"Jesse Owens: Enduring Spirit"

At 22, Jesse Owens went from college athlete to international celebrity.

He won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany--notable because Owens was on the home turf of Adolph Hitler, who had barred all athletes who weren't members of the "Aryan race" from competing for Germany.

Before the Olympics, Owens had run on Ohio State's track team; in 1972, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate of athletic arts "for his unparalleled skill and ability" as an athlete and for "his personification of sportsmanship ideals."

Watch "Jesse Owens: Enduring Spirit" on the Big Ten Network: January 3 at 9 p.m. or January 4 at 2 p.m.

And learn more about Owens through the University Archives exhibition Jesse Owens: A Lasting Legend.