John Rambo - Olympic Medalist - Speaks at Library

LOS ANGELES - Feb. 15, 2019 - PRLog -- John Rambo of Long Beach, California, wrote three goals in his 1957 middle school yearbook: graduate college, play for the NBA, and go to the Olympics. In the 1964 Tokyo, Japan, Olympic Games, Rambo won the Bronze Medal for High Jump. "My goal was to be in the Olympics," he said. "It was icing on the cake to bring home a medal."

Rambo is sorting hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, posters, photographs, cards, certificates, citations, awards, trophies and other memorabilia with his curator, Sunny Nash, who is archiving and digitizing the collection into data objects for online discoverability, and exhibitions for gallery and museum display.

Trained in archival preservation and digital curation at the University of London, and certified by the World Intellectual Property Organization, Nash also holds an honors degree in Media Law from the London School of Journalism.

"Archival processes involve data management planning, which considers long-term preservation of physical and digital collections, usage and retrieval rights and other legal concerns," Nash said. "Digitization and proper data management will allow researchers, scholars, students, journalists and institutions online access to Mr. Rambo's archive for research and reporting in the future."

"If I don't save my own news clippings," Rambo said. "That old paper will crumble. No one will know what I did while I was here, or even that I was here."

Second youngest of Genevieve and Johnny Rambo's seven children, Rambo was eight when the family moved from East Texas to Long Beach. "Farms in Texas were failing," Rambo said. "So my father went to work at the Naval Shipyard—first in San Francisco, then he transferred to Long Beach, where our education remained the family goal. My mother had already taught us all to read by four years old. And my father always insisted we do our homework after school before going out to play."

An 'A' student, Rambo excelled in track, basketball, baseball and football in high school, but chose track and basketball. His academic and sports achievements rewarded him with a scholarship to Utah State University, where he studied pre-med. "It was very cold in Utah," Rambo said. "I wanted to come home, but my mother made me finish my freshman year."

Back home, Rambo studied at Long Beach City College (LBCC) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), majoring in History. Breaking records at both schools, Rambo is among their all-time highest scoring basketball players. The 1964 CSULB honors graduate delivered a commencement speech and, as a two-time NCAA High Jump Champion, was inducted into the CSULB Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.

The college graduate, Olympic track and field champion, college basketball star and international celebrity went on to accomplish another goal. In 1965, the NBA drafted Rambo in the sixth round to play professional basketball for the St. Louis Hawks (later, Atlanta Hawks). Injured his first season, he was benched and later traded, never regaining his basketball court agility. "Even though my professional basketball career was short," Rambo said. "Playing pro ball was valuable training for my future."

A three-time Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Indoor Champion, Rambo was chosen 1967 AAU Alumnus of the Year. Rambo, a member of the Southern California Striders Masters Track and Field Club, was named one of the National Jaycees Outstanding Young Men in America in 1971. In 2006, the Century Club honored him for providing One of the Best Moments in the City of Long Beach History.

After retiring from sports, Rambo was a guest lecturer in U.S. History at CSULB. He went on to become the first African American executive at General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (GTE) in Long Beach. In Human Resources and Outreach, Rambo helped diversify the GTE employee pool, enhancing the company's community image. He created award-winning youth athletic teams and academic tutoring programs; and organized student scholarly and athletic competitions around the country. After retiring from GTE, Rambo continued to coach and referee for local and regional amateur and professional sporting events.

"Mr. Rambo is my hero," said his student, Barbara Cash, former GTE and Verizon Communications professional. "Mr. Rambo was my 'High Jump' coach in 1966-67 at Franklin Jr. High."

One of Rambo's most recent accomplishments is his appointment to join more than 4,200 elite athletes, representing 120 sports from 190 countries in the creation of the charter of athletes' rights and athletes' responsibilities. The charter clarifies what athletes need for success at all levels of their careers—amateur, professional and retired—and has led to the Declaration of Athletes' Rights, administered by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Lausanne, Switzerland.

"The Declaration of Athletes' Rights gives power to Olympic athletes over their careers," Rambo said. "Athletes now have a framework governing their own behavior, and the behavior they can expect from others in the international athletic community and in their home communities."

Rambo said particular concerns to athletes include: What happens to them financially when they are no longer able to compete due to injury or age? What can athletes do about the education they left behind to pursue sports competition? "To answer these questions," he said, "We have a lot of work to do for our athletes. And we must impress upon them the importance of getting an education, even if they are talented athletes."

Saturday, February 23, 2019, 12 Noon - 2:00 P.M., Rambo will host an exhibition of some of his artifacts and speak about his life and career as part of the 2019 Cultural Conversations Series at the Burnett Library, 560 Hill St. in Long Beach.

Flyer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G9FKpEgLyI3Z-SQ6fKo_oZMBbkX4uv7K/view