Jesse Owens

Source

• Born: 12 September 1913
• Birthplace: Oakville, Alabama
• Died: 31 March 1980 (cancer)
• Best Known As: The black sprinter who won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics

Name at birth: James Cleveland Owens

Jesse Owens is remembered for one stunning week in 1936, when he won four track and field gold medals at a single Olympics. The Summer Games that year were held in Berlin, where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler seemed determined to display the superiority of the German "Aryan" race. Owens, an African-American, put that notion to rest with victories in the 100- and 200-meter dash, the broad jump and the 4x100-meter relay. The performance made him both an Olympic hero and a lasting symbol of black pride. In 1976, President Gerald Ford awarded Owens the prestigious Medal of Freedom.

Owens got the name "Jesse" when a teacher misunderstood his initials, J.C... He was the first American to win four track and field medals in one Olympics... His father was a sharecropper and his grandfather a slave... Owens was a star sprinter at Ohio State University... The 1936 Olympics also featured a more controversial Ohioan, Stella Walsh.

(click to enlarge)
Jesse Owens, 1936. (credit: AP)

(born Sept. 12, 1913, Oakville, Ala., U.S. — died March 31, 1980, Phoenix, Ariz.) U.S. track-and-field athlete. At Ohio State University in 1935, he broke or equaled four world track records in one day, setting a new long-jump record that would stand for 25 years. In the 1936 Olympics in Berlin he won four gold medals, tying the Olympic record in the 100-m run, breaking the Olympic record in the 200-m run, running the final segment for the world-record-breaking U.S. 400-m relay team, and breaking the listed world record for the long jump. This performance by an African American dramatically foiled Adolf Hitler's intention to use the games to show Aryan racial superiority. For a time, Owens held alone or shared the world records for all sprint distances recognized by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

For more information on Jesse Owens, visit Britannica.com.

American track star Jesse Owens (1913-1980) became the hero of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, as his series of victories scored a moral victory for black athletes.

James Cleveland Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama, on Sept. 12, 1913, the son of a sharecropper. He was a sickly child, often too frail to help his father and brothers in the fields. The family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921. There was little improvement in their life, but the move did enable young Owens to enter public school, where a teacher accidently wrote down his name as "Jesse" instead of J.C. The name stuck for the rest of his life.

When Jesse was in the fifth grade, the athletic supervisor asked him to go out for track. From a spindly boy he developed into a strong runner. In junior high school he set a record for the 100-yard dash. In high school in 1933 he won the 100-yard dash, the 200-yard dash, and the broad jump in the National Interscholastic Championships. Owens was such a complete athlete, a coach said he seemed to float over the ground when he ran.

A number of universities actively recruited Owens, but he felt college was a dream. He felt he could not leave his struggling family and young wife when a paycheck needed to be earned. Owens finally agreed to enter Ohio State University in Columbus after officials found employment for his father. In addition to his studies and participating in track, Owens worked three jobs to pay his tuition. He experienced racism while a student at Ohio State, but the incidents merely strengthened his resolve to succeed. At the "Big Ten" track and field championships (at the University of Michigan) in 1935, he broke three world records and tied another. His 26 foot 8 1/4 inch broad jump set a record that was not broken for 25 years.

Owens was a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic team competing in Berlin. The African-American members of the squad faced the challenges not only of competition but also of Hitler's boasts of Aryan supremacy. Owens won a total of four gold medals at the Olympic games. As a stunned Hitler angrily left the stadium, German athletes embraced Owens and the spectators chanted his name. He returned to America to a hero's welcome, honored at a ticker tape parade in New York. However, within months, he was unable to find work to finance his senior year of college. Owens took work as a playground supervisor, but was soon approached by promoters who wanted to pit him against race horses and cars. With the money from these exhibitions, he was able to finish school.

In 1937 Owens lent his name to a chain of cleaning shops. They prospered until 1939, when the partners fled, leaving Owens a bankrupt business and heavy debts. He found employment with the Office of Civilian Defense in Philadelphia (1940-1942) as national director of physical education for African-Americans. From 1942 to 1946 he was director of minority employment at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. He later became a sales executive for a Chicago sporting goods company.

In 1951 Owens accompanied the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team to Berlin at the invitation of the U.S. High Commission and the Army. He was appointed secretary of the Illinois Athletic Commission (1952-1955), and was sent on a global goodwill tour as ambassador of sport for the United States. Also in 1955, he was appointed to the Illinois Youth Commission. In 1956 he organized the Junior Olympic Games for youngsters in Chicago between the ages of 12 and 17. Owens and his friend Joe Louis were active in helping black youth.

Owens headed his own public relations firm in Chicago and for several years had a jazz program on Chicago radio. He traveled throughout America and abroad, lecturing youth groups. Ideologically moderate, Owens admired Martin Luther King, Jr. Owens and his childhood sweetheart whom he had married in 1931, had three daughters.

Forty years after he won his gold medals, Owens was finally invited to the White House to accept a Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford. The following year, the Jesse Owens International Trophy for amateur athletes was established. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter honored Owens with a Living Legend Award.

In the 1970s Owens moved his business from Chicago to Phoenix, but as time progressed, his health deteriorated. He died of cancer on March 31, 1980, after a lengthy stay in a Phoenix hospital. He was buried in Chicago several days later.

The highest honor Owens received came a full ten years after his death. Congressman Louis Stokes from Cleveland lobbied tirelessly to earn Owens a Congressional Gold Medal. The award was finally given to Owens's widow by President Bush in 1990. During the ceremony, President Bush called Owens "an Olympic hero and an American hero every day of his life."

Owens's fabled career as a runner again caught public attention in the 1996 Olympic Games, and 60th anniversary of his Berlin triumph, as entrepreneurs hawked everything from Jesse Owens gambling chips (Sports Illustrated August 5, 1996) to commemorative oak tree seedlings (American Forests Spring, 1996) reminiscent of one he was awarded as a Gold Medalist in Berlin (Sports Illustrated February 20, 1995).

Racism at home had denied Owens the financial fruits of his victory after the 1936 games, but his triumph in what has been called "the most important sports story of the century," continued to be an inspiration for modern day Olympians such as track stars Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis. In Jet magazine (August 1996), Johnson credited Owens for paving the way for his and other black athletes' victories.

Further Reading

Owens's ideology and much important biographical information can be found in his own book, Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man (1970). John Kieran and Arthur Daley, The Story of the Olympic Games, 776 B.C. to 1968 (1936; rev. ed. 1969), and Richard Mandell, The Nazi Olympics (1971), describe Owens's heroic efforts in 1936. See also Jack Olsen, The Black Athlete: A Shameful Story - The Myth of Integration in American Sport (1968). Articles of interest can be found in Sports Illustrated (August 5, 1996 and February 20, 1995); Ebony (April 1996); and Jet (August 26, 1996 and August 15, 1994). An official Jesse Owens Website can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.cmgww.com/sports/owens/owens.html (July 29, 1997).

olympic athlete; businessperson

Personal Information

Born James Cleveland Owens, September 12, 1913, in Danville, AL; died of lung cancer, March 31, 1980, in Phoenix, AZ; son of Henry (a sharecropper) and Emma (Alexander) Owens; married Ruth Solomon, 1931; children: Gloria, Beverly, Marlene.
Education: Ohio State University, B.A., 1937.

Career

Amateur athlete, 1927-36; held world records in 100-yard dash, broad jump (now called long jump), 220-yard dash, and 220-yard low hurdles. Won Olympic gold medals, 1936, in 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, broad jump, and 400- meter relay.

Worked as playground janitor and raced against horses, cars, trucks, and motorcycles, 1936-37. Partner in dry cleaning business in Cleveland, OH, 1937-39; worked with Office of Civilian Defense, Philadelphia, PA, 1940-42; director for minority employment for Ford Motor Company, Detroit, MI, 1942- 1946; with Leo Rose Sporting Goods Co., 1946-52; member of board of directors of South Side Boys Club, Chicago, IL, 1950-52; served as secretary of the Illinois Athletic Commission, 1952-55; served as ambassador for sports for U.S. State Department, 1955; president and owner of Jesse Owens & Associates public relations firm, Chicago, 1955-80.

Life's Work

More than a decade after his death, Jesse Owens remains enshrined in memory as one of the greatest athletes--and perhaps the greatest track star--ever to compete in the Olympic Games. Owens's phenomenal four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin held meaning far beyond mere sports trophies. The 22-year-old sprinter made a mockery of Adolf Hitler's Nazi doctrine of Aryan supremacy, scoring a political victory for the United States and a moral victory for black people worldwide.

In Ebony magazine, Lerone Bennett, Jr., wrote that the tableau of the 1936 Olympics "would become a legend and would be passed on from generation to generation, growing in the telling, the story of an incredible moment of truth when the son of a sharecropper and the grandson of slaves temporarily derailed the Nazi juggernaut and gave the lie to Hitler's theories on Aryan (read White) supremacy.... [Owens's] story, which will be told as long as men and women celebrate grace and courage, was more than a sports story. It was politics, history even, played out on an international stage with big stakes riding on every contest."

According to Pete Axthelm in Newsweek, Jesse Owens "made a mockery of the Fuhrer's [Hitler's] words--and the Aryan `master race' philosophy. His medals could not divert the dark propaganda wave that was sweeping Germany at the time.... But he did lift American spirits to giddy heights, and he seemed to embody the Olympic dream that sportsmen can reach across political and military lines in a noble quest for friendship and glory."

Owens's triumphs are even more remarkable when viewed from the perspective of the time. He was born into a large, poverty-stricken family in the deep South, endured discrimination and double standards in the North, and worked his way through junior high school, high school, and college at Ohio State University without the benefit of a scholarship. As Bennett noted, Owens "had been running hard against the Hitlers of the world ever since he was sent to the cotton field to pick cotton at the age of seven." Nor did Owens's Olympic victories ensure him an easy life afterwards. He overcame numerous obstacles at home in the United States to become a respected businessman, public speaker, and mentor to young athletes.

Son of a Sharecropper

James Cleveland Owens was born in rural Alabama in 1913. The seventh of eleven children born to Henry and Emma Owens, he was sickly and thin, often too frail to help his older brothers and father in the cotton fields. Owens's father was a sharecropper. The family lived in a small, unheated house, and there were times when there was not enough food to feed them all. Owens's mother dreamed of a better life in the North, where blacks were finding jobs and a degree of prosperity. Finally, when Owens was seven, his father sold the family tools and the mules, and they moved to Cleveland, Ohio.

The family's circumstances did not improve much in Cleveland, but the move was very important for their gifted young son. Entering a city grade school, Owens gave his name as "J. C.," and the teacher wrote down "Jesse." The name stuck for the rest of his life. Owens went to school during the day and performed odd jobs in the afternoons and evenings. He had little spare time, but he managed to find moments to race with his friends on the schoolyard and through the alleys of his neighborhood. By twelve he had developed into a promising sprinter. "There was, even then, something unique about Jesse Owens," wrote Bennett. "He didn't run, he floated, seeming, as one of his coaches said later, `to caress the ground.' There was beauty, poetry even, in the fluid, effortless, `velvety smooth' glide which made him a formidable foe."

Charles Riley, the track coach at Fairview Junior High, was astounded when Owens ran the 100-yard dash in ten seconds flat. Riley took special interest in Owens, working with the youngster in the mornings before school. Coach and student became fast friends, and their relationship continued when Owens went on to East Technical High School in Cleveland. Throughout his junior high and high school years, Owens held part-time jobs to help his parents pay the bills. His talent blossomed in tough circumstances that might have discouraged many young men.

Set National Track Records

As a member of the East Technical track team, Owens set national records by running the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds and the 200-yard dash in 20.7 seconds. He also set a new broad jump (now called long jump) record with a leap of 24 feet, nine and five-eighths inches. A number of universities recruited him actively, but Owens felt that college was just a dream. He could not leave his struggling family and his own young wife--he married in 1931--when his paycheck was in such demand.

Finally, Charles Riley and the track coach at Ohio State University were able to entice Owens. The authorities at Ohio State used their influence to find steady work for Owens's father with the state of Ohio. Only then did Owens agree to enter Ohio State, where he paid his tuition by working three jobs in addition to his studies and track activities. "Unbelievable as it may seem now," Bennett noted, "he did not receive a scholarship and was forced to wait on tables and run elevators to pay his tuition."

Owens also became acquainted with Northern bigotry while a student at Ohio State. He lived in a house with the other black members of the track team and took most of his meals there. Black team members could not dine in restaurants or use the rest room facilities when the team stopped on the road while travelling to or from meets. On one occasion, an angry cook from a rural diner refused to serve the blacks even in their car. Such incidents were permanently burned into Owens's memory and gave him extra motivation to excel.

On May 25, 1935, Owens travelled to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to take part in the annual Big Ten Track and Field Championships. At the time he was recovering from a painful back injury, and he and his coach talked about missing the meet. He could not practice for a week before the event, but when the hour approached for the 100-yard dash, he decided to try to participate. New York Times columnist Arthur Daley called Owens's performance at Ann Arbor "the greatest day in track history." Within a space of 45 minutes the young athlete tied the world record for the 100-yard dash, broke the world record with a long jump of more than 26 feet, broke the world record in the 220- yard dash, and broke yet another world record in the 220-yard low hurdles. With the Olympic Games only a year away, Americans began to pin their hopes for track and field victories on the star from Ohio State.

Star of 1936 Olympic Games

The 1936 Olympic Games were held in brand new facilities in Nazi Germany's capital, Berlin. Adolf Hitler made little effort to hide his views that the event would be a showcase for Aryan athletes such as track star Lutz Long. In his first event against Owens, Long set an Olympic record with his long jump. Owens, racked with nerves, missed on his first two jumps, but then he bested not only Long's new record but his own former records as well. His gold medal-winning long jump of 26 feet, five and a quarter inches stood as the world record for the next twenty-five years. As Hitler left the stadium in a huff Lutz Long embraced Owens while the mostly German crowd chanted the new champion's name as if he were the hometown hero.

Owens won a total of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics. He took gold in the 100-meter sprint, the 200-meter sprint, the jump, and the 400-meter relay. Ironically, he ran in the relay as a substitute for a Jewish runner. Axthelm wrote of Owens's feat: "He didn't merely run and jump to four gold- medal victories in the Berlin Games of 1936. He took flight, soaring far above a world of athletic competition, enlarging the possibilities of sport itself. [Owens remains] the most famous and symbolic hero of the modern Olympic games."

Olympic Glory Faded Fast

Symbol and reality began to clash when Owens returned to America. He was greeted by throngs at a ticker tape parade in New York, but within months he was unable to find a job in order to pay for the rest of his college work. Years later, Owens told Ebony: "I came back to my native country and I couldn't ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted.... I wasn't invited up to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either."

Owens was more or less forced to turn professional. He ran a series of races against horses, cars, and motorcycles, earning enough to pay for his last year at Ohio State. After graduation he became a partner in a Cleveland dry-cleaning business that proved lucrative at first but eventually went bankrupt. By 1940 Owens was deeply in debt and had three daughters to support. He worked briefly as the national director of physical education for Negroes, then, in 1942, he became personnel director for minority employment at Ford Motor Company.

Eventually Owens realized that he wanted to work more with children. He moved from Detroit to Chicago in 1950 and became a member of the board of directors of the South Side Boys Club. Also during this time he began to trade upon his celebrity, touring with the Harlem Globetrotters and making speeches on goodwill tours in America and abroad. In 1956 he organized the Junior Olympic Games for youngsters in Chicago between the ages of 12 and 17.

Later in his life Owens opened his own public relations firm, becoming a celebrated speaker at business and professional conventions. He came under fire in 1968 for opposing a black American boycott of the Olympics, and for a time was derided as an "Uncle Tom" and a toady to white people. The charges stung Owens. He attempted to defend himself in a 1970 biography, Blackthink, but two years later he became more militant and published another book, I Have Changed.

It is estimated that Owens earned around $100,000 per year in the 1970s, mostly from personal appearances and speeches. He moved his business from Chicago to Phoenix, but as the 1970s progressed his health deteriorated. A longtime cigarette smoker, he developed inoperable lung cancer. He died on March 31, 1980, after a long stay in a Phoenix hospital, and he was buried in Chicago several days later.

Contributions Officially Recognized

Forty years after he won his gold medals, Owens was finally invited to the White House to accept a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter honored Owens two years later in 1979 with a Living Legend Award. The highest honor Owens ever received, however, came a full ten years after his death. Congressman Louis Stokes from Cleveland lobbied tirelessly to earn Owens a Congressional Gold Medal. The award was finally given to Owens's widow, Ruth, by President Bush in 1990. During the ceremony, Bush lauded Owens as "an Olympic hero and an American hero every day of his life."

The official recognition by three American presidents was a slight honor indeed compared to the warmth felt for Owens by blacks all over the world. His victory served as the most eloquent testimony against any sort of discrimination based on the idea of racial inferiority. As for Owens himself, he told the New York Times that his gold medals changed his life. "They have kept me alive over the years," he said. "Time has stood still for me. That golden moment dies hard." He added: "Any black who strives to achieve in this country should think in terms of not only himself but also how he can reach down and grab another black child and pull him to the top of the mountain where he is. This is what a gold medal does to you."

Awards

Recipient of numerous awards, including three conferred by the U.S. Government: Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1976; Living Legend Award, 1979; and the Congressional Gold Medal, 1990.

Works

Writings

• (With Paul G. Neimark) Blackthink: My Life as a Black Man and White Man, Morrow, 1970.
• (With Neimark) I Have Changed, Morrow, 1972.

Further Reading

Books

• Kaufman, Mervyn. Jesse Owens, Crowell, 1973.

• Ebony, September 1988.
• Jet, August 1, 1989; April 16, 1990.
• Newsweek, April 14, 1980.
• New York Times, July 6, 1954; April 1, 1980; April 5, 1980.

— Mark Kram

(1913-1980), track and field athlete. In three outstanding meets, Owens gained international fame by establishing long-standing world or Olympic records and challenging Adolf Hitler's conception of Aryan supremacy.

Owens was born in Alabama as the tenth child of sharecroppers and moved with his family to Cleveland in the 1920s as part of the massive migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North.

In junior high school, Owens was befriended by Charles Riley, a white teacher and coach, who saw talent in the small, slight black youth. He developed his sprinting, hurdling, and long-jump skills at Cleveland East Tech High School where he dominated Ohio high school track and field. Owens first came to national attention when he tied the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash and long-jumped 24 feet 9 1/2 inches at the 1933 National High School Championship meet in Chicago. In college, Owens continued to excel in track and field, winning a record eight individual ncaa championships. His greatest collegiate performance occurred at the 1935 Big Ten Conference Championship where he tied or established world records in the 100-yard dash, long jump, 220-yard dash, and the 220-yard low hurdles.

Owens is most famous for his performance during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Adolf Hitler had planned to use the games to showcase German prosperity amid the worldwide depression and to demonstrate Aryan physical supremacy by fielding a strong German team. Although Germany did win more medals than any other nation, Owens's brilliant individual performance overshadowed its achievement. He won four gold medals, tying the 100-meter dash record and establishing new Olympic records in the 200-meter dash, long jump, and 4 X 100-meter relay. His records in the relay and the 200-meter dash were not broken until the 1956 games, and the others stood until 1960.

Following the games, Owens returned to the United States and attempted to cash in on his newfound fame by exploiting the offers telegraphed to him in Berlin. He reportedly received ten thousand dollars for supporting Republican presidential candidate Alf Landon in 1936, but few of the other offers materialized. He was reduced to performing in exhibitions such as running races against horses and touring with a band and basketball and baseball teams. These appearances were lucrative, but a laundry he owned failed because of poor management. Owens was taken to court for not paying his income taxes, and he eventually declared bankruptcy.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, however, Owens prospered by working in public relations for major corporations. His modesty, patriotism, and sincerity made him an excellent public speaker, much in demand. He remained a hero to black Americans and was acceptable to white people because of his conservative position on race issues. Ironically, he was criticized by many black Americans because he was a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee during racial protests at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games. Nevertheless, he remained America's most popular and famous track and field athlete until his death from cancer in 1980.

Bibliography:

William J. Baker, Jesse Owens: An American Life (1986); Richard D. Mandell, The Nazi Olympics (1971); Jesse Owens, as told to Paul Neimark, The Jesse Owens Story (1970).

Author:

C. Robert Barnett

See also Spectator Sports.

An African-American athlete of the twentieth century. He won four gold medals in track and field events at the Olympic Games of 1936, held in Germany when Adolf Hitler was leader. His victories were a source of pride to the United States and also — because Owens was black — a blow to the Nazi notions of a master race.

Quotes:

"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."

"I always loved running -- it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs."

"People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you. The lives of most men are patchwork quilts. Or at best one matching outfit with a closet and laundry bag full of incongruous accumulations. A lifetime of training for just ten seconds."

"Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust."

"To me, we must learn to spell the word RESPECT. We must respect the rights and properties of our fellowman. And then learn to play the game of life, as well as the game of athletics, according to the rules of society. If you can take that and put it into practice in the community in which you live, then, to me you have won the greatest championship."

"One chance is all you need."

See more famous quotes by Jesse Owens

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Olympic medalist
Jesse Owens in 1936
Medal record
Competitor for  United States
Men's athletics
Gold	1936 Berlin	100 m
Gold	1936 Berlin	200 m
Gold	1936 Berlin	4 x 100 m relay
Gold	1936 Berlin	Long jump

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 metres, the 200 metres, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team.

Contents 1 Childhood 2 The Ohio State University 3 Berlin Olympics 4 Post Olympics 5 Personal life and family 6 Tributes 7 References 8 External links

Childhood

The tenth child of Henry and Emma Alexander Owens was named James Cleveland when he was born in Danville, Alabama on September 12, 1913. "J.C.", as he was called, was nine when the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where his new schoolteacher gave him the name that was to become known around the world. The teacher was told "J.C." when she asked his name to enter in her roll book, but she thought he said "Jesse". The name stuck and he would be known as Jesse Owens for the rest of his life. James Cleveland Owens was born in Lawrence County, Alabama, in the Oakville community, to Henry and Emma Owens. When Owens was nine, he moved to the Glenville section of Cleveland, Ohio. Owens was called Jesse by a teacher in Cleveland who did not understand his Southern drawl when the young boy said he was called J.C. Owens – i.e. James Cleveland Owens.^[1]

Owens had taken different jobs in his spare time: He delivered groceries, loaded freight cars and worked in a shoe repair shop.^[2] During this period Owens realized that he had a passion for running.

Throughout his life Owens attributed the success of his athletic career to the encouragement of Charles Riley, his junior-high track coach at Fairmount Junior High, who had put him on the track team. Since Owens worked in a shoe repair shop after school, Riley allowed him to practice before school instead.

Owens first came to national attention when he was a student of East Technical High School in Cleveland; he equaled the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard (91 m) dash and long-jumped 24 feet 9 ½ inches (7.56 m) at the 1933 National High School Championship in Chicago.^[3] Owens' record at East Technical High School directly inspired Harrison Dillard to take up track sports.

The Ohio State University

Jesse Owens on running track.

Owens attended The Ohio State University only after employment was found for his father, ensuring the family could be supported. Affectionately known as the "Buckeye Bullet," Owens won a record eight individual NCAA championships, four each in 1935 and 1936. (The record of four gold medals at the NCAA has been equaled only by Xavier Carter in 2006, although his many titles also included relay medals.) Though Owens was enjoying athletic success, he had to live off campus with other African-American athletes. When he traveled with the team, Owens could either order carry-out or eat at "black-only" restaurants. Likewise, he slept in "black-only" hotels. Owens was never awarded a scholarship for his efforts, so he continued to work part-time jobs to pay for school.^[2]

Owens' greatest achievement came in a span of 45 minutes on May 25, 1935 at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he set three world records and tied a fourth. He equaled the world record for the 100-yard (91 m) sprint (9.4 seconds) and set world records in the long jump (26 feet 8¼ inches (8.13 m), a world record that would last 25 years), 220-yard (201.2 m) sprint (20.7 seconds), and 220-yard (201.2m) low hurdles (22.6 seconds to become the first person to break 23 seconds). In 2005, both NBC sports announcer Bob Costas and University of Central Florida professor of sports history Richard C. Crepeau chose this as the most impressive athletic achievement since 1850.^[4]

Owens was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for African Americans.

Berlin Olympics

Owens performing the long jump at the Olympics

In 1936, Owens arrived in Berlin to compete for the United States in the Summer Olympics. Adolf Hitler was using the games to show the world a resurgent Nazi Germany.^[5] He and other government officials had high hopes German athletes would dominate the games with victories (the German athletes achieved a top of the table medal haul). Meanwhile, Nazi propaganda promoted concepts of "Aryan racial superiority" and depicted ethnic Africans as inferior.^[5][6] Owens surprised many^[5] and showed the fallacies of racial supremacy by winning four gold medals: On August 3, 1936 he won the 100m sprint, defeating Ralph Metcalfe; on August 4, the long jump (later crediting friendly and helpful advice which led him to triumph over German competitor Luz Long^[7]); on August 5, the 200m sprint; and, after he was added to the 4 x 100 m relay team, his fourth on August 9 (a performance not equaled until Carl Lewis won gold medals in the same events at the 1984 Summer Olympics).

Just before the competitions Owens was visited in the Olympic village by Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas. He persuaded Owens to use Adidas shoes and it was the first sponsorship for a male African-American athlete.^[8]

The long jump victory is documented, along with many other 1936 events, in the 1938 film Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl.

On the first day, Hitler shook hands only with the German victors and then left the stadium. Olympic committee officials then insisted Hitler greet each and every medalist or none at all. Hitler opted for the latter and skipped all further medal presentations.^[9][10] On reports that Hitler had deliberately avoided acknowledging his victories, and had refused to shake his hand, Owens recounted:^[11]

Jesse Owens on the podium after winning the long jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics

“

When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany.

”

He also stated:^[12] "Hitler didn't snub me—it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram." Jesse Owens was never invited to the White House nor bestowed any honors by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) or Harry S. Truman during their terms. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower acknowledged Owens' accomplishments, naming him an "Ambassador of Sports."

Hitler's contempt for Owens and for those races he deemed 'inferior' arose in private, away from maintaining Olympic neutrality. As Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and later war armaments minister recollected in his memoirs Inside the Third Reich:

"Each of the German victories and there were a surprising number of these made him happy, but he was highly annoyed by the series of triumphs by the marvelous colored American runner, Jesse Owens. People whose antecedents came from the jungle were primitive, Hitler said with a shrug; their physiques were stronger than those of civilized whites and hence should be excluded from future games.^[13]

Despite Hitler's feelings, Owens was cheered enthusiastically by 110,000 people in Berlin's Olympic Stadium and later ordinary Germans sought his autograph when they saw him in the streets. Owens was allowed to travel with and stay in the same hotels as whites, an irony at the time given that blacks in the United States were denied equal rights. After a New York ticker-tape parade in his honor, Owens had to ride the freight elevator to attend his own reception at the Waldorf-Astoria.^[7]

Post Olympics

After the games had finished, Owens was invited, along with the rest of the team, to compete in Sweden. However he decided to capitalize on his success by returning to the United States to take up some of the lucrative commercial offers he was receiving. American athletic officials were furious and withdrew his amateur status, ending his career immediately. Owens was livid: "A fellow desires something for himself," he said.

With no sporting appearances to bolster his profile, the lucrative offers never quite materialized, being left with such offers as helping promote the exploitation film Mom and Dad in black neighborhoods. Instead he was forced to try to make a living as a sports promoter, essentially an entertainer. He would give local sprinters a ten or twenty yard start and beat them in the 100 yd (91 m) dash. He also challenged and defeated racehorses although as he revealed later, the trick was to race a high-strung thoroughbred horse that would be frightened by the starter's shotgun and give him a bad jump. Owens once said, "People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals."^[14]

He soon found himself running a dry-cleaning business and then even working as a gas station attendant. He eventually filed for bankruptcy but, even then, his problems were not over and in 1966 he was successfully prosecuted for tax evasion. At rock bottom, the rehabilitation began and he started work as a U.S. "goodwill ambassador." Owens traveled the world and spoke to companies like the Ford Motor Company and the United States Olympic Committee. After he retired, he occupied himself by racing horses. He would always stress the importance of religion, hard work, and loyalty^{[citation needed]}.

Owens refused to support the black power salute by African-American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He told them,^[15]

“

The black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers – weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there's money inside. There's where the power lies.

”

After smoking for 35 years, Owens died of lung cancer at age 66 in Tucson, Arizona in 1980. He is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.

A few months before his death, Owens had tried unsuccessfully to convince President Jimmy Carter not to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics, arguing that the Olympic ideal was to be a time-out from war and above politics.

In 1984 an Emmy Award-winning biographical film of his life, The Jesse Owens Story, was released. Dorian Harewood portrayed Owens in the film.

Personal life and family

Owens and Minnie Ruth Solomon met at Fairmount Junior High School in Cleveland when he was 15 years old and she was 13 years old. They dated steadily throughout high school and Ruth gave birth to their first baby daughter, Gloria, in 1932. They were married from 1935 until his death and had two more daughters: Marlene, born in 1937, and Beverly, born in 1940.^[16][17]

Owens' great-nephew Chris Owens, an American professional basketball player, was a member of German league team ALBA Berlin before transferring to a Turkish league team Galatasaray.^[18]

Tributes

Jesse Owens received several tributes in his later years and following his death.

In 1970, he was inducted to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1976 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford.

In 1980, a new asteroid was discovered by A. Mrkos at Klet which was named as 6758 Jesseowens in honour of Jesse Owens.

USA Track and Field created the Jesse Owens Award in 1981, which is given annually to the country's top track and field athlete.

In 1984 a street close to the Olympic Stadium in Berlin was renamed Jesse-Owens-Allee, and the Jesse Owens Realschule/Oberschule (a secondary school) in Berlin-Lichtenberg, was named for him.

On March 28, 1990, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George H. W. Bush.

Two U.S. postage stamps have been issued to honor Owens, one in 1990 and another in 1998.

In 1996, his hometown of Oakville, Alabama dedicated The Jesse Owens Memorial Park in his honor, at the same time that the Olympic Torch came through the community, 60 years after his Olympic triumph. An article in the Wall Street Journal, June 7, 1996, covered the event and included this inscription written by poet Charles Ghigna that appears on a bronze plaque at the Park:

May his light shine forever as a symbol

for all who run for the freedom of sport,

for the spirit of humanity,

for the memory of Jesse Owens.

In 2001, The Ohio State University dedicated the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium for track and field events. The campus also houses three recreational centers for students and staff named in his honor.^[19]

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Jesse Owens on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[20]

In Cleveland, Ohio, there is a statue of Owens, dressed in his Ohio State track suit, in Fort Huntington Park at West Third Street and Lakeside Avenue, west of the old Courthouse.^[21]

In Phoenix, Arizona, there is the Jesse Owens Medical Plaza, named in his honor. It is located on the southeast corner of Baseline Rd. and Jesse Owens Parkway. Jesse Owens Park, located in Tucson, Arizona, is a staple of local youth athletics there.

At the 2009 World Athletic Championships in Berlin, all members of the US Track & Field team wore badges with "JO" to commemorate Jesse's victories in the same stadium 73 years beforehand.^[22]

References

1. ^ Jesse Owens – An American Life, William J. Baker, page 19
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.jesseowens.com/jobio2.html Retrieved April 5, 2008
3. ^ "Jesse Owens: Track & Field Legend: Biography". http://www.jesseowens.com/biography/. Retrieved 2008-01-06. 
4. ^ Lacey Rose, The Single Greatest Athletic Achievement November 18, 2005 published in Forbes.com
5. ^ ^{a b c} Bachrach, Susan D.. The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936. ISBN 0316070874. 
6. ^ "Jesse Owens, 1913- 1980: He Was Once the World's Fastest Runner". Voice Of America. 2008-12-20. http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2008-12-20-voa1.cfm. Retrieved 2008-12-22. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Schwartz, Larry (2007). "ESPN.com: Owens pierced a myth". http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html. Retrieved 2008-08-14. 
8. ^ How Adidas and Puma were born
9. ^ Hyde Flippo, The 1936 Berlin Olympics: Hitler and Jesse Owens German Myth 10 from german.about.com
10. ^ Rick Shenkman, Adolf Hitler, Jesse Owens and the Olympics Myth of 1936 February 13, 2002 from History News Network (article excerpted from Rick Shenkman's Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History. Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st ed edition (November 1988) ISBN 0688065805)
11. ^ The Jesse Owens Story (1970) ISBN 0399603158
12. ^ – quoted in "Triumph", a book about the 1936 Olympics by Jeremy Schaap-ASIN: B00127Y308 –
13. ^ Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich p.73
14. ^ Schwartz, larry. "Owens Pierced a Myth". http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html. Retrieved 2009-04-30. 
15. ^ "Jesse Owens: Olympic Legend". http://www.jesseowens.com/quotes/. Retrieved 2009-05-08. 
16. ^ Jesse Owens' Biographical Information
17. ^ Jesse Owens' Biographical Information
18. ^ Jesse Owens' great-nephew to play pro ball in Berlin, published August 2, 2006; retrieved March 8, 2007
19. ^ www.recsports.osu.edu
20. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
21. ^ Soul of Cleveland website Last retrieved 1/31/2009.
22. ^ http://berlin.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=53668.html

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jesse Owens

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jesse Owens

• Official website
• Obituary, New York Times, April 1, 1980
• Jesse Owens Memorial at Find A Grave
• Jesse Owens Museum
• Jesse Owens Information
• Jesse at the Internet Movie Database
• Official "Jesse Owens Movie" Website
• Owens's accomplishments and encounter with Adolf Hitler (ESPN)
• Jesse Owens video newsreel
• Jesse Owens video in Riefenstahl's Olympia (1936)
• Jesse Owens' U.S. Olympic Team bio
• Path of the Olympic Torch to Owens' birthplace in North Alabama
• Jesse Owens article, Encyclopedia of Alabama

Preceded by Joe Louis

Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year 1936

Succeeded by Don Budge

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 100 m 1896: Tom Burke • 1900: Frank Jarvis • 1904: Archie Hahn • 1908: Reggie Walker • 1912: Ralph Craig • 1920: Charlie Paddock • 1924: Harold Abrahams • 1928: Percy Williams • 1932: Eddie Tolan • 1936: Jesse Owens • 1948: Harrison Dillard • 1952: Lindy Remigino • 1956: Bobby Joe Morrow • 1960: Armin Hary • 1964: Bob Hayes • 1968: Jim Hines • 1972: Valeri Borzov • 1976: Hasely Crawford • 1980: Allan Wells • 1984: Carl Lewis • 1988: Carl Lewis • 1992: Linford Christie • 1996: Donovan Bailey • 2000: Maurice Greene • 2004: Justin Gatlin • 2008: Usain Bolt

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 200 m 1900: Walter Tewksbury · 1904: Archie Hahn · 1908: Bobby Kerr · 1912: Ralph Craig · 1920: Allen Woodring · 1924: Jackson Scholz · 1928: Percy Williams · 1932: Eddie Tolan · 1936: Jesse Owens · 1948: Mel Patton · 1952: Andy Stanfield · 1956: Bobby Joe Morrow · 1960: Livio Berruti · 1964: Henry Carr · 1968: Tommie Smith · 1972: Valeri Borzov · 1976: Don Quarrie · 1980: Pietro Mennea · 1984: Carl Lewis · 1988: Joe DeLoach · 1992: Michael Marsh · 1996: Michael Johnson · 2000: Konstantinos Kenteris · 2004: Shawn Crawford · 2008: Usain Bolt

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's Long Jump 1896: Ellery Clark · 1900: Alvin Kraenzlein · 1904: Myer Prinstein · 1906: Myer Prinstein · 1908: Frank Irons · 1912: Albert Gutterson · 1920: William Petersson · 1924: William DeHart Hubbard · 1928: Ed Hamm · 1932: Ed Gordon · 1936: Jesse Owens · 1948: Willie Steele · 1952: Jerome Biffle · 1956: Greg Bell · 1960: Ralph Boston · 1964: Lynn Davies · 1968: Bob Beamon · 1972: Randy Williams · 1976: Arnie Robinson · 1980: Lutz Dombrowski · 1984: Carl Lewis · 1988: Carl Lewis · 1992: Carl Lewis · 1996: Carl Lewis · 2000: Iván Pedroso · 2004: Dwight Phillips · 2008: Irving Saladino

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 4×100 m Relay 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 1936 United States Jesse Owens, Ralph Metcalfe, Foy Draper & Frank Wykoff

Persondata
NAME	Owens, Jesse
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Owens, James Cleveland
SHORT DESCRIPTION	track & field athlete
DATE OF BIRTH	September 12, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH	Oakville, Alabama, United States
DATE OF DEATH	March 31, 1980
PLACE OF DEATH	Tucson, Arizona, United States

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