MASTERLY:
Owens dusts the pack in the 100-m dash at the '36 Olympics
Aug. 9, 1936
A Victory for the Good Guys
By John Kelley
I was the
captain of the U.S. marathon team in the 1936 Olympics and a special
friend of Jesse Owens'. On the boat going to Germany, Jesse said to me,
"I want to go up to the deck and exercise, but I don't have any shoes."
So I said, "I don't think my shoes will fit you." But that didn't stop
him. He tried to get a shoe on, but his foot was so large, it broke my
shoe right in half. He apologized, and I got it sewed up. It cost me
50¢, and I got a souvenir.
In
the Olympic Village, awed rivals crowded to feel the Owens muscles, get
the Owens autograph ... [His mother] described her son: "Jesse was
always a face boy ... When a problem came up, he always faced it."
—Aug. 17, 1936
When I
finished the marathon, Hitler waved to me, and I thumbed my nose at him.
That's my claim to fame. But Jesse told me, "Kelley, Hitler waved to me,
and I waved back." That's actually what happened. When he won his fourth
medal that day, after setting three world records, Jesse was the hero of
the whole Games. To everyone. Except for Hitler. The dictator looked
almost unbeatable at the time, but Jesse's victories upset his theory
about an Aryan master race. Jesse Owens was the greatest track athlete
we have ever had. But he was also a great hero for everybody concerned.
I'm proud to have been his friend.
Kelley, 95, competed in 61
Boston Marathons, winning in 1935 and 1945.
TIME Cover
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