Former Buckeye Jesse Owens to be honored at Michigan's Ferry Field tomorrow
Jesse Owens, who set four world records in an hour at Michigan's Ferry Field in 1935, will be honored with a new World Heritage Plaque unveiled there tomorrow morning. It replaces the previous marker that stood there since 1985.
As SI wrote: "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." The following year, Owens won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, which the Nazis had hoped would be a demonstration of white supremacy.
This makes me so happy. My great uncle competed for Michigan in one of those 4 events against Owens. It was the Big Ten Championship and Michigan still won the meet despite Owens scoring an incredible amount of points.
Owens - considering the ordeal back then that he had to go through - might have been the greatest Track & Field athlete ever. And yea I know all about Usain Bolt and Carl Lewis. He was the trend setter for the stars to follow him and again, I'm fully aware of Jim Thorpe.
You have to love what he did to Hitler and the Nazis
I can say with complete sincerity - I applaud Jesse Owens not only for his accomplishment - but for how he conducted himself (in Berlin).
So - recognizing his accomplishment is something I'm glad to do - with much respect.
Now - is there another Buckeye that deserves our respect and admiration? I can't think of one - can you?
RL Stine?
Kim Deal (who attended but did not graduate)
I'll second Kim Deal. There is no Pixies without her, and I can't imagine a world without the Pixies.
My cousin went there, and she's okay.
I remember hearing a story about Woody Hayes having his team in an airport (probably down south) and he was told that his black players had to eat their meal in a separate area. He threw a fit over it (as he often did on the sidelines) but ended up having the entire team go to the "separate" area to eat together. I'm probably butchering the details but the general point remains that he was a pretty good human being. Even if he was named after easily the worst president in US history.
Of course, he did get fired for slugging a player on the opposing team. And he also had plenty of nasty things to say about Michigan.
I thought I read in a Woody biography that he ate with the black players in the kitchen since they weren't allowed in the dining room. Yes, I read a Hayes biography, a Bo biography, and a Bear biography and numerous other biographies.
I don't think it is appropriate to judge a lifetime of intense competition on one's banehavior after having a stroke.
Chris Spielman.
One of my history professors in college, Dr. Robert Citino, went to OSU. Terrific professor.
I second Spielman. Fantastic person and my favorite broadcast guy ever.
I really like Clark Kellogg (and, though people here rip on him, I think Kirk Herbstreit seems like a genuinely good guy). Also Jay Burson was awesome before he broke his neck.
Jack Nicklaus
I'm not a huge fan of pop art, and I don't generally know shit about art, but I do like Lichtenstein's abstract stuff. I had no idea he was a Buckeye, though.
Chris Spielman is pretty cool and I always had a grudging respect for Pete Johnson.
Jesse Owens was an iconic American Hero. I’m not so sure OSU would afford the same luxery if the roles were reversed.
Comedian/actor Richard Lewis R.I.P.
Buckeye Chuck. Singular friendly foe and gentleman.
Gary Moeller?
Technically? It was to demonstrate the superiority of the "Aryan Race".
And, along the same lines of Hitler's Aryan Supremacy theme, you also need to look at the two fights between Joe Louis (the Brown Bomber) and Hitler's fav, Max Schmeling.
Yankee Stadium for both bouts.
1936, Schmeling knocks Louis out in round 12. New York weeps.
1938, Louis destroys Schmeling in the first round. New York, all of America, rejoices.
Schmeling was hated by most Americans in 1938. But the historical record has shown he was a pretty decent guy. Refused to fire his Jewish manager, despite Hitler's request, sheltered some Jewish children in Germany in the late 1930s, and eventually became good friends with Joe Louis and financed his funeral.
And as a boxer, he took on ALL comers. He wasn't afraid of competition. Credit to him for that.
He was used as a political pawn during the 30s and 40s. Like so many others, unfortunately.
Yes, I'd heard the same things about Schmeling from people deep inside the fight game from that era. Political pawn? Correct description. I would have used the words, reluctant symbol.
Schmeling’s fight vs Max Baer, who was half Jewish, was hugely significant. Schmeling was a pawn of Hitler who later in life befriended Louis. He even funded Louis’ funeral.
A fallschirmjager and boxer. Definition of a badass, but more importantly a decent man who transcended the racist culture in which he was born. He saved two Jewish children during the war by hiding them in his apartment.Max Schmeling was one of those “good Germans”.
Yer today he is seen by Americans as the Nazi Louis beat. How utterly injust.
Most people paint their prejudices, their biases/opinions, their distrusts, etc. with brushes that are much too wide. Reasoned discourse, careful analyses has/have always been the exception rather than the norm. Today's social and political climate is no different. Sad ...
Well said, Mr. Q.
It should be noted that the 30’s and 40’s were the pinnacle of boxing. Boxers from that era would destroy modern boxers. They trained harder, fought way more frequently, and were craftier than today’s muscled bound palookas.
I mean, really?!
You don't think Iron Mike would beat the living shit out of every 30's and 40's boxers?
I don't. Tyson was kind of a one trick pony- boring in taking punishment to get inside. Once Buster Douglas beat him, he was never the same because the intimidation factor was gone. Joe Frazier was a much better version of the same style. Joe Louis would have crushed Tyson.
No I don’t, and I will back up my claim with a link to a Dan Carlin podcast on the subject:
Hitler had a tiny penis an inferiority complex and a mommy fetish.
People bad-mouth him, but we should remember that Adolph was the guy who finally managed to kill Hitler.
Holy shit. Maybe it's because I started drinking early, but this made me laugh more than it probably should have.
And a goat may or may not have bitten that penis when he was a little untermenschen.
Jessie stands alone in the world of track and field. No CFB rivalry can diminish what he did on that field. We are privileged to having been witness to it.
User name checks out.
Grampy was there in Berlin in 1936 to witness it.
Wait.
He did it all with a bruised tailbone too, serious enough he struggled to touch his toes while bending down --- he banged it up 5 days prior during some campus prank!
I feel most folk know the story of Owens at the Big Ten Championships and the 1936 Olympics. Less folk know the story of his struggles in America following the 1936 Olympics. Even the President of the US wouldn't even acknolwedge his accomplishments or even him as a person. Owens struggled to find anything beyond menial jobs for several years before Willis Ward (a U-M grad and fellow competitor in collegiate and national-level track events) got him started and involved in civil rights affairs in 1942.
Even then, most (not all, but most) of the acknowledgments and honors of Owens have occured after his death --- which was in 1980, a full 44 years after Berlin. It took a long long while.
Owens deserved much better while he was living in his home country ........ SOOOO much better.
Aryan is not the same as white.
Nazis were Aryan supremacists. They believed in racial hygiene. They persecuted people regardless of skin color. Jews, Slavs, disabled, gay…all white under the US classification of race.
I will also point out that the 1936 Olympics were an enormous propaganda success for the Nazis. It legitimatized Nazi Germany. A legitimacy that did not exist prior due to Hitler withdrawing from the League of Nations, renouncing Versailles Treaty, passing the Nuremberg Laws, reclaiming Saarland, etc.
Germany won more medals than any other nation by a decent margin and were able to use the Olympics to show the world the new Germany.
What Owens did at UM and in Berlin was extraordinary, but his story is more about FDR’s racist response to Owens success than Owens disproving Hitler’s wacko theories. For whatever reason Americans keep promoting the lie that Owens’ achievements had a great impact upon racial attitudes and that just isn’t the case.
Jesse Owens was and is a hero. But whitewashing or distorting the past doesn’t help us tell his story. It actually damages it as it undersells what he experienced at home as a black man.
Yeah, we’ve unfortunately been taught a heavily sanitized version of Owens’ story.
One of the most unbelievable things to me is that when a reception was held in his honor in New York after the Olympics, he was forced to take the freight elevator up - the lobby elevator was whites-only.
Yes! And well into the 60s, there were major clubs and prestigious hotels that refused service and/or rooms to both blacks and Jews. It's one of the reasons that Floyd Patterson used the Grossinger's resort (Borscht Belt Jewish) for his training camp: he was welcomed there.
I heard that Jesse Owens' tears cured cancer, but unfortunately he never cried.
Are you telling me that's not true?!
The Chuck Norris thread is over there. ----------------->
Respect.
Jessie gets a plaque at Michigan but Tom got a standing ovation in Ohio.
In his final game at Michigan, Harmon achieved arguably the greatest gridiron feat in history in the 40-0 victory at Ohio State. Old 98 tallied three rushing touchdowns, two passing touchdowns, four extra points, three interceptions and three punts that averaged 50 yards. At the end of the game he received a standing ovation from the crowd in Columbus.
It seems that before they hired Woody Hayes, OSU was ... normal?
I guess having a psychopath coach your team for nearly three decades leaves its mark.
Truly remarkable athlete. It's somewhat subjective, but he has to be on the short list for best ever. Another on that short list is Jim Thorpe.
Some athletes are bigger than the university they attended. Jesse Owens is one of those guys, Michael Phelps is another. They achieved their greatest accomplishments while representing their country, not the college attended. It doesn’t mean their football program doesn’t suck, because it does and always will.
Chris Spielman wanted to be a Wolverine, his dad wouldn’t let him. He gets a pass.
Well deserved.
I loved running on that track because it always brought me past the plaque. And with that the reminder that Jesse Owens had run on that very same track. It's sacred ground.