Jesse Owen

James Cleveland: The "Buckeye Bullet"

Introduction:

Before diving into James life, I will give a brief history about the Olympics that made many great athletes and champions. The creation of the Olympic Game was inspired by ancient Olympic Games, which took place in Greece, to be exact Olympia. They were mainly about the fundamental religious importance as events were done as a ritual to honor Zeus and Pelops, old mythical kings that some described them as gods of Olympia.

 Olympia is the location of the original Olympic stadium (picture). The Olympics were held every four years and this period was known as Olympiad. Greeks in the past took this period as a method to figure  the time of their calendar by which they recorded every Olympic Game happened. Winning the Olympic Games had a great impact on the participant's life because people who took part in them were usually slaves and fighters hungry for fame and recognition. 




Victorious champions were also immortalized through the writing of poems and construction of statues. Many winners are documented in ancient Greek myths and legends, stories still being told to this day like “Milon of Kroton” a fighter. However modern Olympic Games are the opposite. It reshaped itself in order to unite nations together throughout the world showing how humans are different from each physically and also emotionally because emotions do take part in playing the Games, where the love of his country increases his devotions towards fair play and winning. 

While the Olympic Games are about competition and winning, they are also about learning about other cultures and the similarities between all cultures. The modern Olympics started in 1896 in Athens and were invented by Pierre de Coubertin who also created the logo. The reason of this logo design is said to be a representation of five parts of the world uniting together. Proving that the Olympics are growing this graph shows that people are taking a huge interest in the games. In this blog I will be focusing on  the 1936 Berlin Olympics which is related to James Cleveland.

 

James life and career:

James Cleveland Owens was born in 1913 in a small town named Oakville, Alabama to Henry and Emma Owens his father and mother in which they had 10 siblings, seven brothers and three sisters. James had a tough childhood were he suffered a lung disease called pneumonia, and his family were working as cotton gatherers at a time were racism and other hard obstacles James faced. At the age of 5 James' mother had to do a surgery using only basic tools because he developed a large fibrous bump on his chest that began to painfully press against his lungs. In order to remove this growth that was related to James' illness and because they were so poor, his mother decided to do the surgery on her own using a kitchen knife and leather straps to hold James. Although James lost significant amount of blood he survived.

When J.C. (Stands for James Cleveland) was nine, his parents decided to move the family to Cleveland, Ohio because James illness was worsening, and their sharecropper wanted more of their money making them work extra hours with less pay; at that time  J.C.'s father immediately  decide to leave Oakville. When they arrived in Cleveland, J.C. got registered in a public school.  First day of class when the teacher asked his name, she heard Jesse, instead of J.C. because of his strong southern accent; he would be called Jesse from that point on.

Cleveland was not thriving as Henry and Emma had hoped and the family endured being poor and working as farmers. Jesse took on different jobs in his spare time. He delivered groceries, loaded freight cars and worked in a shoe repair shop. It was during this time that Jesse discovered he enjoyed running, which would prove to be the turning point in his life.

At that time when Jesse was at East Technical High School, Owen's passion for running grew. He started to compete in his everyday gym sessions with his colleges in a timed 60-yard dash. Not for long till Coach Charlie Riley saw the raw, yet natural talent that Jesse had and he immediately invited him to run for the track team. Although Jesse was unable to participate in after-school practices because of work, Coach Riley offered to train him in the mornings. Jesse agreed. Also at high school at the age of 15 he started dating Minnie Ruth Solomon when she was 13, until they gave birth to their first daughter, Gloria, in 1932.

At that time Jesse immediately made an international appearance setting two world records in 100 and 200-yard dashes and long jumps at the 1933 National High School Championship in Chicago. His coach was thrilled and decided to help Jesse in his training to aim for higher goals. After his father found a suitable job that could sustain his family financial problems to minimum. Jesse graduated from high school to enter The Ohio State University were he kept working night shifts and training as a sprinter in the morning. 

 While smashing records for the Ohio State Buckeyes track team, he became known as the “Buckeye Bullet.” At that time he was the first African-American to be elected as a captain of Ohio State varsity team, Jesse faced extreme racism from his colleges and directors because of his skin color, and he was forced to live outside the campus dorms but that did not weaken him; it made him determined to train harder. He won 42 events in a span of almost 1 year. His family supported him throughout the days. One of these events is when he participated in a nonprofit competition called The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which he won eight times in 1935.

Although this was an astonishing accomplishment he wasn't given a scholarship, so he had to endure the daily harsh routine of day and night hustle. Jesse also participated in the Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on May 25, 1935. He became a famous figure to all because he overcame a severe tailbone injury and he set three world records and tied a fourth. He tied a world record in the 100-yard dash—and set a long jump record of 26-8 ¼ that would stand for 25 years. Jesse also set new world marks in the 220-yard dash and in the 220-yard low hurdles at 22.6 seconds, becoming the first man to break the 23 second record. All of these great achievements came in a span of 45 minutes in London. In 2005, University of Central Florida professor of sports history Richard C. Crepeau quoted on Jesse accomplishment on that one day as the most impressive athletic achievement since 1850.

 Jesse was enjoying his success, however despite being as a figure to look after, racism took part also in his success; were he was bombarded by jealousy, racist managers and people; which they used to tell him to go to “black only” hotels and restaurants that only do “carry-out” orders or for African-American people, this made Jesse even more determined to seek high goals, which was the Olympics. In 1936, the Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany. 

People from all around the globe were excited to see this event because of the controversy that Hitler made, when he stated that his people are superior above all race and color, that his people are the strongest. Hitler made a special Olympian team called the Aryan supremacy which is a part of Nazism movement promoting the superior Aryan race in Germany.

 Hitler was very upset when he saw most of the American athletes as African-American, and he kept criticizing them saying that they sent their weakest. However Owen and the Americans proved Hitler wrong, by winning the Olympics. He was so upset that he didn’t even shake hands with them he just waved at them at the end of the Olympics then, he stormed off the stadium with rage. However some say that Hitler did exchange a friendly salute to Jesse.

Overall at that time the Americans won 11 gold medals six of those medals were by African-Americans,  Jesse was  leading the score boards in all the events that he competed in. He captured four gold medals (the 100 meter, the long jump, the 200 meter and the 400-meter relay), and broke two Olympic records along the way. Owens record for the world long jump would last 25 years until being broken by Olympian Irvin Roberson in 1960. Even though African-Americans had many issues related to their comfort like sleeping in “black only” hotels and not having the proper place to train for their Olympics. The shoe maker Adolf “Adi” Dassler didn’t ride the Nazi racist propaganda hype “train” but Adi Dassler took this opportunity to launch his athletic shoes business. He successfully promoted his shoes not to German athletes only, but Owens as well, to wear his personally handcrafted leather track shoes with extra-long spikes.The American’s victory helped to launch his business; years later Dassler started operating on a large scale making his own company “Adidas”.

After the Olympics Jesse returned home as a champion to all Americans, making them proud of being one. Even though Hitler congratulated Jesse, President Roosevelt didn’t even contact or invite Jesse to the White House; to congratulate Jesse for this great achievement. This made Jesse so angry that he told the press that Hitler didn’t “snub” him it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Jesse quoted months after the Games: “The president didn’t even send me a telegram.” After the Olympics in 1937, Jesse retired from being a professional athlete.

Jesse was in need of money so he decided to use his sprinting skills. Showcasing his talent, he raced cars and animals like horses and dogs and he mentioned that the trick to wining these horse races is when the gun is fired the animal usually jumps and panics. Jesse  quoted: "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."

Not only Jesse was a sportsman he was also a successful businessman; he joined the Harlem globetrotters. The Harlem Globetrotters, a group of comedians and famous athletes presenting a show about basketball in a fun and comedian perspective. Jesse was also an inspirational public speaker. In 1946, he joined Abe Saperstein to form the “West Coast Baseball Association”, which was mainly for African-Americans and he was the vice president and owner of Portland Rosebuds franchise.

Moreover In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower named Owens an Ambassador of Sports and he traveled around the globe promoting the benefits of amateur athletics. In 1965 he was a spring training instructor in baseball. Although an Olympic champion would be beneficial for any sport club but the Mitts reached the bottom of the national baseball league, his expertise wasn’t enough for them. Owen also dove into Hollywood for a while were he promoted the film “Mom and Dad in African-American neighborhood”.

As the renowned citizen and sportsman, Owens provided support to youth service organizations worldwide and authored two autobiographical books in 1976 and 1978, “Track and Field” and “Jesse, a spiritual autobiography”. Jesse Owens has been chosen as greatest sprinter at his time engraving his achievements in Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1970. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gerald Ford in 1976, at that time he was recognized by the entire world. Owens died of cancer in Phoenix, Arizona on March 31, 1980. He was buried in Chicago, Illinois.

 In 1988, Owens’ wife of 48 years, Ruth, was presented the Congressional Gold Medal on his behalf by President George Bush. And in 1996, sixty years after his success at the Berlin games, people from the hometown of Oakville dedicated Jesse Owens Memorial Park and Museum in his honor; not only in his hometown but also in Berlin they honored Jesse In 1984, a street outside Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, were Owens shot to fame, was rechristened Jesse-Owens-Allee, and the section of the Olympic Village in which the sprinter stayed during the 1936 Summer Olympics features displays about the American champion.

To conclude J.Cleveland was a heroic person, where he faced many obstacles in his life time. James kept moving on towards success although issues like bankruptcy and lung cancer did not stop him to be even more successful businessman, to prove that he was known around the globe here’s a picture of stamp that is issued in the UAE.