Jesse Owens
Last week we celebrated Juneteenth. It was extremely hot outside, so we spent most of the day watching documentaries on TV. By the afternoon I had had enough of “academic” TV and asked Marty if we could please change the channel. He agreed, but said he wanted to come back to watch the program on Jesse Owens. I have never been so happy about that. This documentary contained a story of the 1936 Olympic Trials that I had never heard before – the story of Jesse Owens, Luz Long, and a friendship that won gold medals.
We all know Jesse Owens. James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens was an African-American athlete who specialized in sprinting and long jumping. He ran for Ohio State University and went on to win four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. He is considered the greatest athlete in the history of track and field.
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party were on the rise in Germany at the time of the Berlin Olympics. Because Jesse Owens did not fit into Hitler’s ideology of the superiority of the Aryan master race, his participation and victories were rejected in Germany’s political arena. Hitler refused to personally congratulate Jesse after his victories.
The story that caught my attention:
The German athlete Karl Ludwig “Luz” Long was the Olympic favorite in the long jump. Long was a graduate of the University of Leipzig and practiced as a lawyer in Hamburg in 1936. In 1936 he also held the European long jump record.
The qualifying time for the Berlin event had arrived. Jesse Owens approached the pit before his first practice jump and simply jogged in to test the spot. A penalty flag was thrown (although he clearly had no intention of making this his jump). Jesse returned to his marker and made his first real attempt. His foot crossed the marker and another penalty flag fell. A third flag would have disqualified him from the event. Jesse knelt down for a moment and prayed, and as he stood up, Luz Long was walking toward him.
Long told him he understood Jesse was nervous. He told him not to focus on the marker for his jump. Instead, he threw a towel right in front of the marker and told Jesse to jump when he reached the towel. Owens took his advice and qualified for the jump.
In the final, Jesse jumped 8.06 meters and won gold. Long came second with a jump of 7.87 meters. Luz was the first to congratulate her. After the award ceremony, Jesse and Luz walked arm in arm through the Berlin Olympic Stadium.
Luz Long’s last letter to Jesse Owens
Luz Long was reprimanded by the Nazi party officials for this, but a friendship and bond between athletes and gentlemen had been formed – a friendship that brought gold medals. After the Olympics, the two continued to correspond by letter. Luz wrote his last letter to Jesse in 1943. It was probably written from North Africa, where Luz was serving in the German Wehrmacht:
I am here, Jesse, where there seems to be only dry sand and wet blood. I fear not so much for myself, my friend Jesse, but for my wife, who is at home, and my young son, Karl, who has never really known his father.
My heart tells me, if I’m honest with you, that this is the last letter I’ll ever write. If that’s the case, then I’m going to ask you something. It’s something that’s very important to me. You should go to Germany when the war is over, find my Karl one day and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we weren’t separated by war. I mean – tell him how things can be between people on this earth.
If you do this for me, what I really need to know will be done, then I’m going to do something for you now. I’m going to tell you something I know you want to hear. And it’s true.
In that hour in Berlin, when I first spoke to you and you were kneeling on the floor, I knew you were praying.
At the time I did not know how I knew this. Now I know. I know that it is no coincidence that we are coming together. I came to you at this hour in 1936 for a reason other than the Berlin Olympics.
And I believe you will read this letter, even if it is not possible to ever reach you for any reason other than our friendship. I believe it will happen because I now believe that God will make it happen. That is what I have to say to you, Jesse.
I believe, I believe in God.
And I pray to Him that even if you are never able to hear the words I write, you will still read them.
Your brother,
Light
Karl “Luz” Long was wounded on July 10, 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily. Operation Husky (July 9 – August 17). He died on July 14 in a British military hospital and was buried in the German military cemetery Motta St. Anastasia in Sicily. Long was 30 years old. Praise be to God for the example and friendship of Jesse Owens!
The friendship continued
In 1951, Jesse Owens returned to Germany and found Luz’s son Karl. They stayed in touch and when young Karl got married, Jesse was best man.
Jesse said of his Olympic friendship with Luz: “It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler… You can melt down all my medals and trophies, they wouldn’t be enough to compensate for the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment.”
The gold medal friendship between Jesse Owens and Luz Long continued, and their families became friends as well. “From August 15 to 23, 2009, the 12th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in Athletics took place in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, the site of the 1936 Olympic Games. Jesse Owens’ granddaughter Marlene (Owens) Dortch, Luz’ son Karl and granddaughter Julia represented the Owens and Long families at the awards ceremony for the winner of the long jump on August 22.”
Jesse Owens died on March 31, 1980 in Tucson, Arizona.
(Among the references for this story: Charles Ross, The PBS American Experience documentary Jesse Owensthe film RACINGthe film The Jesse Owens Storythe book Jesse and Luz: A special friendship.)
May God bless you and grant you many golden friendships.
