"Unscripted" The Johnny Bright Story
Unscripted By Keith Edmonds
FWIS Contributing Writer
On October 20, 1951, Bright was the victim of an intentional, racially motivated, on-field assault by an opposing college football player from Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) this assault was photographed in a series of images that was distributed and seen nationally. This event came to be known as the: "Johnny Bright Incident."
In a city that’s rich with sports history, our favorite athletes, coaches, and teams with tremendous stories, Fort Wayne’s own Johnny Bright has a story unlike any other. Now I’m sure that not too many of you know who Johnny Bright was and how he impacted college athletics in such a profound way that 70 years later many college sports journalists, coaches, and players still speak of him in “tones of reverence” because that’s how good he was! In today’s UNSCRIPTED I’ll dive in and try to give you a snapshot as to who he was, his impact on college athletics, and how his name and on field talents forever changed how we look at sports, especially during the turbulent and race-driven times of the 50’s & 60’s.
Born in 1930 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, John Bright was a member of Central High School’s Class of 1948 where he played basketball, ran track, and his favorite sport, football. He then attended Drake University where he played halfback and quarterback and instantly made his mark as one of college football’s emerging stars. Bright’s talents allowed him to accumulate 5,983 yards of total offense in his storied Bulldog career as he led the country in total offense in both 1949 and 1950. In 1951 he became the leading candidate to win the Heisman Trophy and was destined for professional football success as well, with the National Football League keeping a close eye on this talented player. Bright became a celebrity of sorts not only at the campus of Drake University but nationally as well. Every opponent planned as to how they were going to stop him during games and teams feared that he would exploit their weaknesses during games and lead the Bulldogs to the win. Things were in place for Bright to win the Heisman which would then propel him towards stardom in the NFL until the day of October 20, 1951, changed his life forever.
On that day Bright’s Drake Bulldogs’ were set to play against the Oklahoma A&M Cowboys and there was much anticipation surrounding this game as the Bulldogs were on a 5-game winning streak and Bright’s star was shining for the nation to see. There was no secret that Oklahoma’s players were very aware of what their primary focus needed to be on in this game. STOP JOHN BRIGHT!
Now, to give you some historical perspective for this piece, in the 1950’s Jim Crow laws (laws that mandated racial segregation in all public facilities) were very prevalent and though A&M was integrated in 1949 the “spirit” of Jim Crow was apparent and alive and well in the minds of those attending this game. Both Oklahoma A&M's student newspaper, The Daily O'Collegian, and the local newspaper, The News Press, reported that Bright was a marked man, and several A&M students were openly claiming that John Bright "would not be around at the end of the game". This was the backdrop as the game began and as usual Bright was the central focus of the opposing team. During the first 7 minutes of this game Bright was knocked unconscious 3 times from blows by A&M’s Wilbanks Smith (who some 70 years later still claims were unintentional blows) and though Bright was able to pick himself up after each blow delivered, the final one shattered his jaw (as he was completing a 61 yard touchdown pass) Bright was forced to leave the game finishing with less than 100 totals yards for the first time in his career!
Several of A&M’s players and fans were overheard saying “get that n*****” during the game and yelled “got em’ each time that Bright was escorted off of the field. The final blow limited Bright’s effectiveness for the remainder of the season and forced him to miss 3 games. Those missed games caused Bright to finish a disappointing 5th in the Heisman voting that year and forever changed the landscape of college football as rules changes and protective helmets (no face masks were worn during Bright’s injury) were ushered in. I found it very interesting that Wilbanks Smith received over 1,000, (mostly hate) letters regarding the incident but some were congratulatory and thankful. As I mentioned before, Smith maintained (until his death in 2020), that he was not racist, and that the hit was "not a racial incident," He never apologized to Bright for the incident but said in 2012 that he was glad that it had helped to integrate college football, saying "It took me a long time before I could smile about it. But now I can. It was a tool (Civil Rights') organizations used, and it was very effective.” Following his graduation from Drake in 1952, Bright went on to have a 12-year professional football career in the Canadian Football League, before retiring in 1964 as the CFL's all-time leading rusher and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1970.
When asked about the incident prior to his death in 1983 Bright stated: “What I like about the whole deal now, is that getting a broken jaw has somehow made college athletics better. It made the NCAA take a hard look and clean up some things that were bad."
When asked about Smith, (whom he had not seen since the incident), Bright said he felt "null and void" about Smith but added: "The thing has been a great influence on my life. My total philosophy of life now is that whatever a person's bias and limitation, they deserve respect. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs.” Oklahoma A&M’s president issued an apology to Drake University some 22 years after Bright’s death stating that his teams behavior that day left an indelible mark on collegiate athletics that day and years afterward. Go back and take a look at the John Bright Incident and decide for yourself if it was “football” or something else.