WML Project: Jesse Owens

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8/14/60 Jesse Owens. Cerf asks him if he’ll be in the upcoming Olympics and when he says “no”, the whole panel gets on the wrong track. Jesse comes on at 19:00. The first guest was Jesse’s track coach at Ohio State in the 30’s, (and still had the job until 1965). By the way, we didn’t “kill” the Russians at the 1960 Olympics. In fact, it was a considerable disappointment for the US team, who gained 71 medals to 103 for the USSR. The second guest, hammer thrower Albert Hall finished 14th. The man who appears at the end, Don Bragg did win the pole vault and then did the Tarzan yell on the podium because it had always been his ambition to play Tarzan in the movies. But his chance to do that ended when be sustained an injury and he had to be replaced.


In the recent film "Race", (whichw as excellent), Coach Snyder was played by Jason Sudeikis.

 

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The trailer for "Race":

 

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Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin:


This classic documentary was done in 1968. It correctly reports the true story of the "snub" by Hitler. It was actually high jumper Cornelius Johnson, who was also black. The IOC told Hitler that he had to congratulate all the winners, not just some of them and he decided to congratulate none of them. In effect, this was a snub of Owens because Hitler undoubtedly made the decision so he would not have to shake the hands on non-"Atran" athletes. Unfortunately, the story of Marty Glickman's and Sam Stoller's exclusion from the 400 meter relay is not told here. You can see from the race that the American team won without serious competition, so there was no need to replace them.

Track coaches used to judge their runner's form by examining the track after they ran. The more their spikes disturbed the track, the less efficient their movements ahd been. The holes left by Jesse's spikes were smooth and no wider than the spikes. It was as if someone had used a drill to make them.