The rise and fall of one of sport's most enduring icons
William J. Baker is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Maine. His books include Of Gods and Games: Religious Faith and Modern Sports, If Christ Came to the Olympics, and Sports in the Western World.
"The best biography of Jesse Owens."--Alabama Review
"An honest and open account of the life of the legendary Olympic
champion."--Multicultural Review
“This book goes far beyond the Jesse Owens of the record books, the
legendary winner of four Olympic gold medals and the setter of six
world records in a single afternoon’s burst of eternal glory. Jesse
Owens delves more deeply into Owens the man and, even more
significantly, introduces us to his life before and after his brief
term as an unforgettable athlete. It is must reading for all who
are interested in the man still regarded by most as the greatest
track and field athlete in history.”--Bert Nelson, cofounder of
Track & Field News
"The best biography of Jesse Owens."--Alabama Review
"An honest and open account of the life of the legendary Olympic
champion."--Multicultural Review
"This book goes far beyond the Jesse Owens of the record books, the
legendary winner of four Olympic gold medals and the setter of six
world records in a single afternoon's burst of eternal glory.
Jesse Owens delves more deeply into Owens the man and, even
more significantly, introduces us to his life before and after his
brief term as an unforgettable athlete. It is must reading for all
who are interested in the man still regarded by most as the
greatest track and field athlete in history."--Bert Nelson,
cofounder of Track & Field News
The 10th and last child of an Alabama sharecropper, James Cleveland Owens was taken to Ohio as a child. There, while still in junior high school, he encountered a white coach who recognized his phenomenal talent and loved him like a son, a relationship that figured significantly in the athlete's racial attitudes throughout his life, according to Baker, a historian at the University of Maine. After successes in high school and college, Owens scored his greatest triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, winning four gold medals. For some years after that he tried to parlay his fame into money, an attempt made onerous by the difficulty of marketing running skills and the prevailing racial feelings of the '30s and '40s. Eventually, however, he became an Illinois state official and a respected spokesman for Republicanism. As his fame persisted, notes Baker, he began to make money through endorsements, dying in comfortable circumstances. History Book Club alternate. (June)
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