Jesse Owens

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Olympic medalist
Medal record
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 African 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 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team.

[edit] Childhood

James Cleveland Owens was born in Lawrence County, Alabama, in the Oakville community, to Henry and Emma Owens. When Owens was nine, his father moved to the Glenville section of Cleveland, Ohio. Owens was the grandson of a slave and the son of a sharecropper. He was often sick with what his mother reportedly called "the devil's cold". He was given the name Jesse by a teacher in Cleveland who did not understand his country accent when the young boy said he was called J.C.

Life in the ghetto was not prosperous for the family. Owens had taken different jobs in his spare time: He delivered groceries, loaded freight cars and worked in a shoe repair shop.^[1] 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 Fairview Junior High, who had put him on the track team (see also Harrison Dillard, a Cleveland athlete inspired by Owens). 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.^[2]

[edit] NCAA

Owens attended the Ohio State University only after employment was found for his father, ensuring the family could be supported. He was affectionately known as the "Buckeye Bullet" and won a record eight individual NCAA championships, four each in 1935 and 1936. The record of four golds at the NCAA has only been equaled by Xavier Carter in 2006, although his titles also included relay medals. However, while 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, so he continued to work part-time jobs to pay for school.^[1]

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 m) sprint (20.7 seconds), and the 220-yard (200 m) low hurdles (22.6 seconds to become the first person to break 23 seconds). In fact, 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.^[3]

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

Jesse Owens on running track.

[edit] Berlin 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. He and other government officials had high hopes German athletes would dominate the games with victories (the German athletes did indeed achieve a top of the table medal haul). Meanwhile, Nazi propaganda promoted concepts of "Aryan racial superiority" and depicted ethnic Africans as inferior.

Owens surprised many 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 from German competitor Luz Long); 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).

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

On the first day, Hitler shook hands only with the German victors and then left the stadium (some claimed this was to avoid having to shake hands with Cornelius Johnson, who was African-American, while a Nazi spokesman claimed that Hitler's exit had been pre-scheduled because of a previous appointment). 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.^[4][5] On reports that Hitler had deliberately avoided acknowledging his victories, and had refused to shake his hand, Owens recounted:^[6]

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

He also stated:^[7]

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."

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.^[8]

[edit] 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 capitalise 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 materialised. 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.

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. In 1968, he received some criticism for supporting the racially turbulent XIX Olympic Games held that year.

The Jesse Owens Foundation provides information, materials, and direction for research on the life of Jesse Owens. It is governed by a Board of Directors with oversight provided by a Managing Director. The Foundation is supported by special events and contributions from the community at large. Since 1983, the Foundation has provided more than 3,500 young people throughout the United States with support for their college education.

Jesse Owens was inducted to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1970. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by Gerald Ford and (posthumously) the Congressional Gold Medal by George H. W. Bush on March 28, 1990. In 1984, a street in Berlin was renamed for him, and the Jesse Owens Realschule/Oberschule (a secondary school) is in Berlin-Lichtenberg. His birthplace in Oakville dedicated a park in his honor in 1996, at the same time the Olympic Torch came through the community, 60 years after his Olympic triumph.

A pack-a-day smoker for 35 years, Owens died of lung cancer at age 66 in Tucson, Arizona. 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 Olympics held in Moscow, arguing that the Olympic ideal was to be a time-out from war and above politics.

[edit] Personal Life and Family

Owens and Minnie Ruth Solomon met at Fairmount Junior High School in Cleveland when he was fifteen and she was thirteen. They dated steadily throughout high school and Ruth gave birth to their first baby daughter, Gloria, in 1932. They were married in 1935 and had two more daughters: Marlene, born in 1937, and Beverly, born in 1940. ^{[9] [10]}

Owens' great-nephew, Chris Owens, an American professional basketball player, is a member of German league team ALBA Berlin.^[11]

[edit] Tributes

This section does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Jesse Owens has received several tributes in recent years, all after his death. In 1984 a street close to the Olympic Stadium Berlin was renamed Jesse-Owens-Allee. Two U.S. postage stamps have been issued to honor Owens, one in 1990 and another in 1998. Additionally, 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 (another namesake).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Jesse Owens

• Official website
• Obituary, New York Times, April 1, 1980
• 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