Black History Month Spotlight: Jesse Owens
02/06/2020
Black History Month is an annual celebration of the achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their role in U.S. history. This week we are commemorating Jesse Owens.
ORLANDO, Fla. - Black History Month is an annual celebration of the achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their role in U.S. history. This week we are commemorating Jesse Owens.
Jesse Owens brought home four gold medals for Team USA in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Owens, an AAU Alumni, specialized in sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history. His achievement of setting three world records and tying another in less than an hour at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan has been called the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport and has never been equaled.
Owens was quoted saying the secret behind his success was, "I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up." (TIME)
In December of 1979, Owens was diagnosed with an aggressive type of lung cancer, leading to his passing a year later with his wife and other family members at his bedside.
The AAU honored Owens, in 2017, as the inaugural recipient of the AAU Gussie Crawford Lifetime Achievement Award, in which he granddaughter, Gina Hemphill-Strachan, accepted on the family’s behalf.
The AAU Gussie Crawford Lifetime Achievement Award was established to honor Gussie Crawford, voted the first female president of AAU, as a trailblazer in amateur sports. The award is intended to recognize those athletes whose efforts, both on and off their playing surface on the national or international stage, have paved the way for great change in amateur sports.
The fourth recipient of this lifetime achievement award will be announced on March 23, 2020 at the Detroit Athletic Club in Detroit, Michigan.
Jesse Owens brought home four gold medals for Team USA in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Owens, an AAU Alumni, specialized in sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifetime as perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track and field history. His achievement of setting three world records and tying another in less than an hour at the 1935 Big Ten track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan has been called the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport and has never been equaled.
Owens was quoted saying the secret behind his success was, "I let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible. From the air, fast down, and from the ground, fast up." (TIME)
In December of 1979, Owens was diagnosed with an aggressive type of lung cancer, leading to his passing a year later with his wife and other family members at his bedside.
The AAU honored Owens, in 2017, as the inaugural recipient of the AAU Gussie Crawford Lifetime Achievement Award, in which he granddaughter, Gina Hemphill-Strachan, accepted on the family’s behalf.
The AAU Gussie Crawford Lifetime Achievement Award was established to honor Gussie Crawford, voted the first female president of AAU, as a trailblazer in amateur sports. The award is intended to recognize those athletes whose efforts, both on and off their playing surface on the national or international stage, have paved the way for great change in amateur sports.
The fourth recipient of this lifetime achievement award will be announced on March 23, 2020 at the Detroit Athletic Club in Detroit, Michigan.
Email
Print
