Jesse Owens (Buckeye Bullet, 4 Time Olympic Gold Medalist, 8-time NCAA Champion)

[Buckskin86]

Rob Oller commentary: Owens deserves Ohio's spot in Capitol
Thursday, May 20, 2010
By Rob Oller
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Jesse Owens ran so fast that 74 years after winning four Olympic gold medals - and 30 years after his death - the former Ohio State sprinter still can win the bronze.

The Buckeye Bullet is looking to lap the field next month when a state government committee decides who among 10 former Ohioans will be memorialized with a bronze statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.

Among the finalists are Thomas Edison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ulysses S. Grant and the Wright Brothers.

I'm pulling for Owens. Nothing personal against the other worthy candidates, but selecting Owens makes the most sense, especially when considering why Ohio is replacing the statue of 1800s governor William Allen that already is in the Capitol.

Rob Oller commentary: Owens deserves Ohio's spot in Capitol | BuckeyeXtra

 

[jlb1705]

On May 25, 1935, Jesse Owens had greatest hour in sports history - More Sports - SI.com

Greatest 45 minutes ever in sports

By Richard Rothschild, Special to SI.com

It still looks like a misprint.
Four world records in three-quarters of an hour. Not 45 weeks or 45 days but 45 minutes.
Seventy-five years ago Tuesday, at the 1935 Big Ten Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., Jesse Owens didn't rewrite the record book -- he tore it up.
In less than an hour, the 21-year-old Ohio State sophomore tied the world record in the 100-yard dash and then set the world record in the long jump, the 220-yard dash and the 220 low hurdles...

...But Owens' one-day blockbuster in Ann Arbor has no parallel, not only in track and field but in any sport. It is the greatest single day performance in athletic history, superior to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point outburst or to the Redskins' Sammy Baugh throwing four touchdown passes and adding an NFL record four interceptions in one game. That Owens took care of business in less than an hour -- and with an injured back -- adds even more luster to a name that has always ranked near the top of American sports heroes.

 

[bkochmc]

Just read that article... my favorite parts:

But Owens' one-day blockbuster in Ann Arbor has no parallel, not only in track and field but in any sport. It is the greatest single day performance in athletic history, superior to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point outburst or to the Redskins' Sammy Baugh throwing four touchdown passes and adding an NFL record four interceptions in one game.

Owens had averaged a world record every 11 minutes. To find a similar scale of achievement one has to journey to the realm of art and think of Mozart needing only six weeks to compose his final three symphonies in the summer of 1788 or of Shakespeare writing Henry V, Julius Caesar and As You Like It in the same year.

Ferry Field still stands. Outside the track a plaque commemorates Owens' record-shattering day. It is, perhaps, the ultimate compliment in college sports that a University of Michigan athletic facility continues to honor the achievements of an Ohio State Buckeye.

 

[Buckskin86]

Hart: 4 reasons why Jesse Owens is best ever in track and field ? Abilene Reporter News

 

[Buckskin86]

Jesse Owens, gold medalist in 1936 Olympics in Berlin: Black History Month
Published: Tuesday, February 08, 2011
By Robert L. Smith, The Plain Dealer

Associated Press file photograph
Jesse Owens became a worldwide star at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, winning four gold medals.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As part of Black History Month, we remember Jesse Owens, the sharecropper's son who raced from Cleveland streets into the history books with grace and style. People who saw his quick, seemingly effortless stride often used one word to describe it: "beautiful."

Owens riveted the world in 1936, when he won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics and gave lie to Adolph Hitler's vision of a master Aryan race.

Born James Cleveland Owens on Sept. 12, 1913, on an Alabama farm, Owens came to Cleveland as a boy with his family in the Great Migration. A Cleveland school teacher reportedly heard "Jesse" when he drawled "J.C.," and the nickname stuck.

As a senior at East Tech High School, he tied the world record in the 100-yard-dash. At Ohio State University, he became known as the Buckeye Bullet. In one astonishing afternoon in 1935, Owens broke three world records at one Big Ten track meet.

Cleveland welcomed him home from the 1936 Olympics with a hero's parade.

He was memorialized in November on Public Square, where East Roadway was renamed "Jesse Owens Way."

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/02/jesse_owens_gold_medalist_in_1.html

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL6NEc54igY"]YouTube - Vote Jesse Owens[/ame]

 

[Buckskin86]

August 1936

At the Berlin Games, Owens became the first American to win four track and field gold medals in one Olympics, breaking the world record for the 200-meter run and long jump in the process.
June 1936

June 1936
May 25, 1935

In a span of 45 minutes, Owens set three world records and tied a fourth at the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich. He set world records in the long jump (8.13 m), 220-yard sprint (20.3 seconds) and 220-yard low hurdles (22.6 seconds).
June 1935

Owens won the first four of his record eight NCAA Championships.

http://www.bigtenicons.com/openlocker.cfm?id=3&name=JESSE-OWENS

Jesse Owens third on list of 50 greatest Big Ten icons? That's outrageous -- Bill Livingston
Published: Monday, February 14, 2011
By Bill Livingston, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Most of all, Jesse Owens proved that no racial group had cornered excellence.

He did this in the toughest competitive arena there is, the Olympic Games. The Olympics are a once-every-four-years chance for an athlete to chase his dreams. Nothing could outrun Jesse, though.

Owens handled Olympic pressure majestically, winning four gold medals, in the 100 meters, the 200, the long jump and the 400-meter relay. This magnificent performance occurred in Adolf Hitler's Berlin, the site of the 1936 Olympics and the breeding ground of the Master Race theory. The hate-filled doctrine made the Nazis consider the American Olympic team to be racial mongrels because it included African-American athletes. The Ku Klux Klan was nothing, compared to the lengths Nazi Germany would eventually go to achieve its mad racial agenda.

For this, and many other astonishing feats, James Cleveland (J.C., hence Jesse) Owens has been named third on the Big Ten's list of the conference's 50 greatest athletic icons.

This is utterly outrageous.

The only top Big Ten athletes still unnamed on the list are Illinois' pioneering football great Red Grange; and Michigan State's multi-dimensional point guard Magic Johnson. Neither had close to the impact on humanity that Jesse Owens did in Berlin in 1936.

Magic will probably be named No. 1. The Big Ten Network certainly has better footage of Johnson than it does of Grange, a guy who wore a leather helmet, or of Owens, the great Cleveland-raised, Ohio State-trained sprinter and long jumper.

The Big Ten has said that only what athletes do in their college years counts. Owens was a collegian in 1936.

Perhaps the fact that track and field is a minor sport in this country now played a part. But it was a big-time attraction in Owens' day.

Most of all, this is a marketing decision. Kids today have no idea of who Jesse Owens was, not to mention Red Grange. They all know Magic. It doesn't make it right. It does make it easier to sell as television programming.

But Jesse Owens third? Seriously?

Cont...

http://www.cleveland.com/livingston/index.ssf/2011/02/jesse_owens_third_on_list_of_5.html

 

[buckiprof]

From the Livingston column buckskin86 posted and linked:

The Big Ten has said that only what athletes do in their college years counts. Owens was a collegian in 1936.

Given that, and saying this without any form of bias whatsoever, having Jesse not at #1 makes the whole list a damn joke. Setting 3 world records and tying a 4th in a 45 minute period of time at the Big Ten championship meet is in and of itself mind boggling. Winning 4 gold medals (while breaking 2 more world records in the process) at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, with Hitler having to watch, simply transcends sports in its historical importance. IMO, this is the definition of what is a true icon and no one else in Big Ten can be ranked ahead of Jesse.

 

[jwinslow]

The Big Ten has said that only what athletes do in their college years counts. Owens was a collegian in 1936.

Please. Magic is nowhere near #2 if he never played pro basketball.

 

[Jagdaddy]

Wow. Inconceivable to me that Owens isn't # 1.

 

[sparcboxbuck]

Wow. Inconceivable to me that Owens isn't # 1.

It's sad for sure... but at the end of the day, if the BTN (and the BT for that matter) actually awarded individuals with their rightful due in such matters the, BTN would be called Buckeye Television Network... or Brutus Television Network -- take your pick.

 

[cincibuck]

The Olympic wins make for a great story from the media point of view -- Jesse Owens takes on the Master Race and wins -- but the story of the meet at Michigan -- running on cinders, running in low tech leather shoes, running without starting blocks and doing so in times that would STILL be relevant, setting a long jump record that stood for another 40 years.

What more need be said?

 

[DaveyBoy]

this ultimate slap in the face of Jesse Owens and Ohio State is enough to make me wish we would tell the BigTen to find another team to pump more $ and star-power into the conference....and let Ohio State go out into the world and seeks its fame and fortune as an independent.

To not have Chic Harley is a joke
To not have Jerry Lucas higher is a joke
To not have Jesse Owens #1 or at least #2 is a joke
These are 3 absolutes that I can't see how anyone could defend against.

The BigTen wouldn't crumble without OSU but it sure would look a lot weaker. It would basically be the ACC.

 

[brodybuck21]

this ultimate slap in the face of Jesse Owens and Ohio State is enough to make me wish we would tell the BigTen to find another team to pump more $ and star-power into the conference....and let Ohio State go out into the world and seeks its fame and fortune as an independent.

To not have Chic Harley is a joke
To not have Jerry Lucas higher is a joke
To not have Jesse Owens #1 or at least #2 is a joke
These are 3 absolutes that I can't see how anyone could defend against.

The BigTen wouldn't crumble without OSU but it sure would look a lot weaker. It would basically be the ACC.

+1

been sayn this for awhile now except imo it wouldnt be the acc..it would be the big east or the mac

 

[BB73]

Given that, and saying this without any form of bias whatsoever, having Jesse not at #1 makes the whole list a damn joke. Setting 3 world records and tying a 4th in a 45 minute period of time at the Big Ten championship meet is in and of itself mind boggling. Winning 4 gold medals (while breaking 2 more world records in the process) at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, with Hitler having to watch, simply transcends sports in its historical importance. IMO, this is the definition of what is a true icon and no one else in Big Ten can be ranked ahead of Jesse.

Just looking at his collegiate career, there's another aspect of his collegiate accomplishments that is often overlooked. Most of us who have read this thread know that he set 3 world records and tied another on that day in Ann Arbor in 1935.

But I've just updated the title because of this bolded fact:

First he sprinted to a 9.4 clocking in the 100, tying the record he shared with several others. He then long jumped 26 feet 8 ? inches on his first attempt, establishing a record that would last 25 years. Next came a 20.3 clocking in the 220-yard dash, followed by a 22.6 effort in the 220-yard low hurdles. Seventy-five years after it took place, Owens? single-day performance is still regarded as the greatest individual accomplishment in track and field history.

He would go on to win first-place medals in all four events at the 1935 NCAA championships and duplicate the feat in 1936, still the only athlete to claim eight individual NCAA titles.

...

During his junior year at Ohio State, Owens competed in 42 events and won them all. But his most significant triumphs were yet to come.

That quote is from the Big Ten icons story, and relates to men's track and field. It should be noted that Mark Spitz has 8 individual NCAA swimming titles, earned over 4 years. Stanford's Pablo Morales has 11 individual NCAA swimming titles.

It should also be noted that Suzy Favor-Hamilton (Big Ten icon #19) won 9 individual NCAA titles while at Wisconsin, which is tied with Sally Kipyego for the most among women track/cross country athletes. Georgia's Courtney Kupets won 9 individual NCAA gymnastics titles.

 

[cincibuck]

So why don't we -- Buckeye Planet -- do something, like a mass protest e-mail to BTN? I'm ready to sign.