Here, Owens earned the nickname that would stick with him the rest of his life: One of his instructors, unable to decipher his thick southern accent, believed the young athlete said his name was "Jesse," when he, in fact, had said "J.C." Rising Track and Field StarĪt East Technical High School, Owens quickly made a name for himself as a nationally recognized sprinter, setting records in the 100 and 200-yard dashes as well as the long jump. Gone was the one-room schoolhouse he'd attended in Alabama, replaced by a bigger setting with stricter teachers. School proved to be one of the bigger changes. Still, he was expected to work, and at the young age of seven he was picking up to 100 pounds of cotton a day to help his family put food on the table.Īt the age of nine, Owens moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where the young "J.C." discovered a world far different than the slower, Southern life he'd known. The son of a sharecropper and the grandson of enslaved people, Owens was a frail child who was often sick from battles with chronic bronchial congestion and pneumonia. Owens was born James Cleveland Owens on September 12, 1913, in Oakville, Alabama. Two years later, while competing for Ohio State University, he equaled one world record and broke three others before qualifying and competing in the 1936 Olympics. Owens’ athletic career began in high school when he won three track and field events at the 1933 National Interscholastic Championships. Jesse Owens, also known as "The Buckeye Bullet," was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals and broke two world records at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
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