Tag Archive for 'Jesse Owens'

The story of the rivalry between Jesse Owens and Eulace Peacock

They were born a year apart — Owens in 1913, Peacock in 1914 — in opposite corners of rural Alabama. By 1923 their families had left the sharecropping life and moved north — the Owenses to Ohio, the Peacocks to New Jersey. In 1933, in the last meet of his high school career, Peacock set the national scholastic record in the long jump. He went home, clicked on the radio, and learned that a kid in Cleveland had just broken the world record. Name of Owens. It was the first time he’d ever heard of him. Peacock will not qualify for the Olympics in Berlin due to some injuries that slowed the preparation, competed against Owens 10 times, 5 times won and 5 times lost. Read this amazing story on Sport Illustrated.