In 1936, track and field star Jesse Owens received four English oak tree saplings along with his four gold medals at the summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. After returning home, he planted one at Rhodes High School in Cleveland. Now, there's a chance to bid on a sapling that preserves the legacy of that tree.
There are 21 saplings up for auction which are genetic copies of the tree Owens planted.
"These not are only rare items, but they're also living items," said Teleangé Thomas, cofounder of the Cleveland Black Equity and Humanity Fund. "Our commitment is really around preserving the tree as well as the story for generations to come."
The original English oak tree survived for 70 years before it started to decline. It died in 2022, but prior to that, Holden took cuttings of the tree and used those samples to cultivate new saplings.
"You would think that if you just took an acorn from a Jesse Owens tree and you planted it that you would end up with another Jesse Owens tree," said Holden Forest and Gardens CEO Ed Moydell. "In fact, you would end up basically with 50% of one .... So the only way that you can actually develop a clone of that tree is to take cuttings from it."
Those small cuttings were grafted onto an existing English Oak tree to support their growth. While not all of the cuttings survived, David Burke, vice president for science and conservation, said more than two dozen grafted cuttings led to successful tree saplings.
"You can cut the top part of that seedling off so the top of the tree only reflects the branch that you collected, in this case from the Jesse Owens tree," he said. "So the above portion part of this tree is an exact genetic copy of that Jesse Owen tree. The root system came from a seedling that was grown from an acorn. The top is an exactly genetic copy."
The original English oak, and the remaining saplings are essential to preserving a history that could otherwise be lost, Thomas said.
"As a Black woman, so much of our history has been stripped, taken or altered," she said. "It's essential that not only this history is protected, but that it's also available for everyone to connect to."
Owens moved to Cleveland with his family when he was nine and credited the city for much of his athletic success. He lived in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood leading up to and after returning home from the 1936 Olympics games where his four victories countered Adolf Hitler's claims of Aryan superiority.
"What really makes a great athlete is a combination of the skills that they have and the circumstances in which they actually have to perform," said Kevin Johnson, also a cofounder of the Cleveland Black Equity and Humanity Fund. "The pressure that existed on Jesse Owens in 1936 to perform at his peak and understand who was watching .... was very piercing to the host country at that point, and quite frankly, extended hope to the rest of the world."
Owens continued to face the realities of racism after returning home to Cleveland, Thomas said, but this didn't stop him from giving back to his community.
"Not only just in his passion for track and field and athletics but understanding that there were a lot of other Jesse Owens out there, who needed that bridge or that pathway into academics," she said. "It exemplifies [his] character that showed up in every facet of his life."
Though the nation experienced significant progress in the decades since Owens' Olympic victory, Thomas said there are still lessons to be learned from his legacy.
"It's exceptionally critical that this tree, that this sapling, continues to persist and live on," she said, "because we are still facing a lot of the adversity and the challenge and the complexities of this world in modern day. And this history wasn't that long ago."
Several descendants of Owens' original tree are already in the ground at Jesse Owens Olympic Plaza at Rockefeller Park in the Glenville neighborhood, Cleveland's Historic League Park in the Hough neighborhood, the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland and the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.
These trees, along with the saplings up for auction, are a tribute to one of Cleveland's hometown heroes, said Holden CEO Ed Moydell, and a tribute to one of Cleveland’s hometown heroes.
"In Nazi Germany at the time as a Black athlete representing the United States, I think that that represents a triumph against the odds," Moydell said, "and I think also helps represent ... the American story of opportunity and of hope and of perseverance."
Proceeds from the auction will be shared by the Cleveland Black Equity and Humanity Fund. The auction closes at 11:59 p.m. on August 15th. It's too soon to say how much each tree will go for, and how many dollars will be raised in the end, but Johnson said they received impressive offers well before the auction began.
"During the waiting period when we were trying to nurture and make sure that we had saplings that were available for auction, we did receive, through a private source, an offer that was six figures," Johnson said. "The history of the saplings, the authenticity of the samplings and what they represent, the rarity and the scarcity, when you put that all together, it drives a certain reaction in an auction environment, and we'll see how that proceeds."
The current starting bid for a sapling is $25,000.
The silent auction isn't limited to Northeast Ohio, Moydell said, but the English oak tree, native to the Eastern U.S. and Western Europe, may not be well-suited for drier conditions.
"If given the right type of growing conditions, sun exposure, well-drained soil, that sort of thing, I think the chances of success in this area will be pretty strong," he said.
Each person who successfully bids on a sapling will receive a tree care guide along with complimentary service from an arborist to support care for the sapling through its first few years in the ground.
"You want make sure their watered, especially during periods of droughts, so they really have an opportunity to get their roots established and be able to thrive," Burke said. "So it's really that first year that you got to really pay attention and provide some good aftercare."
