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Photo courtesy of Michele Dunlap
This display at the Ottawa Library, 105 S. Hickory St., features memorabilia from a local 1933 relay team. At the National Interscholastic Track and Field Championships in June of 1933, the team defeated a team that featured a future Olympic legend — Jesse Owens. Owens went on to win four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
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Library gives glimpse of athletic history
Display shines spotlight on local relay team that beat future Olympic legend Jesse Owens
By JENALEA MYERS, Herald Staff Writer
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You might not have to travel all the way to Beijing to get a taste of the Olympics.
The Ottawa Library, 105 S. Hickory St., has a display featuring memorabilia from a local 1933 relay team consisting of Virgil Sealey, Charles Young, Clarence Heckroot and Jack Richardson.
While you likely won’t recognize any of the runners’ names as Olympians, a summer day in 1933 pinned the team against a future Olympic legend — Jesse Owens.
The event was the 880-yard relay in Chicago on June 17, 1933, the final year for the National Interscholastic Track and Field Championships. Sports writers of the day knew that the relay team to beat would be from East Technical High School of Cleveland, whose rising stars were Owens and another world-class athlete, Dave Albritton.
Coached by Orlis Cox, Ottawa’s relay team was able to rise as the underdogs and defeat the future Olympian and his team.
Michele Dunlap, Franklin County Historical Society Board member and daughter of one of the runners on Ottawa’s team, said the library’s display consists of a letter sweater, gold medal, entry pass and a few other items.
“That was the last one they held,” she said of the meet at Soldier Field in Chicago. “They decided it wasn’t worth it to travel that far, and that was in the midst of the Depression.”
The display has received many viewings since its appearance a couple months ago, library staff said.
“It’s actually been looked at quite a bit,” administrative assistant Linda Knight said, adding that the display probably would be taken down soon, but no exact date has been set.
In recalling the Chicago competition in later years, Cox attributed his team’s victory to the unorthodox placement of his most competitive sprinter, Heckroot, in the third position, which is usually reserved for a team’s slowest runner.
Owens went on to win four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Albritton took home the silver medal in the high jump the same year.
The display can be found on the main floor of the library. Library hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; and 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Herald staff writer Jenalea Myers can be e-mailed at jmyers@ottawaherald.com.
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