A troubling racist incident he endured as a college football player in the U.S. caused rule changes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

43) retired by the school, and in June 2006, received honorable mention from ESPN.com senior writer Ivan Maisel, as one of the best college football players to ever wear No.

[5]: 13–14, 52 Bright was a three-sport (football, basketball, track and field) star at Fort Wayne's Central High School.

Bright was considered a pre-season Heisman Trophy candidate, and was leading the nation in both rushing and total offense with 821 and 1,349 yards respectively, when the Drake Bulldogs, winners of their previous five games, faced Missouri Valley Conference foe Oklahoma A&M, at Lewis Field (now Boone Pickens Stadium) in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on October 20, 1951.

[citation needed] Bright's participation as a halfback/quarterback in Drake's game against Oklahoma A&M on October 20, 1951, was controversial, as it marked the first time that such a prominent African-American athlete, with national fame (Bright was a pre-season Heisman Trophy candidate, and led the nation in total offense going into the game) and of critical importance to the success of his team (Drake was undefeated and carried a five-game winning streak into the contest, due in large part to his rushing and passing), played against Oklahoma A&M in a home game at Lewis Field, in Stillwater.

[10] During the first seven minutes of the game, Bright had been knocked unconscious three times by blows from Oklahoma A&M defensive tackle Wilbanks Smith.

[9] Years later, Ultang said that he and Robinson were lucky to capture the incident when they did; they'd only planned to stay through the first quarter so they could get the film developed in time for the next day's edition.

[13] The "Johnny Bright Incident", as it became widely known, eventually provoked changes in NCAA football rules regarding illegal blocking, and mandated the use of more protective helmets with face guards.

[14] Recalling the incident without apparent bitterness in a 1980 Des Moines Register interview three years before his death, Bright commented: "There's no way it couldn't have been racially motivated... .

[citation needed] Following his final football season at Drake (1951), Bright was named a first-team All-American and finished fifth in the balloting for the 1951 Heisman Trophy.

In June 2006, Bright received honorable mention from ESPN.com senior writer Ivan Maisel as one of the best college football players to ever wear No. 43.

[16] In 1959, following his third straight season as the Canadian pro rushing leader with 1,340 yards, Bright won the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award, the first black athlete to be so honored.

Bright was approached several times during his Canadian career by NFL teams about playing in the United States, but in the days before the large salaries of today's NFL players, it was common for CFL players such as him to have jobs in addition to football, and he had already started a teaching career in 1957, the year he moved his family to Edmonton.

[4] Bright earned a Bachelor of Science degree in education at Drake University in 1952,[17] becoming a teacher, coach, and school administrator, both during and after his professional football career, eventually rising to principal of D.S.

[1] He was head coach at Edmonton's Bonnie Doon High School in the 1960s when the Lancers were a champion football team.

[16] Bright died of a massive heart attack on December 14, 1983, at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, while undergoing elective surgery to correct a knee injury suffered during his football career.

This was the case even when Drake's former dean of men, Robert B. Kamm, became president of OSU in 1966; years later, he said that the determination to gloss over the affair was so strong that he knew he could not even discuss it.

Finally, on September 28, 2005, Oklahoma State President David J. Schmidly wrote a letter to Drake President David Maxwell at Maxwell's request formally apologizing for the incident, calling it "an ugly mark on Oklahoma State University and college football."

[12][19] In February 2006, the football field at Drake Stadium, in Des Moines, Iowa, was named in Bright's honor.