Early Life and Rise to Stardom
James Cleveland Owens, the future Jesse Owens, was born in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12, 1913. Owens was the youngest of ten children, the grandson of enslaved people and the son of a sharecropper.
As a weak child, Owens frequently suffered from pneumonia and persistent bronchial congestion. Even so, he had to labor, and by the age of seven, he was helping his family put food on the table by gathering up to 100 pounds of cotton each day.
At 9 years old, Owens moved with his family to Cleveland, where the young “J.C.” discovered a world far different than the slower, Southern life he’d known. School proved to be one of the bigger changes. Gone was the one-room schoolhouse he’d attended in Alabama, replaced by a bigger setting with stricter teachers.
Here, Owens earned the nickname that would stick with him the rest of his life: One of his instructors, unable to decipher his thick Southern accent, believed the young athlete said his name was “Jesse,” when he, in fact, had said “J.C.
Owens established himself as a nationally renowned sprinter at East Technical High School, winning the long jump at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships and setting records in the 100- and 220-yard dashes. Following graduation, Owens attended Ohio State University, where his athletic career was further enhanced.
At the 1935 Big Ten Championships, the “Buckeye Bullet,” as he was also known, overcame a severe tailbone injury and tied a world record in the 100-yard dash—and set a long jump record of 26-8 ¼ that stood for 25 years. Owens also set new world marks in the 220-yard dash and in the 220-yard low hurdles. Some have called this incredible showing “the greatest single day performance in athletic history.”
Owens won four events at the NCAA Championships, two at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Championships, and three more at the Olympic Trials that year. His dominance at the Big Ten games was typical for him. Owens participated in 42 competitions that year and won every one of them.
The Berlin Olympics
The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were supposed to be a German showpiece and a declaration of Aryan supremacy for Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Hitler chastised the United States for sending Black athletes to the Olympics. However, the African American athletes were the ones that solidified the United States' victory in the Olympics. Eleven gold medals were won by the United States overall, with six coming from Black athletes.
Owens was easily the most dominant athlete to compete. The 22-year-old captured four gold medals—in the 100 meter, long jump, 200 meter, and 400-meter relay—and broke two Olympic records along the way. Owens’ world record for the long jump lasted for 25 years until being broken by Olympian Ralph Boston in 1960.
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| Owens salutes the American flag after winning the long jump at the 1936 Summer Olympics |
According to a number of modern newspaper accounts, Hitler greeted or waved to Owens as soon as he won the 100 meters. Other stories, however, said that Hitler had "snubbed" Owens because he had ceased inviting athletes into his box during the games. This story was picked up by a number of American media.
Despite Owens contribution to the American team's victory in the 1936 Olympics, there wasn't the usual celebration upon his return to the United States. Unlike most winners, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not visit with Owens and offer his congratulations. The mild-mannered Owens did not appear in the slightest astonished by the duplicity of his own country.
“When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus,” he said. “I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the president, either.”
The athlete wasn’t properly recognized until 50 years later when Gerald Ford awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976.
Life After the Olympics
Owens had to participate in an exhibition tour that the American Olympic Committee and the AAU established immediately after his amazing performance at the 1936 Olympic Games (the tour was arranged to cover the cost of sending athletes to Berlin). He went to Cologne, Germany; Prague; and other cities in Europe with other members of the U.S. Olympic track team. During an event in London, Owens even contributed to the setting of a new world record in the 440-yard sprint relay.
But the athletes got no pay for their work, Owens had virtually no money to maintain himself, and the travel schedule was taxing. Furthermore, he had been approached by wealthy people to appear in public in the United States. Owens declined to carry on with the tour. and in response, the AAU disbarred him in August 1936, making him ineligible to compete in future AAU-sponsored events. His athletic career abruptly came to an end.
Owens had a difficult time making the switch to a post-track career. He did not graduate from Ohio State. In 1940, he went back to the university but left before receiving his degree; in 1973, he was given an honorary doctorate by OSU. Sadly, the invitations to participate in Broadway productions and other public appearances fell through. Over the years, Owens worked at a variety of occupations to support his family. He competed financially as a local amateur sprinter. His attempt to start a network of dry cleaners was unsuccessful. He obtained employment at Ford Motor Company through a friend, rising to the position of director of the company's Black personnel department and public relations executive.
He quit his job at Ford in 1946 to take over the Portland Rosebuds, a baseball team that was part of the newly established West Coast Baseball Association (WCBA), a league for African Americans. Owens would race a horse across the outfield to draw larger people. But the WCBA disbanded after just two months.
Eventually, he was hired by the Illinois government, and he traveled to schools all over the state to share his knowledge of physical education. In addition, he obtained employment as a public speaker. He arranged speaking engagements with numerous corporate customers and toured the world as an ambassador of goodwill for the US government.
Death and Legacy
Owens passed away in Tucson, AZ, on March 31, 1980, at the age of 66. Lung cancer was the reason behind his demise. For a significant portion of his life, Owens had smoked up to a pack of cigarettes every day.
Most people agree that Owens is the best track and field athlete in history, if not the best athlete ever. Apart from being granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976, he was also given the Living Legend Award by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and the Congressional Medal of Honor, posthumously, by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.
Although Owens world records have since been broken, his athletic legacy continues. He was part of the first class of athletes to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983, and each year, USA Track and Field bestows the Jesse Owens Award on the year’s best track and field athlete.