?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(SPORTS--TRACK.) Pewter mug and three medallions from the famous track star Jesse Owens. 4 items, various sizes; condition strong. Vp, 1933, 1964 and undated
This group of three medals and commemorative pewter mug belonged to the great track star Jesse Owens (1913-1980). Owens achieved international fame at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany by winning four gold medals on Adolf Hitler's home turf. The earliest item in this lot is a 1933 medallion from the Ohio High School Athletic Association which reads "OHSAA State Championship" on verso and is engraved "1933 A, 220 Yd. Dash" on verso; it is just under an inch tall. The mug and a ribbon medallion were presented to Owens when he made a celebrity appearance at a big New York Athletic Club track meet in 1964. A news account of the meet noted that Owens was "still able to stride with a feathery touch" and "trotted a lap by himself to a standing ovation" (Plainfield NJ Courier News, 14 February 1964, page 26). Finally, a small United States Olympic flag shield pinback appears to be of post-1936 manufacture, but belonged to Owens. Provenance: given by Owens to an Ohio State classmate in the 1970s; consigned by her daughter at a Swann sale, 26 February 2009, lot 424. with--one original photograph and four later copy prints of the original owner and Owens together at Ohio State in the early 1930s.
