record at the time, but it became kind of a standard, I think, for Johnny and the team.

But the whole season was like that.

In one game against Wichita, The coach coined a phrase that I just love.

Afterwards, he said, "I like to call Johnny Bright a splatter back, which means when he hits you, you just splatter."

And I'd never heard that phrase before, but what a compliment.

Stepsis: And Johnny Bright kind of had it all.

You know, he had the power and the size where he could run through tackles, but he also had the speed and the elusiveness to get out on an edge and outrun a guy.

So Johnny got the ball every snap.

Dr. Owens: When we watch football, we always get the bird's-eye view, right?

And then the slo-mo replay.

And then the commentators draw on the screen to show you where everything is going.

It's like that third time you see the play, you're like, "Oh, that's what they're doing."

You've seen it in real time, you've seen it in slow motion.

Now you're going to watch it with the commentators' annotations.

Johnny Bright had to see all of that in real time while it was happening the first time it happened.

On the field.

He didn't have the bird's-eye view.

Dr. Sailes: He rewrote the record books.

He scored 70% of their points.

He got on the ground 70% of their yardage, all right?

He was the threat.

♪♪ He set the state on fire with excitement.

And all of a sudden, Johnny Bright became not only the best player in the state of Iowa but arguably, by the end of the first season, his sophomore year, the best offensive player in the United States.

Narrator: Bright's football season his junior year proved that his amazing feats as a sophomore were not a fluke.

He transformed Drake into a national contender and once again broke national records.

He was the first player ever in college-football history to run and pass for over 1,000 yards in a single season.

He led the NCAA in total offense two years.

And then to be able to rack up the NCAA record yardage, both the prior years, 30 touchdowns.

I mean, it was just overwhelming.

He just had an ability that transcended everyone else.

Narrator: Bright was not only the best athlete on the team, he was also a natural leader.

He unified and inspired his teammates, which led to a strong bond and mutual respect.

I always think about, too, his teammates and the level of their allyship, because I've heard stories about, you know, "We got to a spot to eat, and they knew we were coming.

The table was set up."

And I remember the best thing I heard was someone said, "Oh, well, we don't serve nigger here, and the coach said, "Good, 'cause we don't eat it."

And the team, they weren't going to serve them.

The team was like, "Well, you can miss out on this group of 40 people coming to pay or you can serve all of us."

And there were times they got to a hotel and it was like, "Oh, well, we're going to all sleep on the bus.

If our star quarterback can't sleep in a bed, we're not going to sleep either."

And I feel like we use the word "allyship" so lightly today and we give it to anybody who even talks about a problem.

But when you go without and when you sacrifice and you put yourself in the situation of a black person, that's the allyship.

Stepsis: When you have a huddle, man, it doesn't matter.

Black, white, Catholic, Protestant.

It's unbelievable the amount of togetherness that forms, that bond that forms that, you know, my brother to my left and my right, it doesn't matter where you're from or or what you believe in.

You know, you and I are on the same team and we're after the same goal, and it really does bring together people from all walks of life.

Narrator: Johnny Bright and Drake University were poised to make a historic run his senior year.

To stay in shape during the off season, Bright joined a fast-pitch softball league.

When I was doing research on my book "Triumph and Tragedy," I'd start talking to a lot of people about Johnny Bright.

And one day, one older gentleman overheard me.

And he came walking up to me, and he said, "I hope you're going to have something about Johnny as a fast-pitch pitcher in softball."

I said, "I didn't realize he was a good softball pitcher."

And he said, "He was probably the best pitcher in the entire state."

He played for an all-black team in Des Moines called HotnTots.

And he said, "I remember one game in the state tournament.

I drove up to watch the game, and I couldn't find a parking place.

There were over 2,000 people there.

There were cars lined all around the park."

And he said, "It was all because of Johnny Bright."

It was after his junior year at Drake, and everybody knew who Johnny Bright was, and everybody wanted to come see him.

And he said, "If I remember right, he struck out 10 people and drove in a couple runs."

And he said, "Was Johnny Bright a good softball player?

No, he was a great softball player."

Narrator: Johnny Bright mania swept through the entire state of Iowa.

He was heralded as a hero.

But Bright's popularity could not overcome the racial dynamics of the times.

It was challenging for him to find a safe place on and off the field.

Finney: He was their guy, you know.

He was their LeBron.

He was their Jordan.

He was a teammate.

He was a friend.

He was composed.

Nobody was bigger in the state.

Nobody was bigger in the city than Johnny Bright.

And there were still people saying, "No, you can't live here because of the color of your skin."

I don't believe that a black athlete celebrity insulates them from racism.

He was always targeted.

He had to deal with not having a safe space but a hostile space, no matter where he went.

Rhoden: So you put Johnny Bright's great numbers, outstanding numbers in the contest at every single game.

This brother was being targeted not just as a great player, but as a great black player, as somebody who we could pour all our racial animus on you.

You know, hit you hard, step on you when you're down.

While black folks were catching hell outside the stadium, these brothers were sort of like a metaphor for what was happening in black America.

when he was on the athletic field, the football field, it was a hardened way of life for him out there.

He could never relax.

You could never be comfortable.

You can never enjoy the moment like kids do today.

You always have to watch your back and be concerned about somebody getting an illegal hit on you.

That's the way he felt.

That's the way that team felt, the black athletes felt in those days.

But they learned to adjust to it, and they succeeded.

Narrator: In the fall of 1951, Bright was favored to become the first African-American to be awarded the Heisman Trophy, and Drake's team had a chance to go undefeated in the Missouri Valley Conference.

♪♪ When I arrived at summer camp in 1951, we had the goal of becoming unbeaten that year with good reason.

A lot of excitement.

It was a lot of John Bright, and particularly the sports headlines.

And so he was, by that time, very much a celebrity.

He was famous.

Demas: Well, the sky was the limit for Johnny Bright going into his senior year.

Again, he had led the nation in total yards the previous two years.

He had done things that really no other player had done.

Sports writers nationwide were saying, "This could be the guy to win the Heisman Trophy."

The mayor of Des Moines and the governor wanted to hold "Johnny Bright Night," and they held it the day before the game, Friday night, and they held it in the Bulldog basketball arena.

And over 2,000 people showed up, and he got a standing ovation.

And just think of that -- the night before the game, this young man comes here from Indiana.

It's his senior year, leading the nation in about every aspect of offensive football.

And he gets his own night the day before.

♪♪ Narrator: The team that was the biggest challenge to Drake's quest for a perfect season was Oklahoma A&M University.

The Aggies were focused on establishing themselves as a powerhouse football program, but the university was facing its own set of racial animosities.

Although the school was integrated in 1949, many people from the A&M community were determined to make sure the athletic teams, especially the football squad, remained all-white.

Rumors began floating around that Oklahoma A&M was going to target Bright in their upcoming game against Drake.

It was alleged at the Aggies intended to send a message that blacks were not welcome on their field.

Demas: The community in Stillwater and Oklahoma A&M College is that it wasn't an all-white school in 1951.

That put the football program now in this position of if they're going to maintain segregation, they're going to have to speak up, whether it's the coach or the players, right?

Or send a signal that they want to remain all-white.

Schultz: They were, you know, people that were resentful.

You know, "Why are people telling us what to do?

Why do we have to desegregate at this point?

And so it was a really racially charged atmosphere that contributed to all this.

Schoffner: I think it's pretty credible that there was, and various media have reported this, that there was talk around around the campus that they were going to get John Bright.

Dippel: "John Bright will not finish the game."

There was that kind of rumor out there.

They were definitely pointed toward taking John out, and he heard that type of scuttlebutt, about whether they were going to get him strictly because he was black or because he was the best player, or a combination of both.

The "Des Moines Register," which was one of the preeminent sports pages in the nation, decides that they're going to send two photographers to cover the game.

They send John Robinson and Don Ultang, who fly down.

They can only stay for 15 minutes because they have to get back to Des Moines and meet their deadline.

15 minutes -- they didn't even need that much time.

Narrator: October 20, 1951.

Johnny Bright and Drake University take the Field in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

The rumors about the Aggies targeting Bright on the field very quickly became a reality.

So, the first offensive play of the game, Johnny Bright takes the snap, and he hands off to a fullback -- a man named Gene Macomber.

Gene Macomber advances the ball up the field, and Bright sort of rolls away and is watching the ball advance.

Now, according to Ultang and Robinson, you know, they're following the trajectory of the ball, as are the officials, as are the spectators.

And nobody really sees what happens to Johnny Bright.

His habit was just to stand.

And doing that -- he's standing there erect -- he leaves himself vulnerable.

Well, and you can see from the photos that Wilbanks Smith is not paying any attention to where the ball is going.

In fact, he cuts in front of a teammate who was going in the direction of the ball and goes right to John.

♪♪ ♪♪ Schultz: When they look at Johnny Bright, he's knocked out cold on the field.

And everyone is watching the ball.

One of the "Des Moines Register" reporters interviewed several people after the game.

None of them saw it.

The fact that they got to basically get a free shot at him two and three times and breaking his jaw, that strikes me as racial.

Or at least -- I don't like to put it in these terms, but it's, "Oh, this is a bonus, too.

This is their best player and we get to beat up on a black guy."

And I mean, the pictures are very clear what's happening here -- this is not, you know, an accident.

It's not a shoulder.

You know, it's a fist, and it's a fist into his jaw.

Schoffner: Wilbanks Smith's feet are off the ground.

I mean, he was going to John with such force that he left the ground.

The referee standing nearby doesn't even call a penalty.

On the next play, Johnny Bright -- and this gives you a little insight.

I think about this a lot, about how competitive he was and how tough mentally he was.

He throws a 61-yard touchdown pass, but he gets hit again by the same player.

Because of the touchdown, the other team took the field offensively.

Johnny wobbles back to the sidelines.

Schultz: Now, we later learn that he actually shattered his jaw in that first play.

But I think it's important to note that after he's knocked unconscious and has his jaw shattered, he's out, the trainers come out on the field, they tend to him, and he's able to get up.

Imagine being knocked out, your jaw broken, and then doing that.

And he says, "The hell if I'm going to go out that game.

I'm staying in that game, Dolph."

And he says, "I'm going to stay in that game, and they're not going to defeat me, because that's what they want, or they want to take me out.

I'm going to stay in."

And he says, "But the referee, I thought, was going to protect me, didn't protect me.

And he came back at me again, and he knocked me out."

And he says, "That is what made me angry."

Chapman: On the next series, when they have the ball, he's tackled by a group of Oklahoma State players and he's punched while he's on the ground.

And you got to figure if that's the third hit in the game of the same kind, that, you know, the officials, somewhere along the line, should have been putting a stop to it, and they didn't, so that made me very irate.

Dippel: Kind of traumatic to have that happen and then to realize, as the game went on and on, that John may not be returning -- definitely to that game, but for the rest of the season.

So it was a huge, huge morale-buster.

Well, after the broken-jaw incident, he's sitting in the train depot in Stillwater with his teammates.

His jaw's already wired up, and he's in great pain.

And of course, those people running the train station would have known all about it at that point.

And apparently, the person in charge of the depot came over to Johnny and said, "Blacks are not allowed to sit in this area.

You're going to have to move."

And Johnny looked up at him and said, "If you're man enough to move me, go ahead and try."

And the fellow looked at him, turned around, and walked away, which is another beautiful example of Johnny Bright standing his ground when it needs to be stood.

I think we have to give a lot of credit to the photographers, Don Ultang and John Robinson, who were there, and they captured that.

Had they not done that... Demas: They captured those pictures crystal-clear that ended up running all over the nation, in "Life" magazine, "Time" magazine.

And they won the Pulitzer Prize, actually, in photography for those images.

Talking about the incident, one of the photographers from the "Register" said, without those photographs, there wouldn't have been a Johnny Bright incident.

So it happened, but nobody would have made anything of it.

So people are really confronted with this evidence for the first time that these type of things happened.

It's been happening since the late 1800s to black players, but people have been able to ignore it.

Finney: The sports pages and then editorial pages started to appear all over the nation.

And at one point, the "Register"'s Sunday sports section ran a page of excerpts from editorials.

And they were all -- most all universally condemning the act at Oklahoma A&M.

Narrator: After being sidelined for two weeks and forced on a liquid diet, Bright bounced back to play in his final collegiate game.

He was superb, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for one more.

Yet the most important impact Bright made in the game was the face mask he wore, which prompted an NCAA change in rules to make the game safer.

Schoffner: In that game, he wore this face mask that was a prototype of what, you know, later became the face mask.

So here is a trendsetter in that regard, too.

There's clearly sort of a movement in the NCAA to try and reduce violence, to try to reduce injuries.

Undoubtedly, the Johnny Bright incident is what they're thinking of when they're doing this, right?

They begin to mandate the face masks, and a lot of that in 1951, in that moment, is fallout from Johnny Bright.

Narrator: The college-football season was over, but Drake continued to seek justice for the Johnny Bright incident by lobbying the Missouri Valley Conference to penalize Oklahoma A&M for its obvious acts of violence.

The MVC refused to punish A&M in any way.

Because the Missouri Valley Conference took no punitive action against A&M, Drake and Bradley Universities decided to leave the conference.

Martin: Drake University's response was to withdraw from Missouri Valley Conference.

Really proud to say that Bradley University joined us in withdrawing from the conference.

We'll forever be grateful for that.

So certainly there was, you know, on a personal level, a very visceral reaction.

At an institutional level, a reaction that said, "Look, if these are the values of this organization, we can't be a part of it."

Narrator: Both Drake and Bradley Universities would eventually rejoin the Missouri Valley Conference.

In 1957, Oklahoma A&M changed its name to Oklahoma State and left the MVC to join what is now the Big 12 conference.

The tensions connected to the Johnny Bright incident remain unresolved.

In 1952, Johnny Bright was eligible for the NFL draft.

He had a tough decision to make because he was well aware that the league had a problematic history of drafting African-American players.

-In 1933, the NFL decides that they're not going to recruit any black players.

And so from 1933 to 1946, these great players don't get a chance to play in the NFL, and they certainly should have had that chance.

It makes you wonder how many Johnny Brights there were before Johnny Bright.

Schultz: The Philadelphia Eagles had never signed a black player, and they want Johnny Bright for a number of different reasons, not least of which is his superlative talent.

So the Philadelphia Eagles draft him in the first round.

He's the number-five draft pick, and he's drafted ahead of people like Frank Gifford, who went on to storied careers in the NFL.

You know, we talk a lot about his athleticism and his determination, but just his forward-thinking to say, "You know what?

I've been going through this, and it's it's hard.

It's tough."

And so you're going to take your family at that point.

You've got, you know, a kid already and a wife, and you're expecting another kid and you're going to take them to Philadelphia, where people don't want you?

He got drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, but he said, "The hell with that," because he said, "The Eagles have all these Southern guys coming to the team, and I've had it."

That's the season he said, "I've had it.

I've read that book before.

I'm not doing that."

And so what did he do?

He turned down the NFL, right?

Turned down the NFL, right?

And went to Canada and had an absolutely amazing career.

Narrator: The Canadian Football League also had its eyes on Johnny Bright.

The Calgary Stampeders drafted him and offered more money than the NFL.

Bright eventually landed with the Edmonton Eskimos, now called the Edmonton Elks.

He would crush the league with a dominating rushing game.

Like his days at Drake, Bright became a hero in Canada and was celebrated by the highest officials.

Announcer: Straight ahead for five yards.

The prime minister is here for the official kickoff, and out in center field, he chats with the three "O Canada" award winners.

Johnny Bright -- Most Outstanding Player.

And there's the official kickoff, Johnny Bright holding the ball.

Announcer: 56 yards in rushing.

And here is Johnny Bright putting 14 yards into the specific.

Tackle by Bob McLellan.

Bright was the game's leading ground-gainer with a net gain of 171 yards.

Announcer #3: Touchdown play on the way.

Arm blocking by Art Walker and Roger Nelson.

Dynamite Johnny Bright explodes into the end zone.

Climaxing in Edmonton, Bright has carried 68 yards in 11 remorseless plays.

Narrator: Bright would go on to play 13 seasons in the Canadian Football League.

In 1959, he became the first black player to win the CFL's Most Outstanding Player award.

He helped Edmonton win three Grey Cups, and he is universally acknowledged as one of the greatest players in CFL history.

♪♪ I first started to learn about Johnny Bright when I first got to Canada because he was one of the great Edmonton Eskimo players on that team that won three Grey Cups in a row.

The thing that really caught my eye about Johnny was how well-respected he was in the community because of him being an educator, being a teacher, and then also becoming a principal.

Narrator: During his playing career, Johnny Bright studied to get his master's degree in education from Indiana University.

After Bright retired from football, he fulfilled another lifelong dream by starting a career as a coach and educator.

As a coach, Bright led his teams to multiple championships and helped many of his players secure athletic scholarships for college.

Bright also had a tremendous impact as a school principal.

Deby: So Johnny Bright was something of a legend to me back when I was five, six, seven, eight years old.

He was my principal in junior high, grades seven through nine.

And I had grown up hearing about Johnny Bright.

And when I finally met him, or when he came into my life, he was Mr.

Bright.

He was my principal.

I was sent down to the principal's office for a relatively minor infraction, which the sentence was up to suspension.

Mr.

Bright, after talking to me for a little bit, I guess, decided that he would give me a pass on it and let me off with a warning.

But the warning, you know, carried with it that "Don't let it happen again."

And it was then that, even in grade eight, I was kind of struck with his inherent fairness.

I'd bump into him in the halls, and he'd always say hi to me.

And it just really made me feel like this legend knew me and was watching out for me.

And it really made me feel like I was important and that I mattered, and he had that way of just -- you didn't want to disappoint him.

Narrator: On December 14, 1983, Johnny Bright voluntarily checked into the University of Alberta Hospital to receive surgery on a knee he injured during his football career.

What happened next was completely unexpected.

Deby: I had heard on the news that Johnny Bright was going in for knee surgery.

I remember I was living at home at the time and coming home from work on my birthday.

I heard my mom call out to me if I had heard the news about Mr.

Bright.

And I was kind of expecting, you know, that he was out of surgery or something on his recovery or something like that.

And I said, no, I hadn't heard.

And...

Sorry.

[ Chuckles ] Still.

♪♪ ♪♪ Johnson: So, my grandfather died a couple of weeks before Christmas, and my parents came back from the funeral.

That's tough anyways.

It's the holidays.

My mom's eight and a half months pregnant, and a couple of days later, a knock on the door.

There's the postman, which is funny to me because I grew up on, like, Amazon and things, like, coming to your house.

But the postman comes, got this big box of presents, and he had a Christmas card made he'd written out.

There were gifts, his handwriting.

So I think stories like that were not only is he an athlete, not only is he a principal, but he's a dad.

He's excited to be a grandpa, to have a kid to toss the ball around with, to hang out with, but read with them and teach them about life.

And I always feel like that it sucks that he got robbed of the chance to be a grandpa.

Narrator: After the passing of Johnny Bright, Drake University continued to revere and celebrate his achievements with the fondness of memories.

Yet one memory remained tarnished due to the unresolved issues surrounding the incident game with Oklahoma A&M, now called Oklahoma State.

In 2005, Drake was on track to play Oklahoma State in a Las Vegas basketball tournament.

This prompted one Drake alum to take notice and take action.

So, in 2005, I was looking at Drake's upcoming basketball schedule, and it turned out that there was a possibility that Drake would be playing Oklahoma State in a basketball tournament in Las Vegas, if both teams advanced in the bracket properly.

I talked to a gentleman by the name of Paul Morrison, who was Drake's historian, about this incident, and he mentioned to me that there was never a formal and proper apology from Oklahoma A&M regarding that, which just floored me.

It made me very upset.

So what happened was, I contacted Dr. Maxwell, who was the president of Drake University at the time, and I explained the situation, that there was some unfinished business.

And I asked him if it would be possible to find out if Oklahoma State is ready to provide an apology.

And he called me and alerted me to the fact that we were going to be in this tournament with Oklahoma State on the other side of the bracket in concern that we might end up on the same field of play, or court of play in this instance, with an institution whose players had participated in a really horrific insult to Drake and somebody who was really important to us, and that as far as he knew, the circle had never been closed on that, that we had never gotten an official apology.

David Maxwell called, and he was very kind.

He said that he thought it was important to his university that some sort of apology be issued by Oklahoma State.

So it really wasn't a very difficult decision to decide this was the right thing to do.

Sharma: Big, big respect to Dr. David Schmidly.

He was very courageous and very graceful in providing that apology, that much-overdue apology.

Narrator: Johnny Bright endured one of the most egregious acts of violence in college-football history.

He took pride in knowing that his obstacles on the field helped to make the game safer for all.

And he never allowed that incident to damage his spirits or define his life.

According to his teammates, he never harbored any bitterness.

You know, that John... One of them said John was just happy each day to be alive and to be playing athletics.

Pulliam: Many times, white people that are not kind or light-thinking, they think of us sometimes as angry blacks, that we get mad and "They always mad.

They'll get mad at you, and they're angry."

Johnny Bright wasn't like that.

And the hits that he took and how -- the racism that he experienced, he didn't protest.

He didn't hold banners, signs, or whatever.

But what Johnny said he did was he got above it.

"I'm going to be an example, and a quiet example, by leadership, by how I carry myself and how my teammates and I carry ourselves.

That's what we're going to do.

And we can bring about change that way."

Johnny Bright was like that rose -- that rose that grows up through concrete.

You're like, "Well, how the hell did that happen?"

We put him in the ground, we pour concrete over him, and here comes this damn rose, you know, or oak tree, even.

How did that happen?

And that's the magic of African-Americans in this country, and Johnny Bright was just typical of that magic that is black people -- the resilience that "I'm not going to let your hatred define me.

In fact, I'm going to feed off of that hatred to flourish."

Narrator: Throughout his entire life, Johnny Bright lived with dignity and strived to achieve excellence in any endeavor he took on.

Perhaps his most significant accomplishment was to carve out his own path and live life on his own terms.

From the beginning, you see in Bright's story a young man who's a trailblazer, who really started doing things his own way, right?

The fact that even ends up at Drake University, as opposed to, say, Michigan State or another bigger school.

The fact that, you know, he, at times, is pushed towards basketball or track and field, but he rejects those and really wants to play football, right?

I think all of these things point to this sense that Bright is always doing things his own way.

Narrator: A trailblazer, a Hall of Famer, a coach, a beloved mentor, a revered school principal.

Johnny Bright touched many lives in a multitude of ways.

His revolutionary talents as a dual-threat runner and passer are commonplace in modern football, as seen in quarterbacks like Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes.

His impact continues to reverberate in both the United States and Canada.

In 1970, Bright was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

And throughout Canada, there are parks and murals dedicated in his honor.

In September 2010, a K-through-9 grade school was named after him.

The Johnny Bright School opened with a public mission that every student has the right to a high-quality learning environment.

And in America, Bright's career at Drake was honored when he was inducted into both the National College Football and Missouri Valley Conference Halls of Fame.

Good morning.

It's a great honor to be here this morning.

And on behalf of the Bright family, I would just like to thank the Missouri Valley Conference and all of the individuals that had a part and making this a historic moment.

The great thing about legacies is that they live on in the children.

And although my dad is not here with us physically, I know he's looking down and shining down upon us.

And it's just a great honor to be here.

And I thank you very much.

[ Applause ] ♪♪ Welcome to Drake University.

Welcome to what is indeed a historic day in the life of this institution.

Because today we announce the launch of the first new college or school at Drake University in over 60 years.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the John D. Bright College at Drake University.

What a historic event at Drake University.

Thank you, Wayne.

[ Applause ] I would think he might have been most proud of the fact that they named this academic program after him, the Johnny Bright College.

I think that would have been the thing that he appreciated most about his legacy -- that he was remembered, also, as an educator.

When people ask me what kind of student Bright College is looking for, of course we're looking for bright, creative, driven, resilient individuals.

But the thing I always say is that we're looking to serve students who may not have thought of college, much less Drake, as the next step on their life journey.

All of his kids got the chance to go to college.

All of them got the chance to do what they wanted to do.

My mom got a master's degree.

There were no educational barriers to them.

So I think he knew, "All right, the next generation is going to have it even better."

"Field of Dreams," which was shot here in Iowa, has a character named Moonlight Graham.

And Moonlight Graham is a guy who made the big leagues for one play and then went on to become a doctor in a small town in Minnesota.

And Johnny Bright would have won the Heisman Trophy.

There's very little doubt that had he not missed so much time because of the jaw, broken jaw.

And I think that could make a man bitter.

I think that that could turn a man in on himself and out against everyone else.

So I go back to Moonlight Graham, and there's a line in the film.

Protagonists of the film have found Moonlight Graham.

And he says, "Oh, you know, it would break some men to come so close to their dream and not be able to touch it.

It's a tragedy."

And Moonlight Graham said, "No, it'd be a tragedy if I had never become a doctor and come to this town."

And I think that that's what we learned from Johnny Bright, was it would have been a tragedy if he had never become a teacher.

It'd been a tragedy if he'd never touched all those children's lives and put good in the world.

You know, the Johnny Bright story just needs to be told and retold because it's just more than just football.

It's about black folks, about resilience, courage, and the refusal to let other people's hatred define you.

You know, I define myself.

You know, I'm responsible for my own happiness.

You know?

Not you, not -- I'm responsible for it.

Hatred does not win.

Love wins.

Johnny Bright won because he didn't even give that any energy.

Next to my father, he was definitely the most influential man in my life, and I know both of them -- I never wanted to disappoint either of them.

And so, moving forward the last, you know, 50 years, 45 years, I just -- I still don't want to disappoint them.

At some point, I may see them again, and I still want to be able to answer that I did okay and I...

I stayed the course.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Here at Johnny Bright, everything's all right ♪ ♪ Learning's what we're all about ♪ ♪ That's why we help each other out ♪ ♪ Everyone's got a part to play ♪ ♪ That's why you hear us say ♪ ♪ "Go, Johnny, go, Johnny Bright" ♪ ♪ "Go, Johnny, go, Johnny Bright" ♪ ♪ Now, Johnny's got a story for you and me ♪ ♪ We can overcome adversity ♪ ♪ Even if you grow up in poverty ♪ ♪ We can all become who we want to be ♪ ♪ We can all become who we want to be ♪ ♪ Here at Johnny Bright, everything's all right ♪ ♪ Learning's what we're all about ♪ ♪ That's why we help each other out ♪ ♪ Everyone's got a part to play ♪ ♪ That's why you hear us say ♪ ♪ "Go, Johnny, go, Johnny Bright" ♪ ♪ "Go, Johnny, go, Johnny Bright" ♪ ♪ Now, everyone is born with special qualities ♪ ♪ Together, we embrace our diversity ♪ ♪ Respecting one another is the key ♪ ♪ That's what makes us one big family ♪ ♪ That's what makes us one big family ♪ ♪ Here at Johnny Bright, everything's all right ♪ ♪ Learning's what we're all about ♪ ♪ That's why we help each other out ♪ ♪ Everyone's got a part to play ♪ ♪ That's why you hear us say ♪ ♪ "Go, Johnny, go, Johnny Bright" ♪ ♪ "Go, Johnny, go, Johnny Bright" ♪ ♪ Courage makes us stand for what we believe ♪ ♪ Compassion needs to be there for those in need ♪ ♪ We are all a part of a community ♪ ♪ Where everyone can live and learn in harmony ♪ ♪ And make the world a better place for all to be ♪ ♪ Here at Johnny Bright, everything's all right ♪ ♪ Learning's what we're all about ♪ ♪ That's why we help each other out ♪ ♪ Everyone's got a part to play ♪ ♪ That's why you hear us say ♪ ♪ "Go, Johnny, go, Johnny Bright" ♪ ♪ "Go, Johnny, go, Johnny Bright" ♪