Jackie Robinson
Image source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/Jackie%20Robinson%20sliding.jpg
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia in 1919. By 1935, Robinson had graduated middle school and enrolled in high school at Muir Tech High School. At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level and lettered in four of them: football, basketball, track, and baseball. He played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, and guard on the basketball team. With the track and field squad, he won awards in the broad jump. He was also a member of the tennis team. Robinson graduated high school and enrolled at Pasadena Junior College.
Robinson continued his sports career at Pasadena Junior College, Robinson graduated in 1939 and transferred to UCLA. While enrolled, Jackie became the first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track. In 1941, he was named to the All-American football team. Due to financial difficulties, he was forced to leave college, and eventually decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. After two years in the army, he had progressed to second lieutenant. Jackie's army career was cut short when he was court-martialed in relation to his objections with incidents of racial discrimination. In the end, Jackie left the Army with an honorable discharge.
Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Jackie_robinson_ucla_track.jpg
In 1945, Jackie played one season in the Negro Baseball League. In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey approached Jackie about joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Major Leagues had not had an African-American player since 1889, when baseball became segregated. Because of this feat, Robinson is sometimes referred to as baseball's barrier breaker.
At the end of Robinson's rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he had become National League Rookie of the Year with 12 homers, a league-leading 29 steals, and a .297 average.
Watch Robinson in action as he steals home!
Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship. He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954. In 1949, he was selected as the NL's Most Valuable player of the Year, the first black player so honored, and also won the batting title with a .342 average that same year.
Robinson also found success outside of the diamond. He was the first African-American television analyst in Major League Baseball, and the first African-American vice-president of a major American corporation. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned/controlled financial institution based in Harlem, New York. In recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
More footage of the Hall of Famer
Check out Robinson reciting the alphabet with the muppets.
The southern belle side of me loves that he says "dubya" *smiles*
Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams. Robinson joined the ancestors on October 24, 1972. His legacy lives on in the baseball players we know and love today
HUSL Today Salutes Jackie Robinson!
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