Who was he?
James Cleveland Owens was born in Oakville, Alabama in 1913. When he was nine years old, James moved to Cleveland, Ohio and grew up there for the rest of his life. He was one of ten kids and his father was a sharecropper. James chose to go by "J.C.", which was mistook for "Jesse" by a teacher in elementary school, and the nickname stuck for the rest of his life. He began to love running after having run to school, the store. and basically everywhere he went. He began track and field in junior high school and attributes his success to his junior high track coach, Charles Riley. Jesse began to get recognized for track and field in high school when he tied the world record of 9.4 seconds on the 100 yard dash. He continued Track and field all the way through high school and into college, where he went to Ohio State, giving him the nickname "the Buckeye Bullet".