The Honor in Real Friendship, A True Story of Jesse Owens and Luz Long
Even amid competition, goodness prevailed
With the Olympics approaching, this is perhaps one of the greatest stories of all times. It involves two athletes who competed in the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, Germany.
One was American, and one was German.
Jesse Owens was born James Cleveland “J.C.” Owens in Huntsville, Alabama. His family moved to Cleveland when he was only nine years old.
His southern accent was so strong, his teacher misunderstood when she asked him his name, thinking he said “Jesse” when, in fact, he said, “J.C.” For the rest of his life, he was known as Jesse Owens.
Carl (sometimes spelled Karl) Ludwig “Luz” Long was born in Leipzig, Germany. He was a tall, lanky, blue-eyed blonde. He finished college, graduated law school, and practiced law in Hamburg, Germany. And he held the European long jump record in 1936.
Jesse Owens, a black man and grandson of slaves, would go on to win four Olympic gold medals in the 1936 Olympics, defying Adolf Hitler’s theory of the Aryan master race. After each gold medal, neither Hitler nor U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt congratulated him.
