Jesse Owens may be one of the most recognized and accomplished athletes to ever attend Ohio State. The track is named after him, as well as the workout facilities on both north and south campus.
There may also be another symbol on campus to remember Owens, only it is not labeled with a large sign or a building. Some even say this symbol doesn’t exist.
On the south side of the Main Library, there is a large English oak tree. Many who have walked this campus would argue that the tree is the ‘Jesse Owens Oak,’ a gift to the track star from the German people in 1936. John Nagy, a graphic designer for OSU’s biomedical communications media group, believes that it is.
For 20 years, Nagy has been searching out the mystery surrounding the tree. He became interested in finding the location of the tree when he was a student at OSU, studying horticulture.
For most in the OSU community, the story of the oak tree begins long before they were born.
The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany. Amongst the crowd of spectators was the leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler.
The gold medal winners were presented with a potted oak sapling, as a gift from the German people. The trees gained the nickname of “Hitler’s trees,” Nagy says.
Owens who was victorious in three individual events in 1936, the broad jump, the 100-meter race and the 200-meter race, took of the three tiny trees home with him. It is possible that Owens was awarded with additional trees for his victory in the 4×400-meter relay.
“And what about the oak trees that were given to me to plant? One, I gave to the Rhodes High School in Cleveland, Ohio, the city where I spent my youth. One has flourished in the backyard of my mother’s home in Cleveland. And one still stands among the cherished mementos on All-American Row at Ohio State University, where I spent my college days. And the forth one? The forth one unfortunately has died,” Owens said in the 1964 documentary “Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin”.
There is no record of Owens planting a tree on campus in any Columbus newspapers, The Lantern or in university photo archives, according to Nagy. Yet, there is a lot of evidence that convinces Nagy that this is Owens’ tree.
First, Owens claims to have planted the tree in the “All-American Row.” Nagy believes that Owens may have been referring to the All-American Buckeye Grove, once located east of the Horseshoe.
Construction projects in the 1940s may have moved the tree to a different location, possibly on the south side of the library.
In 1988, Nagy asked Steve Cothrel, an urban forester, to analyze the tree. He found the tree to be the same age as the other Olympian tree.
“Regardless of other evidence unearthed, this tree is without question the same age as the Olympian tree,” Cothrel had written in his final report wrote analyzing the tree.
Nagy also points out the tree is the same species of oak that was given to the 1936 Gold Medalists.
Nagy is waiting to receive the DNA test results from a comparison done between the alleged Owens’ oak near the library and the known Owens’ oak at Rhodes High School.
Safety concerns have been raised concerning the tree in past years and they may rise again soon. A 1978 The Lantern reported the tree suffered slight abuse until its history was brought to the attention of the proper authorities during the Main Library tower addition.
The Council on the Physical Environment has put a library renovation and addition project in the works. It is possible that the trees surrounding the library may be removed for construction purposes.
If this really is the tree as Nagy, Owens’ family members and former classmates believe it is, then what can be done to preserve this historic symbol?
Nagy suggests that the university grow seedlings from the tree to plant in an oak tree grove at the new Jesse Owens track. He also thinks that giving seedlings as track awards would be a nice way to keep the history behind Owens’ performance in the 1936 Olympics.
Nagy has a Web site, www.biomed.amp.ohio-state.edu/webowens/gmthistory.htm, which contains letters, pictures and video clips of Owens, as well as details about Nagy’s search for the tree since 1978.
