Jackie Robinson Biography
Jackie Robinson, by name of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, was born on January 31, 1919, Cairo, Georgia, U.S.and died October 24, 1972, Stamford, Connecticut, the first black baseball player to play in the American major leagues during the 20th century.
On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old “colour line” of Major League Baseball when he appeared on the field for the National League Brooklyn Dodgers. He played as an infielder and outfielder for the Dodgers from 1947 through 1956.
Jackie Robinson Age
Jackie Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, and died on October 24, 1972.
Jackie Robinson Family
Jackie Robinson Born to Jerry and Mallie Robinson, Jackie was the youngest of the five children in the family.
In 1920, after his father abandoned his family, they moved to Pasadena, California, where his mother took sundry jobs to sustain her family.
Jackie Robinson Education
He graduated from Washington Junior High School in 1935. He was sent to the John Muir High School where his athletic talents were discovered. He excelled in most of the sports, especially football, basketball, track, and baseball.
After completing studies in John Muir, he attended the Pasadena Junior College from where he graduated in 1939. He was enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles and became its first student to win varsity letters in four sports – baseball, basketball, football, and track.
However, in 1941, he had to quit college, owing to financial difficulties and move to Hawaii, where he played soccer for the semi-professional Honolulu Bears.
Jackie Robinson Wife
Jackie married Rachel Isum, a nursing student he met at UCLA, in 1946
Jackie Robinson Children
Jackie Robinson had three children, Jackie Jr., Sharon and David,
Jackie Robinson Career
Jackie Robinson’s debut in organized baseball (April 18, 1946, with the Montreal Royals of the International League, the Dodgers’ best farm club) is now a legend. In five at-bats he hit a three-run homer and three singles, stole two bases, and scored four times, twice by forcing the pitcher to balk.
Promoted to the Dodgers the following spring, Robinson thrived on the pressure and established himself as the most exciting player in baseball. His playing style combined traditional elements of black sports–the opportunistic risk-taking known as “tricky baseball” in the Negro Leagues–with an aggressive style of play. According to his manager Leo Durocher, “This guy didn’t just come to play. He come to beat ya.”
In their response to Jackie Robinson, African Americans rejected “separate but equal” status and embraced integration. Robinson’s presence in baseball electrified them, and they flocked to see the Dodgers in huge numbers and from great distances.
African American sportswriters, many of whom had advocated baseball integration for years, focused their attentions on Robinson and the black players who followed him. His success encouraged the integration of professional football, basketball, and tennis, while the Negro Leagues, which in a sense depended on segregation, began an irreversible decline, losing ballplayers, spectators and reporters.
During his first two years with the Dodgers, Robinson kept his word to Rickey and endured astonishing abuse amid national scrutiny without fighting back. His dignified courage in the face of virulent racism–from jeers and insults to beanballs, hate mail, and death threats–commanded the admiration of whites as well as blacks and foreshadowed the tactics that the 1960s Civil Rights Movement would develop into the theory and practice of nonviolence.
Jackie Robinson Awards
- National League Most Valuable Player Award
- Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Major League Baseball All-Century Team
- Congressional Gold Medal
- Spingarn Medal
Jackie Robinson Death
He died of a heart attack at the age of 53 and his funeral was attended by thousands of people.
After his death, his wife established the ‘Jackie Robinson Foundation’ in 1973 with the aim of providing scholarships to minority youths for higher education.
In 2002, he was included in the ‘100 Greatest African-Americans’ list and a ‘Jackie Robinson Award’ was created in the Aflac National High School in 2004.
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Jackie Robinson News
Jackie Robinson Day: April 15 celebrates baseball legend’s impact
Monday, April 15th, 2019 11:09PM
He’s known best for breaking the color barrier in baseball, but Jackie Robinson had a huge impact outside of professional sports.
Robinson, who would have turned 100 in 2019, is honored every year on April 15, Jackie Robinson Day. The day marks the anniversary of Robinson’s Major League Baseball debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, when he effectively broke the sport’s longstanding color barrier. Aside from his massive accomplishments in baseball, Robinson accomplished quite a lot off the field as well.
Robinson was a civil rights activist, an executive at Chock full O’Nuts and a newspaper columnist outside of his time with the Dodgers. Robinson was gifted at many sports besides baseball: In college, he was a four-time letterman at UCLA (baseball, football, basketball and track) and after his MLB career ended, Robinson even served as a professional sports broadcaster for ABC.
After his death, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984, the highest civilian honor one can be awarded in the United States.