(above) Eulace Peacock, 1933 graduate of Union High School and member of the UHS Athletic Hall of Fame inaugural class, is featured in exhibit at the Caldwell Parsonage in Union. Peacock defeated Jesse Owens many times in track and field events.
UHS Athlete’s Part In Backstory Of Race, Jesse Owens Biopic, Out February 19
The Caldwell Parsonage Museum, 909 Caldwell Avenue, Union, features an exhibit of some of Union’s outstanding athletes. Unique among them is Eulace Peacock, UHS Class of 1933, the U. S. track and field competitor dreaded by Jesse Owens.
Owens said of Peacock in 1935, “Eulace is a great runner, and a very good jumper. [He] has been right behind me for quite a while. It looks as though he’s more than caught up now…. I don’t know whether I can defeat him again.” He never did.
Peacock’s New York Times 1992 obituary reads that the senior track star set a state scholastic long jump record (24’ 4.25”) that remained unbroken for 44 years until Renaldo Nehemiah of Scotch Plains, jumped 24’ 11.”
The Parsonage, once the residence of American Revolution heroes, Rev. James and Mrs. Hannah Caldwell, is listed on both the National and State Registers of Historic Places. Admission is free, but donations to preserve the site and its artifacts are greatly appreciated.
More information is available at the Society’s websites unionhistory.org or uniontwphistoricalsociety.webs.com or by calling Barbara La Mort, President, at 908-687-0048.
