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The Buckeye Bullet: James Cleveland Owens

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The Buckeye Bullet “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 (BrainyQuotes).” Born James Cleveland Owens on September 12, 1913 in Oakville, Alabama. Owens was a son of a sharecropper and a grandson of slaves. Owens suffered as a child from many illnesses such as, chronic bronchial congestion and pneumonia. Throughout his life, James Cleveland Owens developed the nickname J.C. which he is what he kept as his nickname until he got to school. When he got to school, the professor was doing attendance and when he got to Owens and asked him what his name was, instead of hearing J.C. he heard Jesse because of his thick accent. J.C. …show more content…

“He was repeatedly put on academic probation by OSU which prevented him from being apart of some track and field evets during the season. In spring quarter at the university Jesse Owens had extremely poor grades, so bad that Ohio State did not let him compete in the winter indoor meet in 1936. In his junior year of college Owens brought up his grades sufficiently, which was enough for him to be able to participate in the regular outdoor season, but this was the last full academic year Jesse Owens attended. In the 1940s Jesse Owens returned to Ohio State University but was once again placed on academic probation. In December 1941, he withdrew from OSU and never got his degree (osu.edu).” Jesse Owens suffered greatly in his years of college which stood in the way of the growth he could have had during these years. Although he did not do good in college the little bit of time when he ran showed him good enough to move onto bigger better things. In one day, in the short time of forty-five minutes Jesse Owens made an everlasting name for himself. “In the first event, Jesse Owens ran down the track to win the one-hundred-yard dash in 9.4 seconds, tying the world record. In his first and what will be the only jump of the day he rocketed out twenty-six feet eight and one- quarters into the air, breaking the world record by just a little. When Jesse Owens ran the two hundred and twenty-yard dash he was off with the gun and streaked home almost fifth-teen yards ahead of the second man in 20.3 seconds, taking three-tenths of a second from the world record (bigten.org).” Despite minor set-backs in college Jesse Owens came back and defeated physical and mental battles to win big in the Big Ten Finals. Due to the short yet impactful forty-five minutes of Jesse Owens’ life he was known as the most famous track athlete of all time. Jesse Owens was such an amazing athlete that he was asked

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