Jackie Robinson

In one of the most significant moments in American sports history, baseball great Jackie Robinson became the first African American professional baseball player since 1889 when he stepped on the field donning a Brooklyn Dodgers cap in 1947.

Born Jack Roosevelt Robinson in Georgia in 1919, Robinson was a natural born athlete and became the first athlete at UCLA to earn varsity letters in four sports: football, baseball, basketball, and track. In 1945 he played one season in the Negro Baseball League with the Kansas City Monarchs before being asked to join the majors by Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey. The league had been segregated since 1889 and Robinson single-handedly broke down the racial barrier and forever changed the game.

Blessed with impressive speed, in his first season Robinson lead the league in stolen bases with 29 and was named the 1947 Major League Rookie of the Year. In 1949 he won the batting tile with a .342 average and was named the National League MVP. He played in six straight All-Star games from 1949-1954 and led the Dodgers to a World Series Championship in 1955 when the defeated city rivals, the New York Yankees. He was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

Robinson passed away in 1972, but his tremendous talent and monumental impact on the sport and country will never be forgotten. In 1997 President Bill Clinton paid tribute to Robinson in a ceremony at Shea Stadium on the 50th anniversary of his historical breaking of baseball’s color barrier.