ANN ARBOR, Mich. - His name was James Cleveland Owens, and everybody called him J.C. He was born in Alabama, but his family moved to the Cleveland area. there, a teacher asked him his name on the first day of school; because of his thick southern accent, she misheard "J.C." and wrote "Jesse" in the class roster. The name stuck.
To help keep his family afloat, he took various odd jobs in high school: delivering groceries, loading freight cars, fixing shoes. He joined the track team partially because his coach allowed him to practice in the morning to allow him to make it to his job in the afternoon. After setting a world record in the 100-yard dash in high school, he caught the attention of Ohio State University.
After his father found work, Owens was able to attend Ohio State, still working to pay his way because, as a black athlete, he couldn't get a scholarship. He also couldn't live with his white teammates or stay in the same hotels as them on the road. But he could run with them, and he did it better than anybody in the country.
On May 25, 1935, Owens had one of the most remarkable afternoons in athletic history. In the span of 45 minutes at the Big Ten Track Championships at Michigan, Owens set three world records and tied a fourth. He tied his own record in the 100-yard dash, then broke records in the 220-yard sprint, the 220-yard hurdles, and the long jump. His record in the long jump would last for 25 years.
Owens incredible day was a precursor to the 1936 Olympics, in which he stole the thunder from Hitler's Nazi Party. But even those games pale to his great day in Michigan, when one of the greatest American track stars got his start.
HONORABLE MENTION
May 25, 1935: PITTSBURGH - That same day, 280 miles away, another American legend had his last hurrah. In the middle of a painful season in which it was obvious he had nothing left, Babe Ruth was languishing on a Boston Braves team destined for last place. He was a sideshow, a gate attraction designed to help the moribund franchise get some money. On May 25, though, Babe Ruth had one more glorious moment in the sun, hitting three home runs, with his final one being the first ball to ever clear the Forbes Field roof. In a perfect world, that roof-clearing shot would have been his final at-bat, but Ruth stuck around for another week before hanging it up for good.
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