HiltonHeadVol
NorthernThailandVol
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I attended grad school in the 90's at Ohio State but never became a fan. I appreciated my education there and the school but I grew up an hour from Knoxville and my entire family attended UTK - my blood runs Pantone 151. But here are a few factoids about Ohio Stadium that most of us wouldn't necessarily know about the place.
- it was the home to the "Buckeye Bullet"....the great Jesse Owens (who was born in Alabama but moved to Cleveland with family at age 9). He was not given a scholarship to OSU and had to live in a "blacks only" boarding house on 11th avenue. He won a reported 42 consecutive events which if correct surely will never be repeated.
- the original track was a crushed cinder oval and was covered over when the stadium was later renovated/expanded, but he indeed ran his events in that stadium.
- the stadium was constructed in 1922 and held an impressive 66,000 for football games.
- Owens became friends with his German competitor Carl "Luz" Long in the 1936 Olympics and visited Long's son after the war (1951). There is controversy/disagreement about Luz Long's death on 14 July 1943 - the day of the Biscari Massacre in Sicily. A recent British book (2021) claims Long died by machine gun fire in the "Biscari Massacre" by an Army sergeant Horace West.....but while Long did die on this day, it is also more commonly reported elsewhere that he was injured on 10 July and died from those battle wounds on that Wednesday the 14th (in the same area and on the same day of the Massacre but likely not a part of that terrible event).
- It seems btw, a war myth that Long wrote a letter to Owens during the war asking that he explain to Luz son Kai "how things can be between men on this earth". Doubtful that a letter could be posted to America from the battlefield along with the suggestion that it was sent from N. Africa where Long never served. Just a curious little footnote in history that I find fascinating.
But their friendship was real, and Owens did visit Kai in Germany in 1951. It has also been suggested that German Olympic heroes were usually kept off the front lines in safer postings and one wonders if Luz Long's embrace of Owens that day in Berlin could have eventually cost him his life thanks to the affront many in Germany (including Herr H.) felt from this friendship.
In any case, I trust all the above is correct - amazing how much history gets twisted in the telling - but this is an important shrine to athletics and an upset here would mean even more than most Vols might have imagined.
- it was the home to the "Buckeye Bullet"....the great Jesse Owens (who was born in Alabama but moved to Cleveland with family at age 9). He was not given a scholarship to OSU and had to live in a "blacks only" boarding house on 11th avenue. He won a reported 42 consecutive events which if correct surely will never be repeated.
- the original track was a crushed cinder oval and was covered over when the stadium was later renovated/expanded, but he indeed ran his events in that stadium.
- the stadium was constructed in 1922 and held an impressive 66,000 for football games.
- Owens became friends with his German competitor Carl "Luz" Long in the 1936 Olympics and visited Long's son after the war (1951). There is controversy/disagreement about Luz Long's death on 14 July 1943 - the day of the Biscari Massacre in Sicily. A recent British book (2021) claims Long died by machine gun fire in the "Biscari Massacre" by an Army sergeant Horace West.....but while Long did die on this day, it is also more commonly reported elsewhere that he was injured on 10 July and died from those battle wounds on that Wednesday the 14th (in the same area and on the same day of the Massacre but likely not a part of that terrible event).
- It seems btw, a war myth that Long wrote a letter to Owens during the war asking that he explain to Luz son Kai "how things can be between men on this earth". Doubtful that a letter could be posted to America from the battlefield along with the suggestion that it was sent from N. Africa where Long never served. Just a curious little footnote in history that I find fascinating.
But their friendship was real, and Owens did visit Kai in Germany in 1951. It has also been suggested that German Olympic heroes were usually kept off the front lines in safer postings and one wonders if Luz Long's embrace of Owens that day in Berlin could have eventually cost him his life thanks to the affront many in Germany (including Herr H.) felt from this friendship.
In any case, I trust all the above is correct - amazing how much history gets twisted in the telling - but this is an important shrine to athletics and an upset here would mean even more than most Vols might have imagined.
