Milt Campbell, 1933–2012

As one of the most gifted American athletes of the 20th century, Milt Campbell felt he never got the attention he deserved. He was the first African-American to win the Olympic decathlon, but didn’t rise to stardom like his rivals, Bob Mathias and Rafer Johnson. As a running back for the Cleveland Browns, he was outshone by his famous teammate Jim Brown. “I’ve paid my dues,” he said, “but the advertising and commercial worlds don’t call me.”

“Campbell’s feats range from thoroughly documented to borderline mythical,” said the Morristown, N.J., Daily Record. An All-American swimmer and track-and-field standout, he was a high school junior in Plainfield, N.J., when he earned the silver medal in the decathlon at the 1952 Olympics. Four years later, in Melbourne, he won gold and set an Olympic record.

In another era, that might have made him a star, said The New York Times. But Campbell likely “alienated some people with his outspokenness about racial discrimination.” He claimed his one-season career with the Browns ended the day after he told coach Paul Brown that it was none of his business why he had married a white woman.

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“With no Wheaties box to propel him to fame and financial success,” Campbell went north to play in the Canadian Football League, said the Los Angeles Times. He later started a school for underprivileged youths in New Jersey, and lost most of his money in a meat-trucking business, an experience he would mine as a motivational speaker. “I realized that I understood about success and failure,” he said. “I realized it had nothing to do with anyone else, only me.”