“Awards become corroded, but friends gather no dust.”
~Jesse Owens, American athlete & orator
Address to students & staff of East High School, Phoenix, Arizona, cited in “Former Olympic Star Prescribes Education” (April 1973) article by Isabel Braunstein, Arizona Republic, 14 April 1973, p. 63, column 5 [p. 64 .pdf file]; online via Newspapers.com [subscription service] www.newspapers.com
Extended excerpt [Newspaper article, describing Owens’ speech to high school students]:
“He approves athletics, he said, because they provide other young people, as they provided him, with something to compete and excel in.
But he advised: “Athletic awards become tarnished and diplomas fade with passing years. Gold turns green and the ink grays until you cannot read what is on that diploma or medal…What really counts is the realities of life.”
“There will be winners and there will be losers in athletic competition,” he continued. “But friendships born on the fields of athletic strife are the real gold of competition. Awards become corroded but friends gather no dust.” (p. 63, column 5)
Source link: “Former Olympic Star Prescribes Education (14 April 1973) The Arizona Republic, via Newspapers.com: https://www.newspapers.com/image/117439438
“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.”
~Jesse Owens, American athlete & orator
Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man (1970) New York, NY: William Morrow & Co., p. 150
Extended excerpt [Memoir, Italics as found in cited Owens text]:
“Yet even if something should happen to me, even if I checked out tomorrow and never got to see my idea grow into what it can be, I can’t complain. But I sure don’t know who Horatio Alger is. Because the battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.
Life is the real Olympics.” (p. 150)
Source: Library – Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man, Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 71124
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