Shortly after his parents moved from Alabama to Cleveland, an elementary school teacher asked James Cleveland James his name on the first day of school. He replied "J.C." She heard "Jesse," and that became his name.

	Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics.

In high school, Jesse Owens became a track star, tying the world record in the 100-yard dash with a time of 9.4 seconds.

While attending Ohio State, segregation forced him to live off campus with the other black athletes. While real-world issues affected him off the track, on it, he excelled. He set three world records and tied a fourth -- all in under an hour at one meet.

In his junior year, Owens competed in 42 events and won them all, including four in the Big Ten Championships, four in the NCAA Championships, two in the AAU Championships and three at the Olympic Trials.

In Germany a year later, the Nazis portrayed African-Americans as inferior and ridiculed the United States for relying on "black auxiliaries." One German official even complained that the Americans were letting "non-humans, like Owens and other Negro athletes," compete.

But the German people felt otherwise. Crowds of 110,000 cheered him in Berlin's glittering Olympic Stadium, and his autograph or picture was sought as he walked the streets.

And when the competition started, Owens shattered Hitler's notion of Aryan superiority. Owens won four gold medals with four virtuoso performances, capturing the 100- and 200-meter dashes, the long jump and as the lead runner on America's 400 relay team.

Upon his return to New York and a ticker-tape parade, Owens had to ride the freight elevator to a reception in his honor at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Much has been made of Hitler's refusal to shake Owens' hand after his domination of the track and field competition. But Owens had this insightful take: "I came back to my native country, and I could not ride in the front of the bus. I had to go to the back door. I couldn't live where I wanted. I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either. Now what's the difference?"

In a 1950 Associated Press poll, Owens was voted the greatest track and field star for the first half of century, outpolling Jim Thorpe by almost three to one. In 1976, President Ford presented Owens with the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the U.S. can bestow upon a civilian. A decade after his death, President George H. W. Bush posthumously awarded Owens the Congressional Medal of Honor. Bush called his victories in Berlin "an unrivaled athletic triumph, but more than that, a triumph for all humanity."

Owens was born in 1913 in a small town in Alabama. He died March 31, 1980.