February 2, 2001 The Given Tree and editorial
Liz Christopher, Lantern sports writer
Aug. 4, 1936
Owens to Send Olympic Oaks to Favorite Schools in U.S.
Junior High Schools will be Presented Trophies.
The New York Times (AP)
(AP) Berlin, Aug. 4, 1936- Grounds keepers in three Ohio schools might as well look around for handy spots to plant some oak trees this fall- genuine Olympic oaks, presented with the compliment of Ohio's speediest son. Jesse Owens. One is going to the jonior high school in Cleveland, where Jesse Owens first found he had lightening in his legs. Another is bound for his Cleveland High School. Third at O.S.U. The third is destined to thrive in the big shady oval campus of Ohio State university, where he now goes to school when he isn't breaking records. One tree is already packed, ready for shipping, a reward for his victory in the Olympic 100 meters final. Owens confidently expected to collect the second today after the broad jump is finished and run up a couple of installments on the third in the 200 meters event. None of the 200,000 persons who have watched him perform in the last two days, however, would accuse him of over-confidence. He simply knows what he can do. "That's a grand feeling standing up there before all those people with the band playing the 'Star Spangled Banner' and everybody cheering. "I never felt like that before. I loved it and I'm going to stand up there two more times." Helen by Herself Two record-breaking performances in her first appearance on the heavy stadium track left Helen Stephens of Fulton, MO., in a class by herself in the 100 meters event. Stella Walsh appeared as the lone possibility to make Helen Hustle to win the first of several Olympic crowns she has in mind. While pleased with the fact their runners won first place in all three heats in the 800 meters run, the American camp was going slow on predictions about winning today's final. The general impression was that both Mario Lanzi of Italy, and Wladyslaw Kucharski of Poland, took things pretty easy in the preliminaries and kept plenty of reserve. "Both Woodruff (John Woodruff, Pitt freshman) and Hornbostel (Chuck Hornbostel, Evansville, Ind.) are going to have their hands full beating them," predicted Brutus Hamilton, the California coach.
August 6, 1936 Jesse and His Oaks
Ohio State Journal Editorial pg4 col 1
JESSE OWENS is Ohio's model of speed, and one naturally associates him with the winged Mercury. But Jesse has decided to plant on his native heath some oak trees and the oak is an example of standing in one place, growing broad and tall.. and displaying steadfastness and stamina. But Jesse's Olympic oaks will be very welcomed at his junior and senior high schools in Cleveland and on the campus of Ohio State University. They will remind future generations of the winning abilities of this Olympic victor. And the oak trees, if they get a good start, will live for many generations, so that when Jesse has finished out his life span, be it ever so long, the graceful trees will keep on growing, supplying shade and giving forth new trees as their progeny.
Jesse has shown good sense in sending over trees (from Germany) not some doodads or flummiddidles that would be valuable only for looking at and for temporary decorations.
pg4 col 1 October 6, 1936 Jesse Says He'll Be Back In January
Columbus Citizens Journal
Jesse Owens was in town yesterday and he definitely stated that he'll return to Ohio State in January. Meanwhile, he'll be politician and movie actor. During the last two weeks he has spoken in 11 towns to a total of 100,000 or more people as a speaker sponsored by the Republican National Committee. New Haven, Boston, Stanford, Buffalo, Providence, Harrisburg, Niagara Falls, and Columbus were on his itinerary. He saw the West Virginia-Pitt game Saturday and was impressed with Panther power. Jesse is accompanied by his wife and Robert Leftridge, assistant to the director of Colored Voters Section, Republican National Committee. Jesse will make two movies for Fox before returning to school. One will be an all-colored cast in which he becomes a great detective. The other he's not sure about, except that it will be dignified.
October 6, 1936 Jesse Owens Lauds Landon
Ohio State Journal Editorial
Won to His Side After Interview, He Tells Huge Republican Rally
Declaring that every Negro youth" has the right to think," Jesse Owens said last night at a huge Republican political rally in the Ogden Theater, 771 E. Long St., that he has thought over the current political campaign and has chosen Governor Alf M. Landon as the better candidate. After a half-hour talk with Landon, the famous Ohio State track star said he had concluded: "Alf Landon is a very fine man, and an interesting person. I promised that when he became president, I would go down to the White House and go horseback riding with him." While discussing the Ohio Campaign, Owens said: "In our own state we need Bricker as governor and grant P. Ward in Congress just as bad as the nation needs Landon in the White House." Owens also described the 100 meter dash, one of the four events he won in the Olympics. At the meeting last night he was accompanied by his wife and Dave Albritton, another Ohio State track star who went to the Olympics. COMMITTEEMEN SPEAK Jesse referred to his wife as "his inspiration," and she said she had appointed herself his personal secretary and treasurer. Harry W. Howard, Washington, D.C., only colored member on the Republican national committee, who is to accompany Owes on his tour, made one of the most forceful speeches of the evening declaring the republican part is the only party which has the interests of the Negroes at heart. State and county Republican candidates were introduced by Ray M. Hughes, colored candidate for representative, who was chairman of the meeting. CROWD OVERFLOWS The theater was filled with listeners, who responded vociferously, and a loudspeaker was used to carry the speeches to the crowds on the sidewalk outside, The Republican Men's Glee Club, the republican Women's Glee Club, the Colored Women's Glee Club, and the Hoffman-for-Auditor male quartet sang. The colored glee club sang: "Jesse Owens is all right. He's a republican tried and true. G. O. P. through and through." A parade through East Side streets, headed by a band, preceded the rally.
November 21, 1936 Jesse Owens Becomes Pro
Ohio State Journal Editorial
Cleveland, November 20, 1936. -(AP)- Eager to capitalize his brilliant Olympic triumphs, Jesse Owens, former Ohio State University track sensation, said today he had definitely turned professional. "I've given up all ideas of running amateur again," said the internationally famed Negro holder or co-holder of ten world's records. "The movie and radio offers I've received are to tempting to throw to one side." Owens then said he had earned about $50,000 since his return from Germany, where he won three individual events and figured in the American team's relay victory. He declined to discuss his earnings in detail. Furthermore, Owens announced he had abandoned plans to return to school this year to fulfill requirements for a degree. "If I go Back at all," he said, "it probably will be next year, and then just to get my degree." Attired in the nattiest Broadway style, Owens returned from New York in a flashy new automobile. He recently completed work on a motion picture with an all-Negro cast. "I'm going to Hollywood in about ten days to work on a picture there," Owens said.
November 21, 1936 Owens Won't Return
Columbus Citizens Journal
CLEVELAND, O., Nov 1, 1936. -(U.P.) -Jesse Owens, Hero of the 1936 Olympic games, answered the pertinent questions regarding his future here today. The sprint and broad jump record holder said he never expected to run as an amateur again and he would not return to his studies at Ohio State in January as previously announced. Movie and radio offers were advanced by Owens as responsible for his decision.
April 1, 1937 Swing It Mr. Owens!
Ohio State Lantern
Scarlet Track Great Crooner, Too, He Revels On Visit To Pal Larry Snyder And Campus April 1, 1937-By Lou Goldberg J. C. Owens, commonly Known as Jesse, was back Wednesday afternoon on the campus whose name he brought to far corners of the earth. Wearing his widest grin, Jesse informed us all in one breath that he was in town with his swing band to play an engagement the same evening at the Pythian Hall and that he never felt better and where was Larry? Larry of course, is track Coach Larry Snyder and so Jesse, a fraternity brother, and your reporter moved to the athletic office. It took quite some time to get up the stairs from the walk in front of the gym to the office. First we met Ken Seitz, Varsity hurdler, and he said hello. Tony Aquila exchanged a few words in his best English. Along Came Snyder At the athletics office, Jesse had just finished admiring the Varsity "O" blanket awaiting his when Snyder arrived. He whizzed in all smiles, pumped by Jesse's hand up and down, stood back and announced, "Jesse, you look fat." And Owens does look stouter, although he has lost weight. Did he feel any longing for the cinder paths now that spring was coming on? "Not much," he grinned. "When you're working every night you haven't got time for much else." Yep, Jesse leads the band. What's more. Every once in a while he steps up to the mike and croons!
April 22, 1939 J. C. Owens
Writer Rhussus L. Perry, Macon County Library of Congress, Manucscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940
Writer Rhussus L. Perry, reported April 22, 1939 Jesse's father saying, about his son's name: "I tell them, his name is just J.C., not John Cleveland Owens or Jesse Owens, just the plain letters J.C. When my boy went to grade school, they began calling him Jesse and it stuck. Later, they gave him the name of John Cleveland. Its wrong when J.C. is all I named him."
He told his interviewers that when he was a boy he could outrun all his playmates down in dixie himself.
Oct, 8, 1940 Jesse Owens, Once Buckeye Bullet, Returns for Degree
Ohio State Lantern
Oct. 8, 1940-Jesse Owens, the one-time Ohio State track great who took his career into his own hands four years ago, is back in the university seeking what he terms the most essential thing in the world today-a degree. "It's all up to me now," related Owens, who is completing his senior year in industrial arts. 'My collegiate track days were over four years ago," he said. Asked if he was sorry that he turned professional, the star dash man said, " I'm not sorry about anything I have ever done. It's true that I lost a lot of money on enterprises and investments, but I can't cry about them now. Everyone has to face the same problem at one time in his life." Olympic Records Owens wore his last pair of track shoes for Ohio State in the spring of 1936 after three years of service with the local thinclads. In August of the same year he went to Berlin where he participated in the Olympic games. There he won and shattered records in the 100 and 200 meter dash, the broad jump and ran on the winning United States 400 meters relay team. After the Olympics he returned home and turned professional. He spent the next few years making a personal appearance tour of the states. "I traveled through every state in the union and gave exhibitions and lectures in every principal city," Owens said. Jesse also supported basketball, baseball, and softball teams which bore his name. The famous Negro sprinter's high school and college records are still untouched. Owens, who attributes his success to his junior high school track coach, "Charlie" Riley, made his last personal appearance in Brooklyn a month ago where he ran the 100 yard dash and the 120 yard low hurdles.
March 3, 1976 Jesse Owens Talks of the Past San Francisco Chronicle, By Darrell Wilson
At the age of 13, Jesse Owens moved with his family form the Alabama fields to Cleveland, a city which was considerably more hostile to blacks than it is now. Monday night, he received his interviewer in the Presidential Suite of the Sheraton-Palace hotel. The intervening years, however, have been rough on this proud and dignified man. One week after winning an unprecedented four track and field gold medals in Germany's 1936 Olympics, he was suspended by the AAU for failing to compete in Sweden. ("If I'd known the AAU had committed me I would have gone to Sweden, tired as I was," said Owens.) He was a national celebrity from the time he clocked 9.4 in a high school meet. Still, he and black Ohio State teammate Dave Albritton remained in the bus during mid-western road trips, waiting for teammates to bring them sandwiches. After graduating from Ohio State, he raced against horses at county fairs and gave sprinting and hurdling exhibitions during Globetrotter basketball intermissions. A black man scrounging for a buck in hard times. As a representative of the U.S. Olympic committee in 1968 he was accused by Harry Edwards and Hal Connolly, former hammer gold medallist, of being an Uncle Tom. Owens' crime: An attempt to persuade Tommie Smith and John Carlos from giving the black-gloved salute on the victory stand, an act which handicapped their careers. "What," asked Jesse, "had Edwards done for his people after getting his doctorate? And Connolly didn't even belong in the meeting; he doesn't know what it is like to be black. I told Tommie and John to make their demonstrations in their own country, why do it in Mexico?' And what has Owens done, for the benefit of both blacks and whites? He is currently in San Francisco, in cooperation with Sears Roebuck, promoting the sale of seven drawings which depict great moments in Olympic history.The pictures sell for $5 each or $25 for the set of seven, and the proceeds will go to help outfit the U.S. team in it's struggle against the government-financed Communist countries. He is also making TV pitches for the sale of Olympic coins. The U.S. Olympic committee receives three cents for the sale of each coin, and $700,000 has already been earned. And in conjunction with the Atlantic Richfeild Co., he annually promotes the Junior Olympics for blacks and whites 10 to 14. The 12th version will be held this year and the competitors have numbered in many millions. One of them, Dave Wottle went on to win the 800-meter gold medal at Munich in 1972. One of the seven Olympic drawings depicts Germany's Lutz Long, the long jump silver medallist, along side Owens on the victory stand. This was the Olympics in which Adolph Hitler was supposed to have snubbed Owens. "If that happened, I wasn't even aware of it," said Owens. "But I remember how much Long helped me." Jesse's world long jump record of 26-83/4 stood for 25 years but on that 1936 day he wound up with only one chance, after fouling, to make the qualifying distance of 23-6. "Long helped me measure my steps, put down his sweater as a marker for me and did everything to help me qualify," recalled Owens. Owens won the finals at 26-5-5/16ths Long cost himself a gold medal by helping Owens.
"Lutz was a great friend," said Owens, "and we corresponded until he was killed with Rommel's army in Africa."
August 8, 1978 page 5 Campus Trees Rooted in History
Ohio State Lantern, by: Frank Tsacrios
Hiding behind their shades are a few celebrities on campus that lead a private life in the midst of student traffic. Unlike their celluloid counterparts, these celebrities have never appeared on the silver screen. Yet, they catch the public eye in a daily aesthetic performance.Robed in bark and crowned with green leaves, these distinguished characters are the Jesse Owens Oak, Logan Elm and Hardy Rubber, a group of historically unique trees which modestly blend with the everyday oaks and elms at Ohio State. The Jesse Owens Oak, located about 40 feet south of the Main Library's south entrance is a white oak brought to OSU from Germany by gold medalist, Jesse Owens, following the controversial 1936 Olympic games.Owens, one of the American black athletes publicly criticized by Adolf Hitler as being racially inferior won the 100- and 200-meter races, broadjump and was a member of the victorious 400-meter relay team.The oak is not marked by a placard, and during construction of the Main Library addition, suffered slight abuse until it's history was brought to the proper authorities. Marti Jansen, horticulture instructor said. On the other hand the Logan Elm, located at the southeast corner of Sullivant Hall, is marked by a placard. But the inscription reveals nothing about the tree's historical significance. The marker notes that this seedling of the original Logan Elm was planted by the chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1931 in memory of George Washington, but does not inform the trees visitor that James John Logan, a Cayuga Indian known to his tribe as TAH-GAH-JUTE, once signed a treaty with white settlers of the Ohio Valley under the shade of the famous elm.Moreover, the placard ignores Logan's association with Mohawk auxiliaries of the British during the American Revolution. Logan achieved renown among many Indian tribes originally because of his friendship with white settlers. However his attitide changed in 1774 when his family was brutally killed by a frontier trader. This incident prompted the Indian leader to declare war on the whites. Until his death in 1780, Logan pursued his vendetta, taking more than 30 white scalps. The third horticultural hall-of-famer on campus is the Hardy Rubber tree, which enlisted in attempt to assist the American cause in World War II. This grey barked tree with shiny leaves, located near the south entrance to the Administration Building, is one of the vast number of Hardy Rubber trees imported from various countries during the war. The United States hoped that the tree could be used as a substitute for the true Rubber tree in the production of airplane tires. The plan was not successful, and the trees remained grounded in American soil.
May 4, 1998 Owens' daughters pleased with finale
Ohio State Lantern, Beth Verhoff Lantern sports writer
Two of Jesse Owens' daughters are disappointed to see the tradition of track in Ohio Stadium end. "It's sad to say good-bye to a time that has come and gone," Marlene Owens Rankin said. "But we look forward to the new stadium and the new track and seeing new aspiring athletes on that track. We hope to see some that will equal his records and break them." Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, still holds Ohio State's record in the 100-meter dash and the long jump. Because of renovations to Ohio Stadium, the track is being removed, and a new track stadium is being built where the old baseball diamond is located. "He (Jesse Owens) did run in that stadium," said Marlene Owens Rankin. "And while the composition of the track has changed, the track has not really changed. Things change and they have to, but it's always kind of nostalgic or bittersweet to say goodbye to what was and move on to the new." Rankin and her sister, Beverly Owens Prather, said they are not involved in the planning of the new track stadium. They hope to see the plans eventually, but say they trust the athletic department to build a great stadium. "We do know that the track is going to be a wonderful track," Rankin said. "It will be a state of the art track. And we know that Russ(Rogers) is happy with the track, and if he is happy with it then we are happy with it." "It shows that they care about what he did for Ohio State and what he's done for mankind," Prather said. "It's really quite an honor to have that bestowed upon the family." Other than attending the Classic each year, Rankin said the family tries to keep up with athletes on the team. "We do know many of the athletes," Rankin said. "Those who go on to run in the Olympics or something we get to know quite well. We try to keep up with who's doing what." Ruth Owens, Jesse's wife, was not able to attend the 14th annual meet Sunday. "She celebrated her 83 birthday last week," Rankin said. "She's doing this less and less and my sisters and I are traveling more and more."
December 3, 1999 Owens runs from OSU into the history books
Ohio State Lantern, Michael Callahan and Todd Harrell Lantern staff writers
As an Ohio State student, Jesse Owens captured four gold medals and the conscience of America when he defeated German dictator Adolf Hitler and his Nazi propaganda machine at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. A few weeks later, when Owens returned to the university that he had helped bring world acclaim to, he was still not allowed to live on campus because of his skin color. That was Jesse Owens’ life — superior athletic accomplishment amid racism and hardship. “He was a great humanitarian and a great man,” said former Columbus sports writer Jimmy Crum. “He was a proud man who was proud of his race.” He was also a man who had to fight for everything he got. James Cleveland Owens was born on Sept. 12, 1913 in Oakville, Ala., as the last of his sharecropping parents’ nine children. His family moved north to Cleveland to avoid a pneumonia epidemic which had already claimed a brother and sister. “My parents knew we had to leave if we were to survive,” Owens told reporters years before. Life was not easy for black people in early 20th century America, but Owens came to OSU despite a policy at the time to not give track scholarships. Owens began his legacy as a track star on May 25, 1935, a day labeled as “The Greatest Single Day Ever in Track History.” On this date, Owens broke three world records and tied a fourth. The infamous 1936 Olympic games took place the following year. Owens’ life would never be the same. He captured four gold medals in a four-day period; 100- and 200-meter dashes, long jump competition and 400-meter relay team.
March 2000 Tracking a Tree
Is Jesse Owens' fabled Olympic tree alive and well on campus? By Jeff Nielsen, Ohio State Alumni Magazine
He found the suspect near the library. A tall fellow with long arms and a rough exterior, an exact match to the mental picture the investigator had created of his quarry. Right height, right age, right . . . everything.
But not enough for a conviction.
There wasn't enough hard evidence. Records had been lost, key witnesses had died, and memories had faded over the years. Modern investigative methods were about all that remained. "I'm really hoping that DNA testing will come up with something," said John Nagy, who has been on the case for 20 years. "Without that, you really can't say for sure. "But considering the facts about the tree, you can't say it's not the one." Nagy's suspect is a rough-trunked, big-leafed English oak on the south side of the Main Library on the Ohio State campus. Nagy sees it as more than just a tree. To him, it is one of Jesse Owens' Olympic trees.
It was back when he was a student at Ohio State that Nagy began searching for the location of the tree the world-famous track star said he had planted at his alma mater. Later, as a horticulturist at the university, Nagy received calls from people wondering about the tree. Two decades later, he is still on the trail. "I've spent hundreds of hours on this," said Nagy, now a graphic designer for Ohio State's biomedical communications media group. "It's kind of a hobby of mine."
Few people have heard of the Olympic trees, but that doesn't lessen their historical value. The trees are forever linked to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, one of the most significant athletic events ever. German leader Adolf Hitler had wanted to use the Games as a showcase for Aryan supremacy, but Owens dashed those plans.
In one of the most dominating performances in Olympic history, Owens won four gold medals, smashed three Olympic records, and altogether embarrassed Hitler's "supermen."
The German people presented each gold medal winner with a potted oak sapling. Owens, because of his performance in the broad jump and the 100- and 200-meter races, received three of the tiny trees. A fourth was awarded to his four-man, 400-meter relay team.
The Germans hoped the trees would grow to create long-lasting tributes to the athletes' performances. A German editorial cartoonist even drew a picture of Owens, with white whiskers and a cane, sitting beneath his mighty oaks 50 years later.
That vision wasn't to be. Of the estimated 24 trees the American team received, as few as four are alive today. Some didn't make it out of Europe, and some didn't survive a Department of Agriculture quarantine imposed after they were brought into the U.S.
Things didn't get much easier for the trees that lived to be planted. The saplings had picked up the nickname of "Hitler trees." Anti-Nazi sentiment caused many recipients to remove the identifying plaques and markers from their trees during World War II so they wouldn't be vandalized.
"That's sad, because the trees were a gift from the German people and something they were proud of," Nagy said. "Hitler didn't even touch the trees."
Without identification, obscurity followed, even for the trees given to the Games' greatest athlete.
It wasn't until the 1964 release of the documentary Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin that people began to seek out the trees again. Two more decades passed before anyone started to document where those trees were. By then, it was too late to make a complete count.
"There may be some or many more trees that haven't been found and chronicled yet," said James Ross Constandt, whose book The 1936 Olympic Oaks: Where Are They Now? details what is known about the trees.
Some say Owens brought home four trees from the Games. Others say he brought three, with the fourth going to an Olympic teammate. And depending on which account you believe, Owens' three or four trees could be planted in any of eight places.
Beginning in the mid-1980s, several Olympic historians tried to account for all the trees. Their efforts came too late to provide an accurate picture of the whereabouts of Jesse Owens' trees. Owens, who attended Ohio State from 1933 to 1936 and received an honorary doctorate in 1972, died Mar. 31, 1980.
One version of what happened to Owens' trees is as follows:
1. The first tree Owens proudly planted in the backyard of his mother's home in Cleveland. He had purchased the house for her with the financial windfall that came with his Olympic performance. After his mother's death in 1940, the house was sold and the tree forgotten. When history buffs sought it out in 1964, they found a tree on death row. The house had fallen into disrepair and needed to be torn down. The tree, planted close to the house and more than 30 feet tall, couldn't be relocated. It died when the wrecking crane came.
2. The second tree was planted at East Tech High School in Cleveland, where Owens attended. That tree never grew to maturity.
3. The third tree was planted on the grounds of James Ford Rhodes High School in Cleveland, near the track where Owens practiced. It still lives.
4. The fourth tree was given to the winning 4 x 100-meter relay team. Owens, Ralph Metcalf, Frank Wykoff, and Foy Draper competed on the team.
The team voted on who should take the tree home, and Draper won the vote. Draper later lost his life in World War II, and the tree, which still lives, was planted on the campus of the University of Southern California in his memory.
There may be one more tree to account for. Owens, because of his stature, may have been given a tree of his own for the relay win. No records were kept by the U.S. team about how many trees were received, or where they were planted.
It also is possible that Owens was given a fourth tree by one of his Olympic teammates. For many, the thought of lugging a tree around Europe during the post-Games tour wasn't inviting.
"At the time, the trees were insignificant to some of the athletes. They got the gold medals and that's what they wanted," Constandt said. "Some of these trees were simply discarded.
" While Owens may have officially received only three trees, he went on record as having four planted in his honor after the Olympic Games.
In the documentary Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin, Owens says: "And what about the oak trees that were given to me to plant? One, I gave to the Rhodes High School in Cleveland, Ohio, the city where I spent my youth. One has flourished in the backyard of my mother's home in Cleveland. And one still stands among the cherished mementos on All-American Row at Ohio State University, where I spent my college days. And the fourth one? The fourth one unfortunately has died."
Some feel that Owens may have exaggerated the number of trees he received. Biographer William J. Baker, a sports history professor at the University of Maine, said it wouldn't have been unlike Owens to do so.
"Jesse said what he thought people wanted to hear," Baker said. "Later in life, he was making speeches, dramatizing his life to make it as attractive as possible. That often meant embellishing the truth in ways that would not stand up to further scrutiny."
Even Baker, who has spent countless hours researching Owens, doesn't know if the tree supposedly planted on the Ohio State campus is such an embellishment.
"I can't speak to whether or not there is a tree at Ohio State," Baker said. "I do not have the smoking gun, you could say, because I don't have any precise documentation that a tree was actually planted there."
Regardless of how many trees Owens received, he always maintained that one was destined for Ohio State. During and after the 1936 Olympic Games, reporters repeatedly questioned Owens about the trees. Each time, he answered that one would be planted on campus.
Columbus Dispatch columnist Bill McKinnon suggested that Owens plant the tree in the All-American Buckeye Grove, where Ohio State football greats and other athletes had trees planted for them.
No records, photographs, or newspaper articles regarding the tree's planting at Ohio State have been uncovered. Many think the lack of evidence chops right through Nagy's premise.
"There is no reference to Jesse Owens' planting a tree anywhere on campus," said Raimund Goerler, an associate professor in University Archives. "You're trying to tell me that the university, even in the 1930s, wasn't conscious enough to have a ceremony to plant that tree?"
And while it would have been easy for Owens to plant the tree himself, if the university wasn't conscious enough to hold a ceremony, it would have been unlike him to do so.
"He wouldn't have planted it by himself," said Chuck McMurray, a longtime friend of Owens'. "He was too humble of a person to do that."
Most of the trees that were planted by the returning athletes were put in the ground between Sept. 30 and Nov. 1 of 1936 during official ceremonies, according to Olympic historian June Wuest Becht.
"The planting of these trees was a big deal," Becht said. "Of the people I have found that planted trees, all of them had newspaper articles from the event. They had pictures of people with shovels.
"This was pretty big stuff on the campuses where the trees were planted, from what I have seen."
There is no mention of Owens' planting a tree on campus in the Columbus newspapers or the Ohio State student newspaper, even though he made three well-recorded trips to the city in 1936.
The first trip in early August was much ballyhooed, filled with parades and presentations to Owens from the city's leaders. The second recorded trip was in October, when Owens campaigned for Republican presidential candidate Alf M. Landon. The third trip was in November, when Owens attended the Ohio State-Michigan game with his wife.
Three trips, plenty of ceremonies. None reportedly involved a tree.
"If you are trying to prove the tree is on campus, that's a significant problem," Goerler said. "It's hard to prove a negative, but I really don't think that the tree is here."
Many believe otherwise, including Owens' daughter, Marlene Owens-Rankin.
"My father intended to plant them in places that were extremely meaningful to him; that's why he chose to plant one at Ohio State," Owens-Rankin said. "There is one there. If there's not, it's not because it wasn't planted there."
While there may not be concrete proof that one of Owens' trees is on campus, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence. The tree Nagy has found near the library is the right age and species to be one of the Olympic trees.
Nagy, who graduated in 1979, recalls horticulture professor Phil Kozel telling students that the tree was on the south side of the Main Library.
The student newspaper, the Lantern, reported the same in its Aug. 8, 1978, issue. But both Kozel and the Lantern had one significant detail wrong. They thought that the Olympic tree was a white oak, instead of an English oak.
University officials looked for the tree after the Lantern article appeared, but determined that the white oak on the south side of the library was too young to be an Olympic tree. A few feet away from that white oak is an English oak, the one that Nagy believes is the Jesse Owens tree.
"I've had all these people tell me that it's not here," said Nagy, as he set a video clip to run on his computer. "But right here, you have Owens saying that it's on campus."
The clip is from the 1964 documentary, where Owens says a tree "stands among the cherished mementos on All-American Row at Ohio State University."
There is no All-American Row at Ohio State, but Owens may have been referring to All-American Buckeye Grove. The grove originally stood east of Ohio Stadium. Today it's located south of the stadium.
If Owens planted his tree at All-American Grove, it didn't stay there. But Nagy can account for how the tree might have ended up near the library.
In the 1940s, construction projects near All-American Grove caused the relocation of several of the trees planted there. The Jesse Owens tree would have been about the right size to be transplanted, and curiously, an oak tree was planted on the south side of the library during that time.
Urban forester Steve Cothrel analyzed the oak tree in 1988 to determine its age. In his findings, he wrote: "Regardless of other evidence unearthed, this tree is without question the same age as the Olympian trees."
Science may even go further toward proving the tree's heritage.
At Nagy's request, Glenn Howe, an assistant professor in the School of Natural Resources, recently collected leaves from the tree and isolated DNA samples from them.
The samples could be tested against DNA samples from surviving Olympic trees. Regardless of the results, they could never fully complete the story.
"This wouldn't be unlike using DNA evidence in court," Howe said. "You may be able to give some rough probabilities on how likely or unlikely something is, but you can never really be definitive."
Taking additional samples from the few remaining documented Olympic trees would be a tedious, money-consuming project.
"There's a trade-off between getting the information and how much money you want to spend on it," Howe said. "Until you do it, it would be hard to say how costly it would be.
" It all adds up to a standoff. On one side, you have Owens himself, claiming an Olympic tree was planted at Ohio State. On the other, you have the overwhelming lack of evidence that such a tree was planted.
On one side, you have Nagy, who has spent years trying to trace the tree's history. On the other, you have the university, which would be proud to honor the tree-if Owens indeed planted it.
"That people still wonder and care about the tree says something more about us than it does about Jesse Owens," Baker said. "It says that things like those trees are important to us as symbols of something or someone we give importance to."
SIDE STORY:
Finding and authenticating the Jesse Owens tree is an obsession for John Nagy.
Folders overflowing with research are stuffed in one of his desk drawers. He maintains a Web site on his search. His computer is dotted with Post-It notes listing relevant phone numbers.
"It's hard to say why I've spent so much time on this," Nagy admitted. "But when I was little, I heard a lot about Jesse Owens and I thought he was really cool. He was from Cleveland, and we were from Cleveland. I think that's probably where it started."
Jesse Owens himself provided the rest of the inspiration.
In 1978, Nagy and a friend were walking in downtown Columbus when they saw a small crowd of people gathered around one smiling man-Jesse Owens.
Nagy, then a college student, didn't have a pen or a piece of paper for an autograph. Owens graciously supplied both, and signed: "My best to you always, Jesse Owens, '36 Olympics."
"What impressed me the most was that Jesse seemed glad to give me his autograph," Nagy said. "I just wish I had asked him about the tree."
A few years later, when Nagy's search began for the tree began in earnest, it was too late to ask Owens.
Owens died in 1980, after a long fight against cancer. He is remembered as one of the greatest and most loved athletes ever.
"At the time that I met Jesse Owens, I didn't realize that there was going to be a controversy about that tree," Nagy said. "If I had asked, he would have probably met me on campus to show me it. "He was that nice of a guy."
Jeff Nielsen is a communications associate for the Alumni Association and a frequent contributor to OSAM.
February 2, 2001 The Given Tree and editorial
Ohio State Lantern, Liz Christopher, Lantern sports writer
Jesse Owens may be one of the most recognized and accomplished athletes to ever attend Ohio State. The track is named after him, as well as the workout facilities on both north and south campus. There may also be another symbol on campus to remember Owens, only it is not labeled with a large sign or a building. Some even say this symbol doesn’t exist. On the south side of the Main Library, there is a large English oak tree. Many who have walked this campus would argue that the tree is the ‘Jesse Owens Oak,’ a gift to the track star from the German people in 1936. John Nagy, a graphic designer for OSU’s biomedical communications media group, believes that it is. For 20 years, Nagy has been searching out the mystery surrounding the tree. He became interested in finding the location of the tree when he was a student at OSU, studying horticulture. For most in the OSU community, the story of the oak tree begins long before they were born. The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany. Amongst the crowd of spectators was the leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler. The gold medal winners were presented with a potted oak sapling, as a gift from the German people. The trees gained the nickname of “Hitler’s trees,” Nagy says. Owens who was victorious in three individual events in 1936, the broad jump, the 100-meter race and the 200-meter race, took of the three tiny trees home with him. It is possible that Owens was awarded with additional trees for his victory in the 4x400-meter relay. “And what about the oak trees that were given to me to plant? One, I gave to the Rhodes High School in Cleveland, Ohio, the city where I spent my youth. One has flourished in the backyard of my mother’s home in Cleveland. And one still stands among the cherished mementos on All-American Row at Ohio State University, where I spent my college days. And the forth one? The forth one unfortunately has died,” Owens said in the 1964 documentary “Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin”. There is no record of Owens planting a tree on campus in any Columbus newspapers, The Lantern or in university photo archives, according to Nagy. Yet, there is a lot of evidence that convinces Nagy that this is Owens’ tree. First, Owens claims to have planted the tree in the “All-American Row.” Nagy believes that Owens may have been referring to the All-American Buckeye Grove, once located east of the Horseshoe. Construction projects in the 1940s may have moved the tree to a different location, possibly on the south side of the library. In 1988, Nagy asked Steve Cothrel, an urban forester, to analyze the tree. He found the tree to be the same age as the other Olympian tree. “Regardless of other evidence unearthed, this tree is without question the same age as the Olympian tree,” Cothrel had written in his final report wrote analyzing the tree. Nagy also points out the tree is the same species of oak that was given to the 1936 Gold Medalists. Nagy is waiting to receive the DNA test results from a comparison done between the alleged Owens’ oak near the library and the known Owens’ oak at Rhodes High School. Safety concerns have been raised concerning the tree in past years and they may rise again soon. A 1978 The Lantern reported the tree suffered slight abuse until its history was brought to the attention of the proper authorities during the Main Library tower addition. The Council on the Physical Environment has put a library renovation and addition project in the works. It is possible that the trees surrounding the library may be removed for construction purposes. If this really is the tree as Nagy, Owens’ family members and former classmates believe it is, then what can be done to preserve this historic symbol? Nagy suggests that the university grow seedlings from the tree to plant in an oak tree grove at the new Jesse Owens track. He also thinks that giving seedlings as track awards would be a nice way to keep the history behind Owens’ performance in the 1936 Olympics. Nagy has a Web site, www.biomed.amp.ohio-state.edu/webowens/gmthistory.htm, which contains letters, pictures and video clips of Owens, as well as details about Nagy’s search for the tree since 1978.
Also appearing in the Lantern editorial on February 2, 2001
Triumphant Oak
Living history saved for the future?
After 128 years of Buckeye history, the main campus of Ohio State is littered with gifts from various graduating classes. Some put up bulletin boards; others erected a pillar here or there and a variety of seating arrangements abound. This year, the class of 2001 has the chance to do something extraordinary. The planned renovation of the library is endangering a little-known but highly valuable historical relic on OSU campus, and the graduating seniors this year have a chance to save it. When the Olympics were held in Berlin in 1936, the athletes received not only gold medals for winning events; they also received a sapling oak tree. Little did Adolf Hitler know he would be giving a grove of those oak trees away to a black man, not to members of his cherished master race. This man who humbled Hitler with four gold medals was a track star from Ohio State. His name: Jesse Owens. OSU has named the track after him, as well as athletic facilities in north, south and west campus. His memory is cherished, so it is strange then that one of the oaks Owens won at the Olympics — an oak he donated to his alma mater — has no plaque in front of it. There is nothing to show that it is anything special, save for its glory of being a full oak tree. Now, with renovation of the library coming, it is possible the tree will be cut down. Forgotten history will be swept away, and that would be a shame. Jesse Owens was a great athlete, and he was a winner. He triumphed in Berlin, but he also lead a hard life. An Olympic victor, he returned to an America in which he was a second-class citizen. Owens spent much of the rest of his life trying to make enough money to keep his family afloat. He found himself relegated to the public speaking circuit. He used his name to make other people’s companies look good. Nevertheless, he was known as a good family man, and he never stopped working and trying. Students here should consider him a role model. It is fitting then that the class of 2001 save this tree. Owens took a tree from Hitler and brought it to OSU. He lived a good and decent life. He deserves nothing less. The tree should be moved to a safer place on the Oval, and a plaque or monument should be placed at its feet honoring the alumnus who gave us such honor. The pillars, bulletin boards and little signs here or there are well and good, but the rediscovery and saving of a historical landmark could be a gift befitting the class of the new millennium. was given to the 1936 Gold Medalists. Nagy is waiting to receive the DNA test results from a comparison done between the alleged Owens’ oak near the library and the known Owens’ oak at Rhodes High School. Safety concerns have been raised concerning the tree in past years and they may rise again soon. A 1978 The Lantern reported the tree suffered slight abuse until its history was brought to the attention of the proper authorities during the Main Library tower addition. The Council on the Physical Environment has put a library renovation and addition project in the works. It is possible that the trees surrounding the library may be removed for construction purposes. If this really is the tree as Nagy, Owens’ family members and former classmates believe it is, then what can be done to preserve this historic symbol? Nagy suggests that the university grow seedlings from the tree to plant in an oak tree grove at the new Jesse Owens track. He also thinks that giving seedlings as track awards would be a nice way to keep the history behind Owens’ performance in the 1936 Olympics. Nagy has a Web site, www.biomed.amp.ohio-state.edu/webowens/gmthistory.htm, which contains letters, pictures and video clips of Owens, as well as details about Nagy’s search for the tree since 1978.
