CTV News Edmonton has reported:

Drake University has unveiled a seven-foot bronze statue of Johnny Bright outside a stadium gate in Des Moines, Iowa, 75 years after a racially motivated attack on the Black football star during a college game. The dedication also included plaques at the gate telling Bright’s story. The university said the memorial honours his achievements in football and education and keeps the memory of the attack known as the “Johnny Bright Incident” alive.

Bright was a fullback for Drake’s NCAA Division I Bulldogs and a favourite to win the 1951 Heisman Trophy, given to the top player in U.S. college football. On Oct. 20, 1951, Drake played Oklahoma A&M. During the game, defensive tackle Wilbanks Smith, a white player, struck Bright, who was Black, and knocked him unconscious three times. One blow broke Bright’s jaw and forced him out of the game; he missed the rest of the regular season.

The attack drew widespread attention across the United States. The photographer who captured it in a series of images received a Pulitzer Prize. The incident also prompted changes in college football, including mandatory face masks and mouthpieces for players, and rule changes. It brought further attention to integration in U.S. society.

Neither Oklahoma A&M nor the athletic conference in which both schools competed took disciplinary action over the attack. Drake responded by withdrawing its teams from the conference. Most returned to the Missouri Valley Conference in 1956, but Drake’s football team did not rejoin until 1971.

Drake President Marty Martin said the statue marks the incident’s 75th anniversary and recognizes Bright’s accomplishments on and off the field. Bright’s name already appears on the university’s football field and one of its colleges. Martin said Bright’s “courage, resilience and character that he showed in the moment and the years thereafter” deserved to be remembered.

“He was an outstanding athlete who was a strong student who combined those two to have phenomenal success (not just) as a football player in the Canadian Football League but also a wonderful career as an educator,” Martin told CTV News Edmonton on Friday, less than an hour after the university unveiled the statue. “That’s what we want from our alums, that they go out and have the kind of positive impact that he had. We need to celebrate those who have reached a level that the rest of us can find inspiration in and give us that optimism and energy we need to go out and be our best selves.”

Bright’s granddaughter, Bre Bright-Wortham, spoke at Friday’s unveiling. She said the family was “humbled that Drake continues to exude the values they exhibited 75 years ago in support of my grandfather.” At the dedication Friday morning, she said: “At a time when most schools were ignoring the educational desires and athletic talents of Black Americans, Drake, Des Moines and the state of Iowa embraced my grandfather. Drake, a storied institution, exemplified the values instilled upon its founding, and left the conference in protest after the safety of an athlete was compromised.”

Bright came from Drake, a small university in Des Moines, to Canada early in the 1950s, turning down the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles after they drafted him fifth overall. He joined the dominant Edmonton Eskimos, now known as the Elks, and played alongside stars including Jackie Parker, Normie Kwong and Rollie Miles. Bright began with the Calgary Stampeders before a mid-season trade in 1954 sent him to Edmonton.

After 12 seasons, Bright retired in 1964 as the CFL’s all-time leading rusher. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the U.S. College Football Hall of Fame and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. In Edmonton, his name is also attached to a school, a west-end athletic park beside two high schools and a scholarship for Grade 12 student athletes. He is among 41 team greats on the Elks’ Wall of Honour at Commonwealth Stadium.

Bright also worked in education while playing for the Eskimos. He earned an education degree at Drake and began teaching in Edmonton’s public school system in 1957. He coached high school football and basketball teams as well as the junior football Wildcats, then served as a junior high school principal until 1983. He died unexpectedly that year at age 53 from a heart attack during knee surgery.

Martin said Bright’s legacy remains present in Edmonton and at Drake. “He’s very well remembered,” he said. “In my remarks for the unveiling of the statue, I said, ‘You stand on the shoulders of giants that came before you.’ ‘Johnny Bright was one of those.’”