Spring Premier Auction 2016

In 1936, at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, U.S. sprinter and long jumper Jesse Owens won four gold medals to stun the world. The Ohio State "Buckeye Bullet” even made German dictator Adolf Hitler stand up and take notice. It was a sensational track-and-field performance turned in by the unassuming 23-year-old African-American, the son of a share-cropper. This lot features a Jesse Owens 1936 Berlin Summer Olympic Games “Faster Than Mercury” trophy that was “Presented with Pride” to Owens by The Chicago Defender, a Chicago-based weekly newspaper founded in 1905 for primarily African-American readers. The trophy, which stands 11” tall, features a mythological Greek runner made of metal holding the five Olympic rings in his left hand. On the front of the base of the trophy, which measures four inches across, there is a silver plaque that reads: “JESSE OWENS USA - FASTER THAN MERCURY - Munich Olympics 1936.”