Jesse Owens Thesis

1. Jim Thorpe;  has been characterized as one of the greatest athletes America has ever seen. Thorpe was born on May 28, 1887 in a single room cabin in small town Oklahoma, Prague. Jim attended school at an all indian establishment in Pennsylvania, although he began his athletic career somewhere else. He began playing football and running track. From Carlisle he was selected in an third-team All-American in 1908. In 1909 and 1910 he made the first team, some say that he may dedicated his success to his coach Glenn "pop" Warner. At the age of 24 Thorpe became part of the all american team and sailed to Stockholm, Sweden for the 1912 Olympic games. Thorpe began setting records in multipart games, known as the pentathlon and the decathlon, those

Jesse “J.C” Owens, the son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, is a renowned and popular historical figure. He is treated with awe for his physical accomplishments as a record-breaking Olympic champion, but he is also recognized for overcoming the humiliating and abusive treatment he encountered while working towards this goal. Owens was born on September 12, 1913 in Alabama, as the tenth and final child of Mary and Henry Owens. When he was young, Owens suffered from a severe lung disease, pneumonia (Israel 5), however he still managed to swim and fish, and develop a love for running (Israel 6). Owens did not officially attend elementary school, but he did attend Cleveland East Technical for his high school years where he met a coach

Skin color doesn't define if one race is superior to other races. Jesse Owens was a participant in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He was among the few African Americans who represented America. Even though all the odds were stacked against him, because of his color skin, he still went to Berlin to compete. Owens father, Henry Cleveland, was a sharecropper. Mary Emma Fitzgerald, Owen's mom, took care of him. Jesse Owen took a stand against racism at home and abroad through his defiant performance in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

On Friday, March 3, 2017, the students at Montevallo High School had a special speaker visit. His name is Jesse Jackson. The name sounds familiar because Jackson worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Jesse Jackson was born on October 8, 1941 in Greenville, South Carolina. When his mother was sixteen he was born out of wedlock to professional boxer and well-known figure in the black community, Noah Louis Robinson. However, when his mother married, he was adopted by Charles Henry Jackson, his step father. During high school he experienced segregation and Jim Crow laws. After high school he attended the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. He then transferred to North Carolina A&T. At North Carolina A&T he became involved in local civil rights protests. He then attended Chicago Theological Seminary but dropped out to focus directly on the Civil Rights Movement. He worked closely with MLK Jr. and was even present when he was shot. After the assassination he made is his own Civil Rights operation named People United to Serve Humanity. He ran for president twice. Needless to say, he is a very remarkable and astounding man.

During an early morning, a kid had his test scores handed back to him for him to discover that he scored a 75% on an Algebra test. This kid had dread and disgust smothered on his face. Soon after, the kid would grow a desire to do much better on the upcoming finals, in which he studied from when the fiery sun rose until the mysterious moon would arise to brighten the night and all its inhabitants, just because he had the hunger to ace the upcoming test. The day of the finals arose as the kid felt ready to battle the final test for his Algebra class. The kid fought long and hard and would soon find out that he scored a 93% on the test. One person who also showed strong intentions would be Vincent “Bo” Jackson. From his life as an extremely poor

Jackie Robinson was the first African-American baseball player to participate in Major League Baseball in the United States. He played professionally for the Brooklyn Dodgers and broke down the color barrier in baseball. Major League Baseball commemorates Jackie Robinson every year on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day.

“A life is not important except for the impact it has on other lives” –Jackie Robinson

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” (Jackie Robinson).

Without Limits is rated 7.2/10 stars www.imdb.com. The film follows the life of famous runner, Steve Prefontaine, from college at the University of Oregon where he worked with the legendary coach Bill Bowerman, to the Olympics in Munich and then his death at 24 in an awful car crash. My question is what was Prefontaine's story, what was it that made him want to push himself to the breaking point?

Hank Aaron was born on February 5,1934 to Estella and Herbert Aaron. He was the third of eight children, and they lived in a poor black section of Mobile, Alabama up until he was eight years old then his family moved to the middle-class Toulminville neighborhood. Aaron had a strong link to baseball and football from a young age, and he tended to focus more heavily on sports rather than his studies. As a young child he had many heroes like Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, and Stan Musial who are all baseball players. His first baseball team was the Toulminville Grammar School in the Louisiana Rec. League. Later on in high school, during his freshman and sophomore years, he attended Central High School, where he played football and baseball. In

Football and baseball super star Bo Jackson, had a life that was anything but ordinary. As a young man, he had an almost super human strength to him that no one else had seen before on a kid. He excelled in multiple sports because of his strength and speed, but where he really shined was baseball and football. Bo ended up being one of the best known American athletes because of his capability of great strength, humility, and national heroism.

The 1936 Berlin Olympics is the most infamous sporting event in history. It was widely thought that Hitler and the Nazis would use this event as propaganda. “Jesse entered the 1936 Olympics, which were held in Nazi Germany amidst the belief by Hitler that the Games would support his belief that the German ‘Aryan’ people were the dominant race” (“Biography”). Despite this knowledge, the United States chose to participate in the Olympics. One of the most famous athletes of the Olympics was Jesse Owens. “His stunning achievement of four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin has made him the best remembered athlete in Olympic history” (“Biography”). It is a myth that Hitler did not want to shake Owens’s hand because he is black. Besides

I personally believe that we have control of how are destiny will work for us. We can do the right things in life, or do the not so good things that sabotage the way our destiny is suppose to work out for us. In The Sports Gene, by David Epstein, Donald Thomas was led to his destiny by a bet from a current track member who did high jump. He then found out that he was naturally good at high jump, because of his giant achilles tendon. But in Macbeth, by Shakespeare, Macbeth sabotaged the way he was going to become king of Scotland. He thought he could kill people, to make his time of being king come faster. So, what actions did the characters do to control how their destiny was going to work out for them?

The Book Thief, by Marcus Zusak is a novel that portrays the struggles of a young German girl living in Nazi, Germany. The main theme about this book is courage. As the characters grow and change, courage becomes a bigger and important factor towards their lives. Liesel Meminger, Rudy Steiner and Hans Huberman are characters who show traits of courage.

Bruce Jenner is a man whose life is quite ironic. Even though he was one of the world’s greatest athlete and a father figure to many children, Bruce Jenner took a big step in his life and came out as a woman, not too long ago. His prominent life is distinguished among the celebrities, because his story is so different from the rest. Bruce Jenner, being 65 years old, definitely has a story to tell.