IPBN Presents Mary Jane Odell; Mjo 6; Jesse Owens

For the four years ago of course the tracks were different. Facility today is better. I think the performances are better but I don't think that the Youngs today have as much fun as we did in the days 44 years ago. Tonight Mary Jane's guest is the immortal Jesse Owens author public relations executive and remembered for the Summer Olympics of 1936 when he won an unprecedented four gold medals. JAMIE ODELL. At home in the USA in the 100 yard.

But he had no way of knowing. How do you feel you must have seen that a hundred times or maybe even a thousand. But do you enjoy it every time you see it. You know Mary Jane that's right nostalgic. You think in terms of almost two to two decades ago and the fun that we had the kind of competition you look at that youngsters today. I'm not a farmer. I like to go to a track meet but I don't have that. Yeah to get out there and never run again. I was wondering you know you're going to be parade marshal for the Drake Relays this year and I was wondering how you would feel when you see those young athletes getting all tensed up and

psyched up and you have to get in the right attitude and all you know do you have just a little feeling of oh I like to try that. That's like going before the judge. By the grace of God there go I. You competed for Ohio State right. Forty four years ago at the Drake Relays what in what events and how did you do then. Well we competed in the 100 meters we had a couple relays. I was in the long jump and those days we called it the broad jump. And we did well quite well for the time so I think that this was the first time that any American that ever jumped over 26 feet in that all happened here at the Drake Relays and I jumped 26 feet one quarter that day. But actually a gent about 27 didn't you because you started farther back. Well unfortunately you know measure that. So you have to think would you get that.

You wrote a book in 1972 called I have changed and I read it and I enjoyed it very very much. Was there a fact and you said in here that all of the books say that your best day was in Berlin at those Elim peaks but you say that your finest day was May 25th 1935 the Big Ten meet. Well that was it on Arbor Michigan you see but people don't realize too and sometimes we're misquoted. The Olympic Games was six days of competition. A 1935 that was my first Big Ten Conference meet I was a sophomore to a high state at the time. And it all happened in one day. You see you run all the events that you quality qualified in the day before which at that time I was running the hundred the 220 the 20 little hurdles and I was in the long jump to broad jump. And this was what I

did for high State University every weekend. So when you think in terms of the amount of time that we were able to break three world records entire forth in a single afternoon I would consider that the best day of my whole athletic career that was that was interesting to many ways because you had been training and I don't know how you did it but you hurt your back. You were in great pain and the coach said no you're not going to compete. And you said Oh yes yes yes I'll take care of myself. You really wanted that. And then you said I think very interesting thing he said you have to think about how you said. I cound we don't really count on. Come on. Well tomorrow isn't promised to. Yeah. And that is where life is today. You take the day and you take what is it had and you take that day that God gave you and then you work on that day because he doesn't

promise tomorrow to you. And my athletic career was pretty much the same way. Sure I wanted to compete and on that day yes I was in somewhat pain. I had heard it three weeks prior to the Big Ten Conference and there was a week of the conference before the conference meet began where I did nothing but jaw was in good condition at the time and I didn't want to do anything to re-engineer the injury that I had. But it's a funny thing Mary Jane about psychology. I can remember that day as if it was yesterday. And I tried and you know which is customary for you to warm up and I used a warmed up with a quarter mile and did about four or five minutes of calisthenics prior to loosening up for the first race that you were going to participate in. But unfortunately I couldn't run a hundred one hundred fifty yards.

Realizing that I couldn't do this I went and sat down by the flagpole and watched the people come in. And I can remember the coach coming over and saying to me that well hey let's don't do this. And I says Well I'll tell you I think you know that I couldn't leave and go out graciously. But I can remember so well when the command set was said and I came up to a set position and felt no pain. And then I was able to compete throughout that day. But a strange thing happened that when I ran my last event and was going to the dressing room. They had to carry me upstairs. Because the pain came back once again. So it was you know you you wonder sometimes under duress stress brain. There are so many people that perform such a

great deed that particular time. An interesting thing to me and something I had never thought of you said that there are essentially three things that make a very good sprinter. And you listed them. And the last one to get off to that quick start and you did it by watching the guy is the starter not hearing the gun but watching his eyes. Well you see sometimes if the starter. Is out there in front of the of course we were always taught at the very beginning when I was in junior high school and really I started my career when I was about 13 years old. I was always taught that you look down the track about 10 yards. Your point was that you would sit on the sidelines and waiting your turn to run your heat. And here was this

starter out there in the front. The idea was to sit there and listen to that starter because nine times out of 10 his cadence wouldn't change and you had a chance to you know to be able to. Count and to go with him. And you watched his movement. And when you got on that Mark you look down ten feet down that feel knowing that this man was never going to change. And you anticipated and nine times out of ten I was right. Yeah thing to me you were probably right ten times out of 10. How how did you first know when you first know that you were an exceptional. Athlete that you really could run faster and farther. Well I think it all started on the playgrounds of Cleveland Ohio really. So you had to vent. Yeah that's right where would you where could we go every

night. All the kids in the neighborhood would gather at this playground. The man that was director of that playground was also the junior high school coach and the school that we had to attend in that community. Fortunately for us he was a great individual. We had no fights on that playground. We would run these races night after night because we had no lights on the playground. And when darkness began to overtake you know the city the parents that lived in the area would come. And they would stand on the outside of the fence and watch their children run. And we were running in age groups and I was able to beat the youngsters in my age group and when I went to junior high school I think that perhaps the crowning. Thing was our coach brought to us a man at that time known as the world's fastest human being in the Olympic Games in Amsterdam Holland

had just finished this is back in 1988 and this man came to our school and he spoke to us. And then he told us about the people that he had met and the things that he had seen in the races that he had won run and lost and won and lost. I listen to that man that day and I became viewed with this person. I wanted to be like that man that day that man became my idol. I wanted to walk into his footsteps and France only for me I was asked to line up for the youngsters that wanted his autograph. And when the last youngster got his autograph I was invited into the coach's office and as the coach sat on the edge as the man sat on the edge of the coach's desk with one leg dangling down and I am was watching this man and he and the coach in deep conversation. I think that that was to change because when he left the coach wanted to know for me what did I think about him. Says coach he's a great man. I want to be me but I'd like to be known as the world's fastest human being.

And that was the beginning. And he gave me the ingredients he thought that was necessary for me to drink. And he taught me that day and I never forgot that. Everybody should have a dream a dream of where he wishes to go and what he must do in order to make that dream become a reality. Your. Parents Well your father was sharecropper now and that's right I think everybody knows. But then when you were in Cleveland and times were very very rough. And one of the things that. You talk about in your book. Is the fact that you had a Christmas tree but you didn't have it on Christmas Eve as most people did. And I would like to have you kind of relate that to us if you would because you said later that you don't think you could have survived psychologically without.

That training. Well you know it was a thought. You know when we first migrated from Alabama I was nine years old. And it was the first time in our lives that we had ever lived in a mixed community. It was the first time I had ever gone to a mixed school and they didn't know whether I could read or write. And then this was right after World War One. There was a horn of plenty in our family at the time because my older brothers and father was working. We had a house that didn't leak for the first time in our lives. And then in 1928 Of course the reverse came the bottom fell out and there was no hope for a lot of people. Christmas yes was the day that when we lived in Alabama never knowing what a Christmas tree was.

Christmas was an apple and annoying engineer cap. When you get up in the morning then we migrated to the big city to the urban area. People couldn't afford Christmas. But you take the remnants of what was left then you put it up. Being a deeply religious family my father being deacon in his church and Baptists at that time that was always the love of God. There was always love within the family. We believed in our God and we service tag and that Christmas tree that came later was the symbol by which we live. We didn't have it. We wouldn't be serving God. You said you thought that without that tree the four trees.

In addition to the four gold medals that you brought home from Berlin would not have meant as much to you. No because the tree was a great sound. And was important to us. Mr. Owens when you went to Berlin What what did you know and or believe about Hitler at that time. Imagine Hitler was not important at the time Hitler was not the thing we had heard. You see you've got to remember that youngsters in those days weren't as politically orientated as youngsters are today. There was no television. The modern newspapers weren't as modern as they are today. News did not travel as fast as it does today. So when we went there we had heard about the change and the government in Germany how her premise was mine especially I can only speak for me. It. Is that I

wanted to go to the Olympic Games. This was my dream. Now that the Olympic Games was there and I had made the team part of my dream had become a reality. Hitler was not the important thing to me. I was there to run against the unknown because we had no results. Of the 53 other nations of the world and the youngsters that they were sending which was their best to compete against the country's best we knew nothing about it. So I didn't have time to think about Hitler. My concern was that no competition and the quality that I was going to compete against. Well and it was. Very early on when very few people really understood what Hitler was all about. Oh yes. Yeah but they did have what some of the press characterized as their great white hope. A gentleman by the name of I don't

know how to pronounce his first name. Let's long long yes. Who was your prime competition I think in the long jump. Yeah. You know I'll tell you it was a great day. I think that that was the finest competition. That I have ever been in and the long jump I had lost along just once in my lifetime. Now here I am competing in the Olympic Games for the title that means so much to every person that can stand atop the victory stand and on that day he's able to look over the world because he's on top of the world and he can look down that competition was him with him proved to be more than just a competition. I was having trouble trying to qualify and here was a boy that already qualified. Barbara who was head of the country was preaching Aaron's supremacy.

Yeah. Our boy that was imbued with the thought that they were the master rates. And here I was trying to qualify it came help me in the qualification. Helped me remember my steps re measure on the takeoff board and all the way back. And that led to the qualification and that qualification led to the victory in the games itself. But you know something. The victory yes was important but I think that the thing that impressed me more than anything else. Yes I was happy because I was victorious. But as we got on with the victory stand and we started back to the area where we had put our sweat suit and on the way back I was stopped by a newspaper and a cameraman and a question was asked and a picture was taken.

In the meantime this boy let's long play second was on his way to the dressing room and I heard they picked up my sweatsuit threw it across my shoulder and took several quick steps and caught up with him. And as we went to round that oval to the dressing room the door of the dressing rooms he unconsciously placed his arms around my waist and I placed my arm on his shoulder. And as we came to each section of the stadium the people would run. And when we got to the dressing room the shadows of the dressing room 100000 people were standing and cheering and all proved to me that athletics and that kind of competition and the relationship can transcend all prejudice. That last moment it was a great moment for me. Did you keep track of what. Happened then. Well we corresponded for two and a half years

and then the war began. And then I heard no more from him. It was a year 1951 and I was sitting in a hotel in Hamburg Germany and a group of people came to visit. And then this group of people was a woman and a boy and the moment I laid eyes upon this lad I knew that this was the will. I then began to correspond with the book because this boy had only seen his father three times in his lifetime and I found out that day that he was killed in the desert with rubble school. And I said before I start corresponding with the book the year 1970 to develop pics in Munich Germany was where I met Izzat his mother. And the grandmother blitz mom and the grandmother of guy.

His son was named very good looking boy much taller than his dad but had the same ingredients the looks and yet still the friend in this that is Father Kerry. That's coming pretty full circle. Yes it is. It certainly is. After you came back from the Olympics you said with my four medals you said it became apparent that everybody was going to slap me on the back to shake my hand and bite me after this week. But. No one was going to offer me a job. Those were rough times. Well you've got to remember the social structure of America. I very seldom say this. I very seldom let it linger in my heart simply because I feel that there comes a time. And there was going to come a time when a great change was going to take place. Yes I came back to America hailed as a hero. The ticker tape parades in many

cities New York City my home town of Cleveland Ohio and wherever I went for 10 days and after those 10 days then you were regulated to the back of the bus. You could not eat in first class restaurants you could not stay in first class hotels but yet still you want America. And yet and still you are a hero. But the social structures of America remain there in those days. Blacks in America got two things that they could look to. They had two images that they could relate to. That was to me one of the greatest fighters of both times Joe lives and I came along and they had two that they could look to and could talk about. And Joe and I used to sit and talk about the conditions. And

Ive always felt the deeds were mighty important. The greater the deed the more they had to write about you. And the less they had to say about the things that that were detrimental to it they had to talk. And then you were able to talk to many more people you were able to express some ideas of your own. Then as you went along and deeds began to pile up Joe Lewis became a household word in America. Things began to change. In 1945 the great door of opportunity came and thats when Jackie Robinson got into baseball. And then that door began to crack. And because of what it could do to a community and to people and the things that it could do financially. Then the door was open for more to come.

When you first came back you you needed money for your cousin your family and you and you for a while were maintenance man in charge of a children's playground. That's right. Now that would seem incredible. I mean let's face it you were not living a life of Bruce Jenner when he came back. Right well first place I'm not the color of Bruce Jenner. And the next place the conditions of our country certainly is not as of affluent as it is today. I just don't have any animosity or hard feelings toward any youngster that have come out of the games or has created a great accomplishment and is being rewarded for that great accomplishment because he has the talent to be rewarded by and for. We had it but the opportunities weren't there. I think some people may not remember that there were negro Martine. Yes that's a

page big name. Yes Josh Gibson you played for a while. I didn't play didn't you play. I didn't play but I own the team. I see Iran exhibition with teams and what do you mean man exhibition. Well we had. Where was I to go to make any money. There was no radio there was no television. Blacks could not do advertising. If you did the South wouldn't buy the product. Even people in the north wouldn't buy the product. So therefore you had to turn to the things that you could do best and that was to run. And we used to run against human beings giving him 10 yards and this is an exhibition. How many times we have run against horses to draw people. We've played basketball health clinics at half times which later became and through the development of the double headers and basketball

you had to travel a lot you had to do a lot in order to meet and to and attain a lot of people and so therefore it became. Well I don't regret it simply because it gave me a greater insight on what it meant. At the Lennox is fun and I feel that everyone should take part in some form of recreation another. But if one is so fortunate. To be able to be the best in the world and his event. You gotta think that it's going to be done again. Mr. Owens we only have about a minute left and I want to ask you about one other thing this but in one way you've changed in many ways but in one way you say you have not changed quote each day in some way or other I've got to stay the world's fastest human unquote. And then you said how can a man like me ever prepare for being old. As long as you are dealing with

people day after day the greatest resource that America is the young peoples of this land in which we live. And as long as you're able to do something with them day after day you can prepare in a way that you can become more but gracious. I would say in your case you will never. Be old. Thank you very much. Jesse thank you much. My marriage you know down to nothing.