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A New Ohio Park is to Be Named After Olympian Jesse Owens

photo of Jesse Owens
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
The park area that will be named after track and field athlete Jesse Owens is reclaimed strip mining land, which Ohio acquired last year.

A legendary Ohio Olympian will be honored Tuesday.

Jesse Owens is widely regarded as one of the most talented track and field athletes in history. 

He already has facilities at the Ohio State University named after him. That’s where he was a standout in the school’s track and field program before becoming a four-time gold medalist in the 1936 Olympics.

Now he’ll have something new named after him: a state park and wildlife area in eastern Ohio. 

The state acquired the 13,000-acre area of reclaimed strip mining land last year for about $26 million from American Electric Power.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.