The Lantern: Celebrating 90 years of Jesse Owens' Olympic triumphs: sports broadcaster Gus Johnson reflects on Owens' legacy following SSI event
- #news
- #headline
Figure timeline
Jesse Owens
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete. He made history at the 1936 Olympic Games by winning four gold medals, setting individual Olympic records in each event, plus another as a member of the 400-meter relay. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in track and field history.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
business · American track and field athlete (1913–1980) · sprinter · athletics competitor · long jumper · entrepreneur · athlete · Olympic champion · also Jesse Owens, James Cleveland Owens, James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens, Owens
Born 12 September 1913 · Died 31 March 1980 · Q52651
103 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
9 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 19 entries
NBC4 WCMH-TV: First look at Illinois and honoring Jesse Owens | NBC4 Sports Extra (Sept. 23, 2026) - NBC4 WCMH-TV
- #news
- #headline
NBC4 WCMH-TV: Ohio State marks 90th anniversary of Jesse Owens’ triumph at Berlin 1936 Olympics - NBC4 WCMH-TV
- #news
- #headline
“I saw the finish line and knew that 10 seconds would climax the work of eight years. One mistake could ruin those eight years. So, why worry about Hitler?”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
- #corroborated
“A fellow desires something for himself.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #corroborated
WYSO Public Radio: Rare genetic copies of Jesse Owens' English oak tree are meant to preserve Olympian's legacy
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo: New Jesse Owens Museum display to be unveiled during 90th anniversary event
- #news
- #headline
WYSO Public Radio: A push to recognize a Cleveland house Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens called home
- #news
- #headline
Public attention spiked: 23,924 Wikipedia readers in one day, 20× the usual 1,194, with 3 article edits. Coverage that week: “Jesse Owens’ 1936 Olympic Gold Medal Triumph Cemented His Legacy 90 Years Ago Today” (AOL).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #attention
- #spike
- #pageviews
Public attention spiked: 23,924 Wikipedia readers in one day, 14.4× the usual 1,665, with 3 article edits. Coverage that week: “Daily Quiz | On Jesse Owens” (The Hindu).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #attention
- #spike
- #pageviews
AOL: Jesse Owens’ 1936 Olympic Gold Medal Triumph Cemented His Legacy 90 Years Ago Today
- #news
- #headline
The Hindu: Daily Quiz | On Jesse Owens
- #news
- #headline
The Columbus Dispatch: 90 years after Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens' family wants you to know rest of his story
- #news
- #headline
Columbus Dispatch: Jesse Owens' legacy, success live on 90 years after Berlin Olympics
- #news
- #headline
The Columbus Dispatch: A timeline of Jesse Owens' gold-medal legacy
- #news
- #headline
6abc Action News: Sprinter Jesse Owens' Olympic gold medal up for auction
- #news
- #headline
The Detroit News: Opinion: Jesse Owens and the measure of American greatness
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo! Sports: OHSAA renames track and field championships after Jesse Owens
- #news
- #headline
The Cincinnati Enquirer: OHSAA state track and field championships will bear Jesse Owens' name
- #news
- #headline
- #corroborated
2025· 2 entries
PBS: Jesse Owens: Chapter 1
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo: Jesse Owens clinic set to reopen in April
- #news
- #headline
- #corroborated
2024· 2 entries
A collaboration among the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation, and the Wanda Diamond League will recognize two exceptional emerging top-performing male and female athletes, aged 23 or under
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
A collaboration among the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation, and the Wanda Diamond League recognized two exceptional emerging top-performing male and female athletes, aged 23 or under
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2022· 1 entry
Another was planted beside the original tree at James Ford Rhodes High School
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
2017· 2 entries
Snopes.com rated the claim “A photograph shows Jesse Owens and Hitler shaking hands at the 1936 Olympics.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Snopes rated the claim “A photograph shows Jesse Owens and Hitler shaking hands at the 1936 Olympics.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
2014· 1 entry
Eric Brown, British fighter pilot and test pilot, aged 17 in 1936 and later becoming the Fleet Air Arm's most decorated pilot, stated in a BBC documentary: "I actually witnessed Hitler shaking hands with Jesse Owens and
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
2013· 1 entry
The Root: Jesse Owens’ Gold Medal Fetches Record Price
- #news
- #headline
2012· 2 entries
Awarded IAAF Hall of Fame (2012).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
- #corroborated
Summer Olympics opening ceremony, just after the Olympic cauldron had been lit
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
2007· 1 entry
“About Franklin D. Roosevelt, as quoted in Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics (2007), by Jeremy Schaap, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. 211”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
2005· 2 entries
“On the congratulations given by German athlete Lutz Long, a competitor in the long jump, who in some accounts he credited with giving him some friendly advice that helped him to win against him; as quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" by Larry Schwartz in ESPN SportsCentury (2005)”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
University of Central Florida professor of sports history Richard C
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1999· 2 entries
Was on the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Made the six-man short-list for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Century
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1990· 1 entry
“Quotations of Owens from Jesse Owens, Champion Athlete (1990) by Tony Gentry ISBN 0791083721”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
1980· 31 entries
With his wife and other family members at his bedside
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
Died 1980-03-31.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
- #corroborated
“I decided I wasn't going to come down. I was going to fly. I was going to stay up in the air forever.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn't ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
- #www.theguardian.com
“Mr. Hitler had to leave the stadium early, but after winning I hurried up to the radio booth. When I passed near the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me and I waved back at him.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us — that's where it's at.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“People say that it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals. There was no television, no big advertising, no endorsements then. Not for a black man, anyway.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“The Tampa Tribune (April 1, 1980)”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“US-amerikanischer Leichtathlet”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:de
- #corroborated
“Hitler no em va ofendre, va ser el nostre president qui em va ofendre. El president no em va enviar ni tan sols un telegrama.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:ca
- #corroborated
“Ho sempre amato correre: è un qualcosa che puoi fare contando soltanto su te stesso, sulla forza dei tuoi piedi e sul coraggio dei tuoi polmoni.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:it
- #corroborated
“Le amicizie nate sul campo durante le gare sono le vere medaglie d'oro in una competizione. I premi col tempo si consumano, mentre le amicizie non si ricoprono di polvere.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:it
- #corroborated
“(Original engl.: "When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany.")”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:de
- #corroborated
“Un'opportunità è tutto ciò di cui hai bisogno.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:it
- #corroborated
“Un'intera vita di allenamenti per soli 10 secondi.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:it
- #corroborated
“Una vida d'entrenament per només 10 segons.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:ca
- #corroborated
“It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Lutz Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. The sad part of the story is I never saw Long again. He was killed in World War II.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“Hitler didn't snub me; it was our president who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“I'm old now. It's all right.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“Joe Louis and I were the first modern national sports figures who were black... But neither of us could do national advertising because the South wouldn't buy it. That was the social stigma we lived under.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“We used to have a lot of fun. We never had any problems. We always ate. The fact that we didn't have steak? Who had steak?”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“On his wife, Minnie Ruth Solomon”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“It all goes so fast, and character makes the difference when it's close.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago... the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“On his final record-breaking leap in the long-jump competition.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“It dawned on me with blinding brightness. I realized: I had jumped into another rare kind of stratosphere — one that only a handful of people in every generation are lucky enough to know.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“We'd get into these little towns and tell 'em to get out the fastest guy in town and Jesse Owens would spot him ten yards and beat him.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“It's like having a pet dog for a long time. You get attached to it, and when it dies you miss it.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“On having his world records beaten”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“The black fist is a meaningless symbol. When you open it, you have nothing but fingers — weak, empty fingers. The only time the black fist has significance is when there's money inside. There's where the power lies.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
1976· 3 entries
Earned Silver Olympic Order (1976).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #medal
- #achievement
- #corroborated
Won Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by Gerald Ford (1976).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
- #corroborated
And the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously in 1990
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
1974· 1 entry
Awarded Theodore Roosevelt Award (1974).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
- #corroborated
1970· 2 entries
“I realized now that militancy in the best sense of the word was the only answer where the black man was concerned, that any black man who wasn't a militant in 1970 was either blind or a coward.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
“Als ich am Kanzler vorbeikam, stand er auf, winkte mir zu und ich winkte zurück. Ich denke, die Journalisten zeigten schlechten Geschmack, als sie den Mann der Stunde in Deutschland kritisierten." - über Adolf Hitler, The Jesse Owens Story, 1970”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:de
- #corroborated
1966· 1 entry
Was successfully prosecuted for tax evasion
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1965· 1 entry
Owens was hired by the New York Mets as a running instructor
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
1960· 4 entries
“In response to Armin Hary's comment, "You smoke? That's no good. No good!" at the 1960 Olympics in Rome; as quoted in Rome 1960 (2008) by David Maraniss.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
Owens continued his product endorsement work for such corporations as Quaker Oats, Sears and Roebuck, and Johnson & Johnson
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Owens continued his product endorsement work for corporations such as Quaker Oats, Sears and Roebuck, and Johnson & Johnson
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“Reported response to learning that his last remaining world record had been broken (31 December 1960); as quoted in Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988) compiled by James B. Simpson”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
1955· 2 entries
And sent him to India, the Philippines, and Malaya to promote physical exercise and American freedom and economic opportunity
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
And sent the world-renowned track star to India, the Philippines, and Malaya to promote physical exercise as well as tout the cause of American freedom and economic opportunity in the developing world
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1946· 1 entry
Owens collaborated with Abe Saperstein to establish the West Coast Negro Baseball League, where he served as Vice-President and owned the Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds franchise in Oregon
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
1942· 1 entry
Willis Ward—a friend and former competitor from the University of Michigan—who was then working at Ford Motor Company as Assistant Personnel Director, invited Owens to Detroit
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
1937· 1 entry
Briefly toured with a twelve-piece jazz band under contract with Consolidated Artists but found it unfulfilling
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
1936· 10 entries
Owens repeated this claim when he addressed an audience of African Americans at a Republican rally in Kansas City, remarking: "Hitler didn't snub me—it was our president who snubbed me
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
Nazi Germany's leader, Adolf Hitler, shook hands with the German victors only and then left the stadium
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, shook hands with the German victors only and left the stadium
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Awarded Associated Press Athlete of the Year (1936).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
- #corroborated
Owens and his US teammates sailed on the SS Manhattan to the Games
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Shattered the long jump world record once again with a remarkable jump of 26 feet, 8¼ inches
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Owens and his United States teammates sailed on the SS Manhattan and arrived in Germany to compete at the Summer Olympics in Berlin
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Jesse Owens Archived February 24, 2017, at the Wayback Machine – An American Experience Documentary
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
- #corroborated
“After I came home from the 1936 Olympics with my four medals, it became increasingly apparent that everyone was going to slap me on the back, want to shake my hand or have me up to their suite. But no one was going to offer me a job.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #lang:en
- #corroborated
Again shattered the long jump world record with a leap of 26 feet, 8¼ inches
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1935· 6 entries
NAACP Secretary Walter Francis White wrote a letter to Owens, but never sent it
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
And had two more daughters together: Marlene (1937), and Beverly (1940)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
And had two more daughters together: Marlene, born in 1937, and Beverly, born in 1940
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Owens won four events and established six world records in athletics at the Big Ten Championships
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The year before the Berlin Olympics, and this record stood for 25 years until it was broken in 1960 by countryman Ralph Boston
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The year before the Berlin Olympics, and this record stood until it was broken in 1960 by countryman Ralph Boston
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1933· 2 entries
After his father found employment, which ensured that the family could be supported
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
After his father found employment, which supported the family
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1913· 1 entry
Born 1913-09-12.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth
- #corroborated