Big Ten Icon Profiles

Big Ten Icons: Jesse Owens

Thousands of athletes have distinguished themselves and earned acclaim for their schools in the storied 114-year history of the Big Ten Conference, but no individual?s accomplishments cast a larger shadow than those of Jesse Owens. In 1936, three years before the world went back to war, his fleet feet and indomitable spirit struck a telling […]

Big Ten Icons: Tom Harmon

Tom Harmon transcends the overused term ?football hero.? He was a hero in most every sense of the word. Seventy years after he last performed as a single-wing tailback for the University of Michigan, ?Old 98? is still remembered as perhaps the most talented player in Wolverines history, a true triple threat on offense and […]

Big Ten Icons: Nile Kinnick

Truth, we are told, can be stranger than fiction. In Nile Kinnick?s case it was also more impressive. The spellbinding exploits of Frank Merriwell and Jack Armstrong and other fictional sports heroes of the early 20th century had nothing on the real-life accomplishments of Kinnick, who with his fellow Ironmen pretty much rescued University of […]