Jesse Owens (12 Sep 1913 – 31 Mar 1980) ~ Jesse Owens was an American track star and hero of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Germany during a difficult time in world history (we were on the brink of WWII). His victories at the game not only buoyed the American public, but scored a moral triumph for all Black athletes. He was born James Cleveland Owens, the seventh child out of 11 to an Alabama sharecropper. As a young boy, the Owens family moved to Ohio where “J.C.†entered public school. His teacher mistook his southern accent when he announced his name as “J.C.†and wrote down “Jesse†– a moniker he would adopt for the rest of his life. His track career started in the 5th grade, and by junior high, he was setting records. In high school, his coach said Owens was such a complete athlete that he “seemed to float on the ground when he ran.†At the National Interscholastic Championships, Owens would win the 100 and 200 yard dash and the broad jump. Jesse entered Ohio State University, worked three jobs to support his tuition, and was constantly met with racism. This only strengthened his desire to succeed. At the Big Ten Conference track and field championships in 1935, Jesse broke three world records and tied another. By 1936, he was a member of U.S. Olympic team competing in Berlin, Germany where he would go onto win four gold medals. Jesse Owens was a true American hero and the epitome of triumph in the face of adversity. He would eventually be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Living Legend Award and (finally, posthumously) the Congressional Gold Medal.
