Jesse Owens

atest News: Jesse Owens’ Historic Olympic Performance Featured in History Channel Documentary

Track and field legend Jesse Owens had already made a name for himself as a phenom by the time he qualified for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. However, his performance at the Games would become even more iconic, particularly against the tense political backdrop of Adolf Hitler’s regime in Germany. A new documentary, Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics, delves into this powerful story.

The two-hour documentary highlights Owens’ rise as a world-class athlete and explores the context of Nazi Germany under Hitler’s leadership. It culminates in Owens’ unforgettable Olympic achievements, where his remarkable victory left Hitler’s ideologies disgraced. Executive produced by LeBron James, the film airs on The History Channel at 8 p.m. ET/PT on June 19. It will be available for streaming the following day on The History Channel app, history.com, and Amazon Prime Video.

Who Was Jesse Owens?

Jesse Owens is widely regarded as one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time. His athletic career began in high school, where he won three events at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships. Two years later, competing for Ohio State University, Owens set multiple world records and qualified for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At the Games, he won four gold medals and set two new world records, cementing his place in Olympic history.

Following his career-defining performance, Owens’ athletic journey abruptly ended. After refusing to participate in a post-Olympics tour, he was banned from future competitions. Owens went on to work a variety of jobs, including public speaking and occasionally racing amateur runners for money. He passed away from lung cancer in March 1980, at the age of 66.

Childhood

Jesse Owens was born James Cleveland Owens on September 12, 1913, in Oakville, Alabama, the youngest of 10 children. His father was a sharecropper, and his grandfather had been enslaved. A frail child, Owens suffered from chronic bronchial congestion and pneumonia, but he was expected to contribute to his family’s livelihood. By age 7, he was picking up to 100 pounds of cotton a day.

At age 9, Owens and his family moved to Cleveland, where he encountered a very different world. His new school setting, larger and more structured than the one-room schoolhouse in Alabama, marked a significant change. It was here that Owens was given the name “Jesse” by one of his teachers, who misheard his thick Southern accent and thought he had introduced himself as “Jesse,” rather than “J.C.,” a nickname he had used for years.

Rising Track and Field Star

Owens quickly established himself as a sprinting prodigy at East Technical High School, where he set records in the 100- and 220-yard dashes, as well as the long jump, at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships. He went on to enroll at Ohio State University, where his athletic career continued to soar.

At the 1935 Big Ten Championships, Owens, already nicknamed the “Buckeye Bullet,” overcame a severe tailbone injury to tie the world record in the 100-yard dash. He also set a long jump record of 26-8 ¼, which stood for 25 years. Additionally, Owens broke world records in the 220-yard dash and the 220-yard low hurdles. His incredible performance at the Big Ten Championships has been hailed as “the greatest single-day performance in athletic history.”

In 1935 alone, Owens won four events at the NCAA Championships, two events at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Championships, and three at the Olympic Trials. In total, he won all 42 events he competed in that year, solidifying his reputation as one of the most dominant athletes of his time.

The 1936 Olympics and Its Aftermath

For Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games were an opportunity to showcase German prowess and promote the ideology of Aryan racial superiority. Hitler was particularly vocal in condemning the inclusion of Black athletes on the U.S. Olympic team, viewing their participation as a challenge to his vision of racial hierarchy. However, it was the African American athletes, including the legendary Jesse Owens, who played a pivotal role in ensuring America’s success at the Games. The United States ultimately won 11 gold medals, six of which were claimed by Black athletes.

Owens, 22 years old at the time, was unquestionably the most dominant competitor of the Games. He secured four gold medals—one each in the 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters, and 400-meter relay—while setting two Olympic records. His long jump world record stood for 25 years until it was broken by fellow Olympian Ralph Boston in 1960.

There are varying reports regarding Hitler’s reaction to Owens’ victory in the 100-meter race. Some contemporary newspaper accounts suggest that Hitler either waved at or saluted Owens in acknowledgment of his achievement. However, since Hitler had previously refrained from inviting any athletes to his box during the Games, other reports suggested that the German leader deliberately “snubbed” Owens, a story which gained traction in the American press.

Despite his historic accomplishments on the world stage, Owens’ return to the United States was met with a stark contrast to the recognition one might expect. President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not meet with Owens to offer congratulations, a gesture typically reserved for Olympic champions. Owens, ever the humble figure, was unsurprised by the lack of recognition. Reflecting on his experience, Owens remarked, “When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, 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 to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the president, either.” It wasn’t until 1976, fifty years later, that Owens was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gerald Ford.

Life After the Olympics

Following his remarkable Olympic performance, Owens was required to embark on an exhibition tour arranged by the American Athletic Union (AAU) and the American Olympic Committee to help cover the costs of sending athletes to Berlin. Owens, alongside his teammates, traveled to various European cities, including Cologne and Prague. In London, he contributed to setting a new world record in the 440-yard sprint relay.

However, Owens and his fellow athletes received no financial compensation for their efforts, and the exhausting travel schedule left him without sufficient funds to support himself. Despite receiving offers for public appearances upon returning to the U.S., Owens chose to leave the tour early. In retaliation, the AAU disbarred him in August 1936, effectively ending his eligibility to compete in future AAU-sponsored events. This marked a premature end to his competitive athletic career.

Owens’ transition to life after athletics proved to be challenging. Having left Ohio State University without a degree, he returned in 1940 but withdrew again before graduating (OSU would later award him an honorary doctorate in 1973). Attempts to capitalize on public speaking and acting opportunities fell through, forcing Owens to take a variety of jobs to support his family. He raced local amateur sprinters for money, tried his hand at running a chain of dry cleaning stores (which failed), and eventually found work at Ford Motor Company. There, he became the director of the company’s personnel department for Black employees and a public relations executive.

In 1946, Owens left Ford to purchase the Portland Rosebuds, a team in the newly established West Coast Baseball Association, a Negro league. To attract larger crowds, he even raced a horse across the outfield during games. Unfortunately, the league folded after just two months.

Owens later found employment with the Illinois state government, where he visited schools across the state, sharing his insights into physical education. He also traveled the world as a goodwill ambassador for the U.S. government, engaging in public speaking for a variety of corporate clients.

Authorship and Evolving Views

Throughout his life, Owens co-authored several books. His 1970 publication, Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man, critiqued Black militancy and offered his perspective on the struggle for civil rights. However, Owens’ views evolved over time, as demonstrated by his 1972 work, I Have Changed, in which he expressed greater sympathy for Black militants and civil rights figures such as Eldridge Cleaver and Angela Davis.

In 1976, he published Track and Field, a book that explored his perspectives on running and field events. His final autobiography, Jesse: The Man Who Outran Hitler, was released in 1978, offering a personal account of his life and the legacy of his Olympic triumph.

Family Life

Jesse Owens was married for 44 years to Ruth Owens (née Minnie Ruth Solomon), who was born in rural Georgia. Ruth and her family relocated to Cleveland, where she met Jesse in junior high school. The couple wed in Cleveland on July 5, 1935. However, later in life, Jesse incorrectly claimed that they had married before their first child, Gloria, was born in 1932. In addition to Gloria, the couple had two more daughters, Beverly and Marlene.

After Jesse’s passing, Ruth Owens continued to honor his legacy as the longtime chairwoman of the Jesse Owens Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting the development of young people. Ruth Owens died in 2001 from heart failure.

Death and Legacy

Jesse Owens passed away at the age of 66 on March 31, 1980, in Tucson, Arizona. The cause of his death was lung cancer, a result of his long-time smoking habit, which involved consuming up to a pack of cigarettes a day.

Widely regarded as the greatest track and field athlete in history, Owens’ achievements transcend sports. In recognition of his impact, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976, the Living Legend Award by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, and the Congressional Medal of Honor by President George H. W. Bush in 1990, posthumously. While many of Owens’ world records have been broken, his legacy remains a significant part of athletic history. He was part of the inaugural class inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983. Each year, USA Track and Field honors the best track and field athlete with the Jesse Owens Award.

Media and Publications

The extraordinary life and athletic accomplishments of Jesse Owens have been the subject of numerous books and films. The Emmy Award-winning television film The Jesse Owens Story was released in 1985, followed by the biography Jesse Owens: An American Life in 1988. Another notable biography, Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics, was published in 2008. In 2012, PBS aired a documentary on Owens as part of its American Experience series.

The 2016 film Race portrays Owens’ rise to prominence in track and field, culminating in his triumph at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, where he challenged Adolf Hitler’s notion of Aryan racial superiority. Made with the input of Owens’ three daughters, the film stars Stephan James as Jesse Owens and Jason Sudeikis as Larry Snyder, Owens’ coach at Ohio State University.