JESSE OWENS

Speaks...

Editor's Note: Jesse Owens certainly needs no introduction to the majority of Americans or the sports loving public of any nation in the world. Voted the Greatest Athlete of the Twentieth Century by the Associated Press, Jesse is the only man who has an Olympic Record made in the 1936 Games that is still unbrokenhis fantastic mark of more than 26 feet in the running broad jump. Jesse has served as a counselor for the Ford Motor Company, was Secretary of the Illinois Athletic Commission, and presently is a member of the Illinois Youth Commission. He has made several trips around the world at the request of the United States State Department as a goodwill ambassador, and is constantly in demand as a speaker before civic groups and young people's meetings.

WALT

For a long time it has seemed most incongruous to me that a nation as rich in material wealth and blessed with a democratic form of government, as is the United States, should lag so far in the promotion of the physical welfare of its young people. Perhaps in this brief article I can outline a program which, if followed, might bring a greater degree of physical fitness to the youth of our country.

I grew up in the Depression Days of the 30's. The splendid cinder tracks that are so commonplace today were scarce then. You got your exercise by being an errand boy or sweeping out a factory floor. Yet, I daresay, youngsters in those days were just as robust, if not more so, than the teenage boys of today.

The average 16-year-old today is more interested in hot rods and sport car records than cinder paths and track records. The high school youth of the moment is more concerned with the status of the hit records on the radio. than with the possibility of making one of the athletic teams of his school.

By no means is this an indictment of the young men themselves. On the contrary, I have found, by personal experience all over the nation, that good counsel and proper inspiration leads these youngsters along the high road to physical fitness, mental alertness, and moral strength.

My quarrel, if it may be termed that, is with some of my fellow adults. We speak in generalities of the virtues of sports competition on one hand, while on the other, we concentrate on making a dollar the best way we canoften at the expense of these same children.

Let me give an example, Chicago, like many other large metropolitan areas, has spent vast sums in acquiring and maintaining parks and recreational area wheer there are ample facilities for baseball, tennis, golf, swimming, and other sports. Yet, having built these magnificent facilities we have permitted them to stand largely unused and unheralded, expecting that their sheer existence will attract and hold the interest of the youth of the community. Nothing could be more fallacious.

In a quarter of a century of working with young people I have yet to find a successful athletic program that was completely generated, maintained

and promoted through the efforts of youth alone. The conspicuous examples of success have been those cases where inspiration and guidance was supplied by leaders who understand young people, who know the physical needs of the human body, and who know how to develop the highest potential of a

youngster.

My work often takes me into boy's clubs around the nation. Frequently I hear the same complaint. Worried parents approach me and say, "look at this fine building. We have put thousands of dollars into this structure. There's a basketball floor, billiard tables, table tennis, and all sorts of equipment and still the boys don't come and stay. They are down at the drug store or out riding in a car."

The answer to the above and to the problem of outdoor recreation centers is simple. Full time counselors who know boys, who know physical fitness programs, and who can build enthusiasm for a strong body and an eager mind.

Yes, this will cost money. A properly administrated national program would probably cost better than a half billion dollars a year. But it's worth it. Every cent of it. Like bread cast upon the waters, it would return us a wealth of health in future generations and literally conquer the cancer of juvenile delinquency in short order.

It has been my pleasure to meet in Washington, D. C., at the request of President Eisenhower, with leading athletes and directors of physical fitness programs from all over the nation. The resulting seminars and round table discussions were summarized in high sounding communiques and then the entire subject was officially forgotten until the next year. This is more than unfortunate-it is an injustice to our young people today and an ill omen for the still unborn.

Our governing bodies in Washington and the various state legislatures as well as municipal groups are pressed with the eternal problems of taxation, administration of various laws and a plethora of other matters that are supported and opposed by high pressure lobbies. The welfare of our youth has no voice of power working on its behalf.

I do not wish to sound like a voice of doom. I do feel that there is hope in the immediate years ahead. Both major political parties have nominated men of youth and vigor for the Presidency of the United States. No matter who wins in November, I am confident that the power and influence of the White House will be placed behind a project similar in many ways, if not exactly, to that which I propose. Both Dick Nixon and Jack Kennedy are sports enthusiasts and that is good. They are both cognizant of the need for a healthy body to meet the problems of the atomic age.

Many years ago Tom Edison said his great inventions were "90% perspiration and 10% inspiration." I would like to paraphrase that remark, based on my own years in competition and the other years I have devoted to work with youngsters of the nation. I have always felt that success in any competitive sport was based at least 60% on inspiration and no more than 40% on natural ability. Some of the greatest champions I have known actually had less than 10% of the natural ability of the average youth when they started in competition .It was the guidance, enthusiasm, and leadership supplied by a coach or a counselor that would lead the young man to practice daily, to patiently observe his mistakes and improve upon his performance.

The adoption of a national program of physical fitness counseling to the youth of America would, most certainly, produce a new and continuing crop of great champions for America in every field. Let's press for it and get the job done!