Johnny Bright Research Paper

Johnny Bright was born on June 11, 1930 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was raised by his mother in a working class neighborhood, and was the second oldest of five children. Him and his four brother were all very involved in sports growing up. Johnny attended Central High School in Fort Wayne. While he was there he lettered in basketball, football and track, also he twice led his basketball team to final four appearances in the state championship and led the football team to the City title in 1945. In track he competed in as many as five event and was able to pole vault 12 feet using a bamboo pole.

He was recruited by Michigan State University football, even though he accepted the scholarship at first, he soon changed his mind. He transferred …show more content…
Each time the blows to his face occurred after he had handed off the ball to his running back and was standing watching the play develop. The third blow was the worst as Smith hit Bright with a foreman directly to the face, breaking his jaw. Despite his broken jaw, Bright stayed in the game and hurled a 61 yard scoring pass to his halfback Jim Pilkington. At this point in the game, the coaches decided to take him out of the game to prevent further damage. This was the first time in Bright’s career that he left a game without reaching the 100 yard mark. Oklahoma won the game with a score of 27-14. Reporter Bob Spiegel of the Des Moines Register interviewed multiple people who confirmed hearing coaches and players encouraging the play, but Smith denied that he was the one who broke Bright’s jaw. Unfortunately for Smith, the reporters captured the incident through a series of six photos which showed beyond the dispute that the blow happened almost seven yards away from the ball carrier. The series of photos were reprinted in papers across the United States and made the cover of Life magazine. The cameraman also awarded the 1952 Pulitzer Prize as the photos showed the depth of racial disorder in the