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Jesse Owens (Volume 5, Episode 1) Part One

Adolf Hitler intended the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a coming out party for his Aryan Master Race.  African-American Jesse Owens crashed the venue by winning four gold medals.

Jesse Owens 1936

At the Penn Relays, he won the long jump and the 100 meter dash.  Unfortunately for Eulace Peacock, the sprinter completely tore his hamstring during a preliminary heat, an injury so severe that Peacock was unable to make the 1936 Olympic Games.

Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe, Olympic trials, 1936

Owens qualified easily, winning the 100 and 200 meter sprint and the long jump competition at the Olympic trials at Randall’s Island.  His chief American competition came from Ralph Metcalfe in the 100 and Mack Robinson in the 200, Robinson the older brother of future Brooklyn Dodger, Jackie Robinson.  Eighteen black Americans qualified for the US Olympic team, two of them women, almost four times the number of African-American competitors at the 1932 Olympic games in Los Angeles.

Jesse Owens wins 100 meters at Berlin.

For a gold medal in the 100 meters, Jesse Owens would have to win four consecutive races, but the competition in Monday’s first two heats was minimal, several sprinters in the Big Ten much tougher competition.  Jesse cruised easily to victory, in the first heat by seven yards and the quarter finals by four yards, breaking his own world record in a time of 10.2 seconds.  While Owens victories were not a surprise, what was astonishing was the response of the crowd when his name was announced and after he crossed the tape in first place.  Anticipating that a German crowd politically attuned to the current Nazi master race theories would ignore or even vent hostility toward a Black American, instead the massive crowd roared their approval.

Hitler enters Berlin Olympic Stadium

Elsewhere in the stadium, Two German athletes were generating their own excitement.  Hans Woelke and Ottilie “Tilly” Fleischer won gold in the men’s shot put and women’s discus, respectively, the first track and field Olympic gold medals ever won by Germany.  Afterwards, they were summoned to Hitler’s personal box, where both were personally congratulated by Hitler and Hermann Goering.  Later in the afternoon, when three Finns swept the medals in the 10,000 meters distance race, they were also invited to Hitler’s box and congratulated.

Hitler reviewing stand, Leni Riefenstahl visible to the right.

But by the time the event concluded, and with the weather getting progressively colder with rain starting to fall, Adolf Hitler left the arena before the high jump medals ceremony and without a personal invitation to the black American Johnson.  This did not go unnoticed especially by the American press who focused the first day’s coverage on the perceived snub.  It also was noticed by Henri de Baillet-Latour, the President of the International Olympic Committee, who was hoping to lower the volume on politics and did not want Hitler to become the focal point of the current games.  He is said to have either forbidden Hitler to personally congratulate winners or to have told Hitler that he needed to congratulate every winner, regardless of race or country of origin.  The most popular interpretation is that Hitler, figuring that at least one black man, Jesse Owens was a shoe in to win at least one medal, then decided to stop publicly congratulating any of the winners.

Jesse Owens and Luz Long after competition, 1936

Later that afternoon, at 4:30 he participated in the long jump semi-final that served to eliminate ten of the remaining sixteen competitors.  Both Owens and Luz Long broke the existing Olympic record, jumping well over 25 feet to the delight of the crowd and setting up a climactic final.  Owens faulted on his first jump of the finals and his German competitor regressed to 25 feet, four inches but on his second jump Long pressed Owens to the limit with a leap of 25 feet, 10 inches.  Owens responded like a true champion establishing a new Olympic record with a jump of 26 feet.  When Long faulted on his third and last try, Owens had won his second gold.  Not to leave anything on the table, his final attempt measured 26 feet, 5.5 inches another Olympic record.  Long was the first to congratulate him after the American landed in the sand, the crowd also roaring over this exceptional feat.  Together, the two athletes walked on the track arm in arm, in clear view of the spectators including Adolf Hitler.

Luz Long behind Jesse Owens, Long Jump medals ceremony, 1936

But, after sharing this moment of sportsmanship, Long was conveyed to a private room under the stands where he was personally greeted and congratulated by Hitler and his entourage.  There would no such interaction by Hitler with Jesse Owens or any other black member of the American contingent.  Hitler did also privately meet and greet with Helen Stephens, the 18 year old American phenomenon who won the Womens 100 meters, underlining Hitler’s apparent desire to ignore any success on the part of Black Americans, even unofficially.

Jesse Owens (Volume 5, Episode One) Part Two

Adolf Hitler wanted the 1936 Berlin Olympics to be a coming out party for his Aryan Master Race.  Jesse Owens crashed the venue by winning four gold medals.

Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympic Long Jump

Owens then had to hustle to the long jump competition which also began at 10:30 AM.  Here he faced an athlete from Germany who was his first formidable foreign competition, a 22 year old German; Carl Ludwig “Luz” Long.  Long was the current German and European record holder, not quite Owens equal but certainly dangerous if Jesse should falter.  And, proving that he was human, Jesse did initially stumble during what should have been an easy qualification.  He was charged with his first of three jumps when he typically jogged on the runway and through the landing area just to get a feel for the surface.  This American warmup practice was unknown in Europe and despite even the head coach of the American track and field contingent getting into the face of the officials, the practice jump counted.  The incident seemed to rattle Owens, his second jump was only 23 feet, 3 inches, short of what he needed to qualify for the next round and more than three feet shorter than his own world record.

Avery Brundage, 1941

Conversely, and fortunately from Nazi Germany’s perspective, the head of the American Olympic Committee, Avery Brundage, was adamantly opposed to any interference in American Olympic participation due to politics.  Brundage, a wealthy and dictatorial administrator, once famously stated that the Olympic Games belong to the athletes and not to the politicians.  He officially travelled to Germany to assess the situation and after a series of carefully choreographed interactions with German officials, he was able to convince the IOC to agree to US participation.

Jesse Owens cottage used during 1936 Olympics today.

Although he was due to run in the finals of the 200 meters on Wednesday, August 5, Jesse Owens tried to throttle back some of the intensity of the previous 48 hours.  He was already the biggest celebrity of the Olympic games and despite his attempt to sleep late on Wednesday morning, his brick guest house swarmed with fans and even athletes crowding around the windows trying to get a glimpse of the American track star.

Jesse Owens publicity info for one of his clothing chain jobs

Jesse would have to hustle for the next few years to make a living with more barnstorming tours and various promotional gigs associated with black clothing stores and dry cleaning establishments.

With German Chancellor Willy Brandt at 1972 Olympics

1972 also brought another Olympics, this the ill-fated games at Munich which involved the terrorist murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes.  Despite this tragic event and in spite of some controversy over whether the games should continue they did and Jesse Owens got caught up in mediating another racially charged situation.

Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Mexico City protest, 1968.

Jesse Owens travelled to the 1968 Olympics as a guest of the Mexican government, a consultant to the US Olympic Committee and a radio commentator for the Mutual broadcasting network.  Although Owens must have been astonished when long jumper Bob Beamon broke the existing world record by almost two feet, much more impactful was a coordinated protest by two black track athletes, Tommy Smith and John Carlos.  Winning gold and bronze respectively, in the 200 meters, while on the victory podium the two athletes raised their black gloved fists during the playing of the American national anthem.  While the protest caused a media sensation that reverberated around the world, it prompted great anger from the US Olympic committee and especially Avery Brundage, still the President of the IOC.  Owens was sent to meet with a group of athletes to attempt to mitigate the situation and possibly extract a face-saving apology before the IOC punished anyone.  He failed miserably to even get any white participants to leave the meeting, the consensus that they supported Smith and Carlos more than he did.  Sadly, the lengthy session deteriorated into anger and recriminations.  The next day the IOC kicked Carlos and Smith out of the Olympic Village and suspended them from Olympic competition.  When questioned as to why it was acceptable for Germans to use the Nazi salute on the victory stand, but that Smith and Carlos’ behavior was unacceptable, Avery Brundage actually replied that the Nazi salute was the accepted national salute in the country in that time period.

Jerry Ford awarding the Medal of Freedom

Jesse Owens spent the next eight years doing what he had done for some time, public speaking.  By now, he would enthrall audiences with yarns about being personally snubbed by Hitler and the help he received from Luz Long and other tales, occasionally admitting to particularly determined journalists that these stories were embroidered so that “people got to hear what they wanted to hear and I got paid for telling them.”  He received an honorary degree from Ohio State, awards from the NCAA, induction into the track and field Hall of Fame, the Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford and the Living Legends Award from President Jimmy Carter, Owens now perceived as a national treasure without any partisan stigma.

Jesse Owens (Volume 5, Episode 1) Book and Music Information

The books used to compose this podcast included:

“Jesse Owens:  An American Life,” by William J. Baker.

Also: “Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics,” by Jeremy Schaap.

The music used in the intro for both episodes was, “Island Woke,” by Freedom Trail Studio.  The music for the outro of part one was, “Pouring Out,” by Asher Fulero.  The music for the outro of part two was, “Boreal,” also by Asher Fulero.