James Cleveland Owens was born in 1913 in a small town in Alabama to Henry and Emma Owens. They moved when J.C. was 8. When they arrived in Cleveland, J.C. was enrolled in a public school. On his first day of class when the teacher asked his name she heard Jesse, instead of J.C. He would be called Jesse from that point on.

Since his family was poor, Jesse took a lot of different jobs in his spare time. He delivered groceries, loaded freight cars and worked in a shoe repair shop to try and help his family raise money. It was during this time that Jesse discovered he liked running, which would prove to be the turning point in his life.

At Cleveland East Technical High School Jesse became a track star. As a senior, he tied the world record in the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.4 seconds, only to tie it again while running in the Interscholastic Championships in Chicago.

At Ohio State University Jesse had to live off campus with other African-American athletes. When he traveled with the team, he could either order carryout or eat at “blacks-only” restaurants. Since he wasn’t given a scholarship from the university, he continued to work part-time jobs to pay for school.

At a Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor on May 25, 1935, Jesse set three world records, tied a fourth, in 70 minutes. He even sore back because he had fallen down a flight of stairs, he wasn’t sure if he could perform at the meet. Jesse took his first attempt in the broad jump. Before jumping, Jesse put a handkerchief at 26 feet 2 ½ inches, the distance of the world record. After that he soared to a distance of 26 feet 8 ¼ inches, beating the old world record by nearly 6 inches. At the end of his sophomore year at Ohio State, Jesse realized he could be successful on a more competitive level. Jesse entered the 1936 Olympics, which to many are known as the “Hitler Olympics.”

At first the International Olympic Committee had given the 1936 Games back to Germany in 1932, a year before Hitler came to power. Berlin got the Summer Games and the Winter Games were going to be held in Garnisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria. No one knew then that Nazi Germany would be in power and the games. The IOC started to consider moving the 1936 Games to another place. Hitler made enough arguments to keep the events in Germany. He knew that the Summer Olympics would be a good public relation before the Third Reich.

In the training period of the ’36 Summer games Gretl Bergmann, (a Jew) but a World Class high jumper. She matched the German women’s record-five feet, three in. She got a letter from the Committee and it said that her jump was erratic. She didn’t get chosen for the team.

Hitler had one of the best Opening Ceremonies ever held. He released 20,000 birds into the sky with colored ribbons on them. Hitler said, whereas many other teams practically performed a military march walking into the stadium, the Americans “shlumped along” showing its disrespect.

During the Olympics, Jews not only added to the U.S. Olympic funds but were also among the visiting American, even though Hitler and his anti-Jewish National Socialist group didn’t like it. In addition, ten Negroes showed up on the good American team. Hitler has called Negroes an “inferior race.” They more than showed up they made easy victories in the sprints and hurdles they also dominated the field events.

The star of the show was a shy Negro athlete, Jesse Owens. He won the100-and 200-meter dashes, the running broad jump and was on the winning 400-meter relay team. He was also in a drama with Hitler.

Hitler had the first German champion of any Olympics paraded before him. When Owens won it was a very different matter. Owens ran the 100 meters in a record 10.2 seconds but was not allowed because of a following wind.

Hitler recognized Olympic victors publicly but he had to recognize Negroes so he decided not to recognize any people publicly, but when Germans finished one-two in the hammer throw, he received them under the stands.

When Owens completed his great performance at the Olympics by winning the 200-meter race in a record 20.7 seconds the crowed rose to pay a tribute to him, the applause was great. By this time Hitler had again left the stadium.

Jesse overcame segregation, racism and bigotry to prove the world that African- Americans belonged in the world of athletics. Several years later, on March 31, 1980, Jesse Owens, 66, died in Tucson from complications due to cancer.

Another event happened during the 1936 Olympics, Marty Glickman was denied a chance to win a gold medal because he was a Jew. He and Sam Stoller were the only two Jews on the American track and field team who went to the Berlin Olympics. They were supposed to run in the 4x100 meter relay race on the next to the last day of the international competition. Their coach announced in one of the team meetings that Frank Metcalf and Jesse Owens would replace them.

There was some risk in the substitution because Jesse Owens and Frank Metcalf had not practiced with Batons. In fact said Glickman, “the team that finished third-the Dutch team-was disqualified for passing out of its lane, so baton playing was very important.” Owens and Metcalf hadn’t touched the baton for the 10 days they practiced in Berlin.

They already had raced, and won their medals but the whole point of the Olympics was to participate, Glickman thought.

Other Jewish Americans did compete in the Olympics, including Sam Balter who was on the U.S. basketball team, which won a gold medal. “Basketball was an incidental sport back then” Glickman replied. “It was so unimportant in 1936 that they didn’t even have an arena to play in. They had a court on an open field, and they played on that basketball court. I watched some pf the games and it was a competition like there might be in a schoolyard.”

It happens that the success of the 1936 Olympics would seal the fate of millions of European Jews.

Sixteen records were set and one equaled in the 23 events on the track field games. The United States took 12 first places, more than all the other nations put together.

Aug. 16 The Berlin Olympics ended with record crowds record performances a great success for the German organizers, the nations competing and the 5,000 athletes.

Marty Glickman visited tat stadium two more times in 1985-49 years after the games to help prepare a series for HBO on the 50^th anniversary of the 1936 games. Once more he returned in 1987, this time as a guest of the New York Giants. He was placed in the best seat in the house, Adolf Hitler’s old box. He didn’t watch too much of the game. I was thinking about those days of 1936. He said he felt both “anger” and “satisfaction in this box and where was he?” He felt anger about “all the killings of the Holocaust” and “dissatisfaction in not having run on that field.”

Jose Cavazos 7^th Social Studies Rossville Jr. High Holocaust Project Spring 2003

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