OT: Greatest 45 Minutes in Sports History - si.com article
SI.com article on what the writer is calling the greatest 45 minutes in sports history, which occurred 75 years ago tomorrow (5/25), with Jessie Owens tying or setting 4 world records in 4 different events at the 1935 Big 10 Championships at Ferry Field. The article sums up the accomplishment as:
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.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/more/05/24/owens.record.day/index…
JeffB
Dernard would have beaten him
if Dernard made Jessie run the hurdles and if Denard ran straight with blocks...might be close. Seriously, hard to imagine how amazing Owens was, even if he was a Buckeye. Sorry, but I love Track and Field and its history....
I agree with you there. I was surprised that Owens still has the OSU long jump school record, and he would've placed 7th in the last Olympics. If he had access to the training and equipment (not running on dirt and having blocks), I really wonder what he could do.
JeffB
Michigan won the meet
features, Owens was both sick and injured that week and the coach initially told him not to bother coming to the Big Ten Meet, but Jesse thought he owed it to his team to at least try. No idea whether there is any truth to that, but I do know that is what Paul Harvey said.
I read the biography of Jessie Owens when it came out in 2007, and that was part of the story (the back injury is also referenced in the article).
I remember my grandfather taking me to Ferry Field, telling me about "Old Man Yost," and also about Jesse Owens' world-record day there.
I forget when the Jesse Owens plaque went up. Owens died tragically of lung cancer (he smoked like a chimney) in 1980; I'm not sure if that was when they put up the memorial or not.
I DO remember my grandfather telling me that "Michigan won the meet." Funny how something like that gets around; I don't even know if it is true.
Here's the totally freaky thing -- somebody remarked that Denard would beat the OSU Jesse. Um, it is not true. I'll let you catch your breath. At least, the Olympian Jesse Owens was faster, in 1936, than the Florida State High School Athletic Association 4-A meet Denard Robinson. (Can't compare Owens' world records at 100 yards and 220 yards to modern sprints in meters; so we disregard his day at Ferry Field in 1935.)
Denard in high school: Career-best 10.56 in the 100m; 21.89 in the 200m.
Jesse Owens in the Berlin Olympics: 10.3 in the 100m; 20.7 in the 200m.
I DO remember my grandfather telling me that "Michigan won the meet." Funny how something like that gets around; I don't even know if it is true.
It is true: Michigan 48, Ohio State 43.5, Wisconsin 29.5, Indiana 24.5, Northwestern 20, Iowa 19, Illinois 18.5, Purdue 11, Minnesota 10, Chicago 1.
Something I found when looking this up in the Big Ten Record Book: the times in the 100, 220 and 220 hurdles by Jesse Owens that day were still Big Ten meet records when NCAA Track converted to metric in 1976, and so will always remain the Big Ten record in those 3 events. His Long Jump of 26 feet 8.25 inches (8.13 m) also still stands today as the Big Ten championship record.
but... dilithium... :\
Long Jump... 26 feet 8 1/4 inches. Wow. My longest jump ever was 20 feet 4.5 inches... and he still has me by over 6 feet. It's remarkable to think someone jumped 26 feet... especially if you actually measure that out. Unreal.
who Jesse Owens played for; or whose jersey Jackie Robinson wore, or which city Larry Doby or Ernie Davis represented. What matters is that they were there competing in their own right.
I remember going to Ferry Field for an independent track meet in 1992 (I was still in high school). I hadn't heard any of this at all, but I was amazed when I saw a plaque commemorating an OSU athelete on Michigan's campus.
I know that when I talk about that plaque to other Michigan fans (not necessarily alumni) or OSU fans, very few people seem to realize that it's there, or that Jesse Owens did this.
on the Michigan campus.
There's Yost Bridge at the Golf Course. And, naturally, there are the memorialized buildings; Yost, Schembechler Hall, Canham Natatorium, Crisler Arena, Ray L. Fisher Stadium, etc., all named for coaches and AD's.
I cannot think of anything, apart from the Stadium "brick" areas, that are any kind of ahtlete memorials.
The Jesse Owens memorial is special, unique. I think it is great. Like the buckeyes growing on the golf course.
Where exactly is the memorial located in reference to the track? I never knew it was there and will check it out the next time I'm in town.
In the IM Building there's a list of "Rec Sports Athlete of the Year" or something like that. Most of the names are unfamiliar, but for 1937 (or maybe 1938, I can't remember which) it reads "Tom Harmon, Gary, Indiana."
Good call. +1 for that one.
I think both. Tom Harmon was a two-time Michigan Intramural Athlete of the Year.
I spell my own name every time I use the urinal trough at Michigan Stadium.
It's at the Southeast corner. Here's the link on the UM website about it.
I know he was a Buckeye, but seriously he was a beast and we won the track meet anyway.
Does it leave out the "THE" in "OSU"?
Just as it is great OSU continues to paint the flowers in their rotunda maize and blue....
I'm told that a Buckeye was holding the stopwatch that day...
So, 4 FAKES out of 5?
Haha, yeah, I guess that's what I was going for.
Woolfolk. His 100 time was below 10.4 and I think the 4 x 100 team he anchored still holds the school record. That is now a 30 year old record.
Some athletes transcend the schools/organizations that they represent. Jesse Owens went to Germany and pissed all over Hitler's "Master Race" theory.
Jesse Owens, Buckeye or not, is an American hero.
makes it particularly cool and classy that we honored him. That and the fact that Michigan won the meet.