I just happened to watch a This is Your Life from April of 1960. The life of Jesse Owens. Being from Ohio, and the brother of a track coach, and having met and often seen Dave Albritton, who was also an Olympian and the coach at Dunbar High School in Dayton, and a lifelong friend of Jesse, I had forgotten about this, perhaps one of the greatest 45 minutes in sports.
On May 25, 1935, in Ann Arbor Michigan, at the Big Ten Track and Field Championships, in 45 minutes, Jesse Owens set Four world records.
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.
And, his coach mentioned that he was in so much pain that his teammates had to help him dress, and literally
carried him off the field, not out of triumph, but out of necessity. At the start of the day, Owens didn't know if he could finish even one event. He had injured his lower back falling down the stairs five days earlier while roughhousing with his fraternity brothers and was still hurting as he warmed up. After debating with Ohio State track coach Larry Snyder on whether to compete, Owens decided to take it one event at a time.
To me, a sad note, he was given a heroes welcome ticker tap parade in New York, and then back to reality. Today, he would have emerged a millionaire plus.
