On this day in 1913, James Cleveland Owens was born in Lawrence County, Alabama. Owens’ grandfather was a slave and his father, Henry Owens, was a sharecropper. Owens’ family was poor and though his parents worked hard, J.C. was forced to take on small jobs, such as delivering groceries, loading freight cars, and working odd jobs in a local shoe repair shop.

J.C. Owens was re-christened Jesse Owens when one of his teachers didn’t understand that he was named J.C. The name stuck as young Jesse went about his daily life, trying to get through the more difficult bits. During these hard times in his youth, Jesse realized that he loved to run and was soon recruited to the Fairview Junior High track team. Jesse’s abilities quickly became clear and he first became nationally known when he tied the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash and long-jumped 24 feet, 9.5 inches at the 1933 National High School Championship in Chicago.

Owens matriculated at Ohio State University, where he was nicknamed the “Buckeye Bullet.” During his years in college, Owens won eight individual NCAA championships, an amazing record that was only tied for the first time in 2006 by Xavier Carter. Throughout Owens’ athletic successes, he was never truly accepted, as he had to live off-campus with other African-American classmates, stay in “black-only” hotels while on the road, and was never granted a school scholarship.

On May 25, 1935, Jesse ran at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and set an incredible three world records and tied a fourth, a feat which many consider to be one of the most amazing athletic accomplishments of all time. Following this success, Owens headed to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Against Hitler’s Nazi propaganda, touting Aryan racial superiority, Jesse Owens won four gold medals for the 100m sprint, long jump, the 200m dash, and 4 x 100m relay team.

Owens’ life was one of hard work and beating the odds, as the accomplishments throughout his life show. However, having been a pack-a-day smoker for 35 years, Owens died of lung cancer at the young age of 66. He is buried in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.