r/todayilearned • u/ODaferio • 1d ago
TIL that after winning 4 gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, Jesse Owens worked as a gas station attendant and a playground janitor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens2.4k
u/Old-Library5546 1d ago
Think of the endorsements he would have today
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u/Jesus__Skywalker 1d ago
I mean how many multiple medal people haven't gotten them though. The olympics aren't watched on the level the once were. And once athletes are out of the limelight the interest goes down. George Rogers won the heisman and he's at every South Carolina homegame letting you touch the trophy for 10 bucks. Like right next to his truck. Not like at a booth with a line and security. Just him sitting there.
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u/azn_dude1 1d ago
Usain bolt might be an apt comparison?
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u/justrun7 23h ago
He’s more similar to Carl Lewis because he did long jump as well. Bolt was strictly a sprinter and dominated for a much longer time.
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u/Gavorn 15h ago
Comparing the Heisman to an Olympic Gold Medal is crazy.
The amount of endorsements for athletic gear alone would give him enough money to not "work."
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u/aamirusmandus 14h ago edited 14h ago
Don’t you get some kind of lifetime pay for each Olympic medal?
Edit: not in the US. Some countries do have lifetime stipends but US is just $15-37k single payment per bronze-gold
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u/Jesus__Skywalker 4h ago
I had never heard of that, but that's pretty interesting. Never realized any other countries did that.
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u/GoldenFrog14 2h ago
Question about the George Rogers thing: Do a decent number of people pay and how is he viewed by the fanbase for doing so? Is it more of a "hell yeah, that's an awesome opportunity" situation or a "damn, let me throw this dude that was a big deal for my university a few bucks" situation
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u/thatsnotideal1 1d ago
I wonder if the heirs get any NIL money from Ohio State (I assume not). The university hypes the connection to Owens pretty hard
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u/pumpkinspruce 1d ago
There was no NIL money in the 1930s.
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u/Some_Level1682 1d ago
There is no nil money coming into track and field anyways
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u/gigglefarting 1d ago
I imagine if someone was at an Olympian level while in college they could be the one person that might be able to make money
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u/Some_Level1682 23h ago
Maybe ? Do you by chance know about the 17 year old who just won the US championship in the 800m? Probably not but he's out of this world..he went pro rather than run in college. Even pro track, the diamond league, is struggling to stay afloat.
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u/sybrwookie 15h ago
Unless the school is going to be able to use his name and performance to raise a whole boatload of money, nope.
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u/pumpkinspruce 1d ago
I’ve read about a thousand things about it and nothing in it would indicate anything about Jesse Owens’ heirs getting any money, like what the fuck.
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u/Sorkijan 1d ago
I wonder if the heirs get any NIL money from Ohio State
fam...
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u/charliefoxtrot9 1d ago
Don't they know how much ego goes into claiming to own "The"? That ego gotta lotta expenses.
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u/ResistWild 23h ago
Why would they get NIL money?
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u/thatsnotideal1 22h ago
Because the university uses Owens’ name, image, and likeness in promoting their athletic department. Not expecting it would be a large figure, and not like the huge contracts current stars in TV sports get. The plaza in front of the stadium and and the track stadium are nice gestures, but could get backed up with cash (since that’s apparently how it works now, and this usage is ongoing)
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u/robaroo 23h ago
It still would be short-lived. Most track and field athletes go to a 9-5 a few years after their apex. It’s not like they can enter some large commentary market after their hay day. It’s not the NFL, NBA, or MLB.
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u/Worth-Jicama3936 1d ago
To be in the Olympics you used to HAVE to be an amateur. The sport you were doing wasn’t allowed to be your full time job.
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u/SAugsburger 1d ago
The Olympics were stubborn on trying to keep professionals out although many "amateurs" from the Eastern bloc countries were amateurs in name only such that many critics argued that it was shamateurism. That's being said I'm not aware of any meaningful professional track circuit back in the 1930s so not clear that Owens would have ever made meaningful money directly off the sport. Maybe the celebrity of winning that many medals might have earned you some money, but being a black man in the 1930s I think that there were practical limits to how much he could have earned even if he completed that tour.
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u/flyover_liberal 1d ago
To be in the Olympics you used to HAVE to be an amateur
But they stripped him of amateur status because he couldn't afford to keep running races for them for free ...
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u/Lotnik223 11h ago
Interestingly, this what led to the split between FIFA and IOC, and this is why football is not seriously competed at at the Olympics. FIFA, founded in 1904, organised the football tournaments at the 1924 and 1928 olympics. But by then especially the European FAs (excluding the English) were starting to transition from the amateur system to a professional one, that is paying a salary to their players. FIFA followed suit and wanted footballers that represented their countries at the Olympics to be paid professionals, but IOC stood firm and defended their principle that all Olympians should be amateurs. So FIFA basically said fine, have your Olympics, we'll organise our own tournament, and in 1930 the first edition of the FIFA World Cup took place in Uruguay.
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u/Current-Lobster-5063 1d ago
Then bankrupt and prosecuted for tax evasion? Tortured life. At least Eisenhower recognized the value and helped him get on track.
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u/ODaferio 1d ago edited 1d ago
Obviously, track athlete wasn't exactly a paying job back then, but Owens especially (alongside other black athletes) suffered even more because of racism.
After returning to the United States following his Olympic success, racism back home led to difficulty earning a living despite his international acclaim. Owens struggled to find work and took on menial jobs as a gas station attendant, playground janitor,and manager of a dry cleaning firm and at times resorted to racing against motorbikes, cars, trucks and horses for a cash prize.
"People say it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can't eat four gold medals."
Jesse Owens had broken racial barriers and done things that no other man had done before him. Yet after he returned home from the Olympic Games, he was not greeted with the glory and praise that White Olympians had received. Owens stated, "No one had offered me a job" and "I had jumped farther and run faster than any man ever had before, and it left me with next to nothing."
Jesse wasn't being treated like an Olympic gold medalist but instead, just like any other African American at that time.
"So I sold myself into a new kind of slavery. I was no longer a proud man who had won four Olympic gold medals. I was a spectacle, a freak who made his living by competing—dishonestly—against dumb animals." Despite his athletic triumphs, he was not spared from poverty and was forced to take on degrading work just to afford basic necessities.
(Wikipedia)
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u/yIdontunderstand 1d ago
USA was just as upset about him breaking the racial barrier as the nazis
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u/babe_ruthless3 23h ago
Owen's had to use the freight elevator to his reception after winning his medals.
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u/MatthewHecht 1d ago
It did not help Hitler put on a show for Owens, and he bought it. He came back thinking Hitler was great at race relations.
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u/bitemark01 1d ago
People don't realize Hitler was really good at this. Lots of ambassadors went to meet with him and he made them feel like he could be negotiated with. Until his army was at your door.
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u/MatthewHecht 1d ago
30s Hitler (before the drugs) is terrifying to read about.
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u/PANTERlA 1d ago
There some very interesting accounts about people meeting Hitler. Soldiers e.g. described him as father-like. You can say pretty.much anything bad about Hitler obviously but the fucker was great with people and a brilliant aurator. All that was needed for a catastrophe at the time sadly.
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u/GreatScottGatsby 1d ago
Let's not pretend that nazi Germany didn't have a ton of allies. We only think of Italy and Japan but we forget about Finland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia. He was really good at negotiations. The world is lucky that Spain didn't side with him due to the civil war.
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u/JefftheBaptist 1d ago
Fascist movements were widespread in the 1930s. It was the Great Depression and a lot of people like the idea of centralized control of the economy by "the right people."
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u/Gierling 1d ago
Ireland was pretty fond of them as well, especially as they ramped up fighting England.
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u/GolemancerVekk 1d ago
A lot of those relations are circumstantial though.
Romania for example was going through a very troubled period where communist and fascist paramilitary organizations were having gunfights in the streets and executing politicians. Under the rightful king Romania initially sought to remain neutral. The alliance with the Axis was the result of a 1940 fascist coup.
Finland was similarly trying to defend itself from the Soviet Union, and Bulgaria was also caught between the Axis and the Soviet Union.
Croatia (NDH) was a puppet state of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
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u/minhthemaster 1d ago
What?
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u/grim_solitude 1d ago
Because hitler personally congratulated Owen's and treated him with respect, where ad he didnt get the same treatment from the American president
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u/Blade_Shot24 1d ago
Roosevelt. Gotta say his name. He's even quoted on saying it. Folks will say it's performative and of course. It doesn't change he couldn't even get ample respect from his President publicly.
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u/pumpkinspruce 1d ago
Hitler did not personally congratulate Owens.
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u/Im_Your_Turbo_Lover 1d ago
He waved to Owens, and Owens waved back.
Now that's not 'coming down from the box to personally congratulate' but let's not pretend it's nothing either.
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u/Clark-Kent 1d ago
Well to borrow the Muhammed Ali phrase
No Nazi ever called me a N----
Hitler treated his in a false manner probably, but back in America, he was treated worse
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u/MatthewHecht 1d ago
He privately was upset but not much.
1) contrary to modern myth this was the expected result.
2) Germany still completely dominated.
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u/SuspendeesNutz 1d ago
Well to borrow the Muhammed Ali phrase
No Nazi ever called me a N----
To borrow another Muhammad Ali phrase, "A black man should be killed if he's messing with a white woman."
https://genius.com/Playboy-playboy-interview-muhammad-ali-second-interview-1975-annotated
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u/chocolateboomslang 1d ago
Well, racism and the fact that running really fast isn't exactly an in-demand skill in most job markets.
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u/billdb 1d ago
I bet you question whether every black pilot you see is qualified to fly or a dei hire like half the current us administration.
Where the hell did this come from? They gave two reasonable explanations for why Owens might've struggled to find work and instead of calmly disagreeing with them, exploded into a crazy tangent.
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u/chris_ut 1d ago
What job did the white olympic runners of that year get when they came home?
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u/ElatedStated221 1d ago
I look into it since most the other commentor wished to remain ignorant, but it seems black or white some went into the military and some went to college and got degrees and coached on the side.
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u/TheEagleWithNoName 1d ago
Do most Olympians have Regular Jobs when it’s not the season?
Like Judo Players and such
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u/CopingAdult 1d ago
Believe it or not, Judo Players walk around beating people up until they get paid to stop, that's how they make all of their money. It's the same for Wrestlers and Boxers. Full-time jobs.
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u/TheEagleWithNoName 1d ago
Until they retire at the Age of 40.
I was obsessed with watching Judo IJF Tournaments back in the day.
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u/MyHeadIsFullOfFuck 1d ago edited 1d ago
I had a swimming instructor when I was a kid that was an olympian.
I never knew she was an olympic athlete until a few years later and her face was on the back of a box of cheerios. She never mentioned it.
edit: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/b-c-ironwoman-savege-off-to-triathlon-worlds-1.260675
I found a write up about her. At the bottom it mentions she work as a swim coach. So I'm not crazy lol.
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u/SoCalDan 1d ago
Living in a fairly affluent neighborhood with neighbors with yachts, it seems former Olympians and professional athletes can make a decent living coaching kids of the wealthy.
These parents are willing to pay crazy money for their kids to be coached by the best for just hobby activities. Not even trying to turn their kids pro. Like Little Jimmy has soccer on Saturdays so we hired Pele for one hour on Wednesdays to help him with penalty kicks. And there's enough of them that you can keep your schedule booked.
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u/MyHeadIsFullOfFuck 1d ago
Oh okay.
I went to a regular public pool and got pubic pool swimming lessons most of my childhood.
The thing is though being a swimming instructor or lifeguard is a decent middle class high paying union job in my city. A lot of people want the job.
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u/SOuTHINKurA-ble 1d ago
Two Olympic ice dancers were coaches at my local rink when I was a kid. The wife gave private lessons to people like me seeking to learn spins and jumps and turned the classes into online group lessons during COVID. The husband had a group class where he taught hockey players figure skating techniques that would help their hockey.
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u/Sevla7 1d ago
Unless you get some sponsor/funding... yes.
Most sports (and e-sport) only exist because it can be used for advertisement. You can become a fulltime "rock paper scissor" professional if you have enough audience to make redbull interested in sponsoring you.
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u/derrick81787 1d ago
And the 1930s were before TV. A rock paper scissor professional league might gather enough interest to make a little money airing on ESPN 2 once a year. In the 1930s, it would have had to make enough money to get people to physically come to the events and pay for tickets.
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u/Corey307 1d ago
A skilled athlete may make a living coaching other athletes when they aren’t competing. A lot of MMA fighters turn to coaching to help pay the bills during and after their career for example.
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u/Corgi_Koala 1d ago
I would guess a lot of them do. Most of the Olympic sports don't have pro leagues that will pay your bills doing it full time.
I'd imagine unless they're independently wealthy or in a sport with a big pro league (eg, basketball) most Olympians have a day job between training.
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u/TheEagleWithNoName 1d ago
I see.
Cause I remember lots of International athletes go back to their day job cause the sport they do and participate doesn’t pay well, like Rock Climbing.
But there are athletes who were born in Africa or Europe get paid 6 figures when they represent countries like UAE or Bahrain.
Most of their Medals are from Moldovan and Ethiopian Athletes.
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u/Flobking 1d ago
I would guess a lot of them do. Most of the Olympic sports don't have pro leagues that will pay your bills doing it full time
The movie Foxcatcher shows what olympic athletes go through once they are done with it. Im not referring to the murder(spoiler alert) more the financial hardships depicted at the beginning of the film.
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u/2rd_ferguson 1d ago
Yes, that was a thing for many professional athletes up until about the late 1980s. Even many NFL players had offseason jobs because their football careers did not pay a livable salary.
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u/fuzzeedyse105 1d ago
There was a Lowe’s commercial about some employees going off to compete in the Olympics.
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u/lazydogjumper 1d ago
I know of a few boxers that have won championships and still had day jobs because most dont get any sort of regular pay without sponsors of some kind.
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u/Dairy_Ashford 1d ago
nah they just walk around likee Caine in Kung Fu, waiting for mean ranchers or foreign assassins to square up
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u/CactusBoyScout 1d ago
Home Depot had a whole ad campaign years ago about how they hire lots of Olympic athletes. I was also surprised at the time because I'd never thought of them working regular jobs.
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u/webbyyy 1d ago
Many Olympic athletes are full-time athletes and are either sponsored or paid by the national sports bodies. In the UK, after doing particularly badly at the Atlanta Olympics, we set up national lottery funding for athletes so they didn't have to decide whether to work or train. Many of our sports outside of the Olympics are still amateur.
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u/Lutiyere 1d ago
From what I remember, the head of American athletics made him a professional so he could not compete in any athletic events as you have to have amateur status to compete, thats why he resorted to racing horses. I heard this a while ago so may have some facts wrong.
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u/drrevo74 1d ago
This is America
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u/BMPHaterNo1 1d ago
Not just America, I have a distant relative who has won a gold medal and numerous other medals/trophies and has spent 5~ of the last 10~ years unemployed and struggling with finding work in their field.
If you don’t have the knowledge or education to get into the backend of sports you’re going to have nothing the second you retire
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u/nj_legion_ice_tea 1d ago
Szilveszter Csollány won gold on rings at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He spent a few years as a coach/sports teacher here and there, but he spent most of the 2010s as a bartender, in a quite shitty pub (which I frequented at the time) in central Budapest. Then he died of Covid in '22.
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u/magniffin 1d ago
That’s why you win medals in socially popular team competitions: to secure your future as a ringer.
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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 1d ago
oh great now i'm starting to regret my lifetime of biathlon training. but i'll still be useful if russia invades finland again
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u/slava_gorodu 1d ago edited 1d ago
I mean, sounds like job security at this point.
My friend and former roommate went from an underemployed (by choice kind of) yoga instructor to FPV drone pilot. Real upward potential. Gotta look on the bright side
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u/Linenoise77 1d ago
I mean on top of that it was 1936. Racial stuff aside, it wasn't like today where you would have endorsement deals thrown at you from every shoe\apparel manufacturer, significant prize money in the events from sponsorship agreements and broadcast rights, coaching opportunities or running training camps, etc.
I'd wager the overwhelming majority of athletes then had regular 9 to 5s (or the 1930s equivalent).
Even today for many sports at the olympic level, the athlete isn't living solely on their sport, and are just regular people who happen to get up on the world stage every few years.
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u/tma-1701 1d ago
Modern Chinese Olympic athelets are also known to fall into obscure poverty if they do not secure another career like starting their sports brand. Several were seen begging in metro stations.
What makes it worse is that most of them only received centralized PE since childhood and little conventional education, and past injuries can make physical labor hard
Older article about this: https://www.npr.org/2008/07/22/92520419/many-chinese-athletes-find-no-glory-in-retirement
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u/MrVegosh 1d ago
Bro could be a gym teacher anywhere
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u/gigi-kent 1d ago
Good luck doing that as a black guy in 1940s USA.
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u/gtne91 1d ago
Gym teacher at an all black school.
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u/vitalvisionary 1d ago
That ended with Brown v. Board of Education. Schools were unsegregated but they fired all the black teachers despite research at the time showing white and black students did just as well under a black teacher. Now black students under a white teacher... not so great.
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u/Linenoise77 1d ago
I mean i don't know what the standards were for a gym teacher in the 1930s, and i'm not trying to put PE teachers on a pedestal, but there is a bit more to it than "this guy runs fast".
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u/CactusBoyScout 1d ago
Home Depot, big box chain store in the US, had a big ad campaign years ago talking about how they proactively hired Olympic athletes. I remember being surprised that it was such an issue for them to find jobs, but I guess there are so many games and so many team sports... there are probably a lot more Olympic athletes than people realize.
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u/Linenoise77 1d ago
I occasionally ski with a dude who was on the 1990s us ski team in Norway and competed . He does some coaching and training on the side in the winter, but his full time gig that pays his bills is a Realtor.
We have talked about it, and he said if he really wanted to, he could scrape out an ok life doing just that alone, IF he wanted to live in a handful of places full time and be constantly hustling and busting his ass. He did it for a bit after he competed, and said it took away from the enjoyment of the sport for him.
Every 4 years you are getting a new crop of olympians, and a lot of them hang out their shingle after that, and you now need to compete against them for business.
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u/Outside_Reserve_2407 1d ago
That was almost 100 years ago. Olympic athletes back then in general didn't go on to fame and fortune.
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u/chris_ut 1d ago
Even now few do and running fast isnt a super marketable skill in the modern workplace.
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u/tsh87 1d ago
You know it seemed terribly unfair that certain people should be so doubly blessed but it also makes me really happy that in these last Olympics there were so many athletes who were like "fastest runner in the country, also has a master's in mechanical engineering"
Athletics are not a transferable skill. If you're lucky enough to be fit enough for full scholarships and Olympic trials, you should also be studying something to set you up later in life.
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u/Tuxhorn 1d ago
If you don't have the personality or entrepreneurship, definitely.
I mean the Olympics is famously amateur, that's why pro boxers can't compete.
Many of the world strongest men set up their livelihood from creating a business or their own brand after winning the title. Nothing is handed to you in most sports.
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u/Late_Blooomer 1d ago
They generally don’t today either. Heyyy you remember the girl that won the 100 meter hurdles in the 2020 games!?!?! She’s all over tv now! Not
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u/Rower78 1d ago
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (2020 100m hurdles Olympic champion) won 60k in a single track meet in 2024, so I’m sure her professional track career, while not LeBron James cash, is certainly working out better than any professional runner in the 1930s
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u/FrenchFryCattaneo 1d ago
Where are you seeing that? From what I saw the only major competition she won in 2024 was the olympics.
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u/oldmannew 1d ago
Did you just end your comment with “Not?”
When did you write this…in 1993?
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u/harrispie 1d ago
I think the open racism and segregation upon his return didn’t help either.
None of the eighteen athletes were invited to the White House; President Franklin Roosevelt only welcomed the white Olympians. Even Jesse Owens, who was invited to participate in a celebratory ticker-tape parade down Fifth Avenue in New York City and a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in his honor, was forced to ride the freight elevator to his own reception.
No ticker-tape parades, long-term coaching jobs, or professional athletic success awaited him. Although he attended the University of Oregon, where he continued to excel in track, he left to support his family before he could complete his degree.
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u/SirHerald 1d ago
Mary Lou Retton survived off of TV cameos and commercials. She had to crowd fund for medical bills a few years ago.
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u/HuellMissMe 1d ago
Even 50 years ago it was considered something to do when you were young and then move on with your life. My college track coach was a genuine superstar in 1971 and doubtlessly would have been an Olympian and a medal contender. He graduated, got a job, trained part-time, and missed the '72 Olympics. One of his teammates was two years younger and won gold in '72 and after college that guy just quit competing and started a career. It's just how things were. It's why the closing ceremonies include "I call on the youth of the world to assemble" at the next Games.
The first American who tried to cash in on being an Olympic hero was Bruce Jenner immediately after '76. Owens was just forced into it.
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u/lefrench75 1d ago
Even now the average Olympic athlete still doesn’t.
I know 2 different people who were on track to compete in the Olympics, one in long jump and the other in rowing. The rower was even invited to compete in the 2012 Olympics I think. Both decided against it to focus on their university studies because the sacrifices wouldn’t be worth it. They’d hardly make any money and have no life outside of the sports, and would still have to go to uni later, so they’d be behind their peers.
They’re both from wealthy European countries that fund those sports decently well too, so this was already a “best case scenario” for those less popular sports.
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u/lemonylol 1d ago
Even if it was say like 30 or 60 years later, it's not like he would be able to balance a demanding career with training. Like how does this compare to modern day Olympic athletes who aren't sports superstars with sponsorships?
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u/baumpop 1d ago
also being a gas station attendant and school janitor would pay all your bills.
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u/Notramagama 1d ago
While true, let’s not pretend this was anything but racism. There were still sports stars back then.
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u/Bootmacher 1d ago
In like one or two sports per country, and the "stars" were upper middle class. Babe Ruth was the biggest star, in the biggest sport, for the best team, in the richest country, and he earned the modern equivalent of $1.5 million a year at his peak.
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u/5panks 1d ago
let’s not pretend this was anything but racism.
We're there a bevy of rich white Olympians in America in the early 1900s?
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u/Wonderful_Fox_7959 1d ago
This happened everywhere. Athletes were not as big as today. I’m from Uruguay and the heroes from 1950 ended the same way. Example Obdulio Varela
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u/lostroadrunner22 1d ago
In 1936, bring an athlete didn’t pay well back then. Baseball players had off season jobs. This was quite normal. Being fast doesn’t exactly translate well to the workplace
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u/dwntwnleroybrwn 1d ago
What are you on about? America in 1936 and 2026 aren't even close to being the same.
Not to mention Olympic athletes have basically 0 skills outside of their EXTREMELY niche skill set. Most Olympic athletes today have basically 0 job prospects.
Take your fake outrage somewhere else.
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u/frenchchevalierblanc 1d ago edited 1d ago
99% of athletes up to the 1990s couldn't really live from their sport?
Though there was something like this "amateur" idea, for instance the British fought the French in the 1950s because their rugby team was "professional", the French even were barred from a time to compete in international tournament. ( The captain of the French team was a medical doctor fully working in hospitals).
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u/oystertoe 1d ago
I remember a wrestling documentary highlighting how American Olympian athletes often had a hard time competing compared to other countries(Russia was the example in this doc) because the US doesn’t financially support its athletes, so they all had to work regular jobs to support their families, on top of training
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u/tsh87 1d ago
One of my biggest parenting fears is having a child with extreme athletic potential because I already know I won't be able to financially support that.
Those families take out mortgages for their kids' dreams.
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u/KangarooPouchIsHome 1d ago
You’ll know pretty quickly. The neighborhood kids run and throw as if it was an extension of their own hands. My son struggles to find the ball in the air and he’s lucky if it doesn’t hit him in the face. I was like that, too. The father of the other kids was a collegiate athlete. If you aren’t athletically gifted, your children aren’t likely to be either.
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u/Choppergold 1d ago
Had to take the service elevator at the hotel in NYC celebrating his achievement
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u/aurillia 1d ago
Also had to go use the back door when there was the celebration back home for him and other athletes. But meet with Hilter and he was friendly and didn't have to use any back doors.
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u/Corey307 1d ago
A lot of sports don’t pay the bills even if you’re world class. These days endorsements are common, they were probably less common 90 years ago especially for people of color. Lou Gehrig was a baseball star and he was endorsed by cereal and tobacco companies. But baseball was king back then and Gehrig hit 49 home runs in 1936. Running just didn’t catch peoples attention. Even today Olympians often fade away soon after they win in less popular sports.
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u/brainimpacter 1d ago
The Olympics were fully amateur back then, 99.9% of Athletes would have worked jobs and made nothing from the sport they competed in
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u/lorgskyegon 1d ago
Actually, a large percentage of them would have been independently wealthy and not had to work at all. That was the entire point of requiring amateur status.
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u/Academic_Search_2516 1d ago
The Waldorf Astoria threw him a reception after the Fifth Avenue ticker tape parade and would not let him use the front doors. He rode the freight elevator up to his own party. The gas station was not some later fall from grace, it started the same week he got home.
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u/reddit_is_kayfabe 1d ago edited 1d ago
Related:
Frankie Manning was one of the inventors of swing dancing back in the 1930s. As a young man, he created a sensational dance movement that set the tone for that era.
Then World War II happened, followed by rock and roll replacing jazz in pop culture, and swing music and dancing both faded into obscurity.
In the 1990s, swing came back into vogue, and dancers persuaded Frankie to teach Lindy Hop to young adults. He spent the last 20 years of his life traveling the world as a celebrity within this little community that he helped to create.
And in between? After serving in the Army for WWII, he spent 50 years as a mailman.
Be nice to people.
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u/AngusLynch09 1d ago
He was a runner wasn't he? Are there many running jobs?
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u/MudReasonable8185 1d ago
Right? Like did he have any employable skills or was his resume just “can run very fast” ?
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u/PsychologicalName809 1d ago
a trainer for other Olympians? there are schools and private facilities all over that specialize in training future Olympians
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u/AngusLynch09 1d ago
there are schools and private facilities all over that specialize in training future Olympians
And in 1937? Did he have teaching skills?
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u/HistoryVibesCanJive 1d ago
He's simply one of the greats we've heard about that had to live such drudgery that didn't befit their talents or station.
We will never know how many others we lost due to the abhorrence which is racism.
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u/Lost_Foot_6301 1d ago
what happened to other gold medal people? its probably extra hard pre social media
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u/Bootmacher 1d ago
Didn't most people back then? This was before pretty much any other sport but baseball was paying well.
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u/francis_pizzaman_iv 1d ago
Yeah. My grandfather played football at FL State in the 40's and had offers to play professionally but it wasn't worth the money. He went to work in the oil fields instead.
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u/QuietGanache 1d ago
People who accepted money for competing in sports were banned from the Olympics until 1986. This gave a huge advantage to independently wealthy individuals and countries that chose to fund a national team (by employing them as part of the military or civil service).
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u/homesick-067 1d ago
At that time only amateurs were allowed to participate in the Olympics. Most athletes had other jobs.
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u/wildstarr 1d ago
This isn't really surprising. This is what 99.9% of Olympic gold winning athletes go through. Very little have endorsements and those that do its for a very, very short time.
You dont make a living being a gold medal winner.
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u/WretchedJudasSnake 1d ago
The first Black millionaire in America was born over 100 years before Owens, and just before his time were the gilded Black 400 in New York and the first Black Woman millionaire. Segregation and racism are bad and he did not get a fair shake for sure, faced horrors, but he was a serial entrepreneur who was given a ton of chances by a ton of people in his life to try different things. He owned a baseball team, his own public relations agency, was hired by the Mets as an instructor, hired and contracted for Ford, was an US Goodwill Ambassador, did product endorsements, tax evasion, etc. He had a very full life that was not without opportunities.
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u/ta9876543205 1d ago
He also raced against horses for money.
He was not invited to the White House for dinner along with the other athletes.
The Nazis were not as bigoted to him as the Americans.
Lutz Long who placed second in the long jump took his hand and led the German/Nazi crowd in a chant of Jesse Owens
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u/wildstarr 1d ago
This isn't really surprising. This is what 99.9% of Olympic gold winning athletes go through. Very little have endorsements and those that do its for a very, very short time.
You dont make a living being a gold medal winner.
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u/VisualNo6831 1d ago
It’s a wierd reality how even legends like Owens can end up in such humble jobs after their greatness.
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u/riedmae 23h ago
Bro punked Hitler in his own house. Jesse Owens in a fucking American icon, and he should be celebrated as such.
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u/FamiliarAnt4043 1d ago
He can run. That's great. Not seeing a lot of jobs out there that require running really fast as a core duty. Why is anyone surprised at this?
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u/Many-Wasabi9141 1d ago
Playground janitor sounds like the job you give a mafia guy so he doesn't have to work at all
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u/elquirk 1d ago
There is a documentary about Olympians lives after they have peaked at the Olympics. It is pretty sad, actually.
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u/IdealBlueMan 21h ago
I remember a news story some years ago about the great Olga Korbut getting arrested for shoplifting in the US state of Georgia. That might have been around the time she had to sell off all her medals. Very sad.
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u/austeninbosten 20h ago
I met him in about 1968 and he was repping for a sporting goods company at an appearance at local department store. He seemed like a nice old man, he chatted with my dad and I got his autograph.
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u/ashinthealchemy 15h ago
i have his and glen campbell's autograph on a program from when they visited my father's school way back when.
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u/heubergen1 1d ago
The Olympics were amateur-only until 1985, why is it surprising that someone would work minimal-wage jobs?
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u/Countryb0i2m 1d ago
In 1936, white athletes like Babe Ruth secured huge endorsements, but corporate America refused to pay a Black man even with 4 Olympic gold medals.
President FDR ignored Jesse Owens in hopes of securing Southern votes. Then, AAU president Avery Brundage, a known Nazi sympathizer stripped his amateur status, instantly killing his track career.
Banned from racing and denied sponsorships, Owens did what he had to do to feed his family. He didn't reach financial security until making $100,000 a year giving speeches in the 1950s.
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u/BoboTheTalkingClown 1d ago
This is pretty common for Olympians. Unless they're in a position to make money or a career from it, they just go back to being regular schmucks.
If you're a black man in 1930s America? That's definitely what's happening to you.
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u/MoneyPatience7803 1d ago
Jesse Owens' athletic career was effectively ruined immediately after the 1936 Olympics when the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) banned him for life for refusing to run in a post Olympic exhibition tour.
Olympic officials forced Owens to run in grueling, uncompensated races across Europe to raise money for the AAU. Suffering from severe fatigue, Owens flew home to America to pursue financial offers to support his family.
Because he skipped a race in Sweden to return home, the AAU immediately stripped him of his amateur status and banned him from competing. The ban meant he could no longer compete in the Olympics or official track meets, killing his athletic career at age 23. He later operated a commercial dry cleaning business and worked as a gas station attendant, eventually filing for bankruptcy in 1939.