Jackie Robinson (baseball)
From Hoopedia
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) became the first African-American major league baseball player of the modern era in 1947.
In 1935, Robinson graduated from Dakota Junior High School and enrolled in John Muir High School ("Muir Tech"). There he played on various Muir Tech sport teams, and lettered in four of them. He was a shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, a quarterback on the football team, a guard on the basketball team, and a member of the tennis team and the track and field squad. He won awards in the broad jump.
In 1936, he captured the junior boys singles championship in the annual Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament, starred as quarterback, and earned a place on the annual Pomona baseball tournament all-star team, which included future Baseball Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Lemon. The next year, Jackie played for the high school's basketball team. That year, the Pasadena Star-News reported on the young Robinson.
After leaving Muir, Jackie attended Pasadena Junior College and played both football and baseball. He played quarterback and safety for the football team, shortstop and leadoff batter for the baseball team, and participated in the broad jump.
While at PJC, he was elected to the "Lancers,” a student run police organization responsible for patrolling various school activities. He dated and made friends. However, on January 25, 1938, he was arrested for questionable reasons and sentenced to two years probation.
In 1938, he was elected to the All-Southland Junior College (baseball) Team and selected as the region's Most Valuable Player. On February 4, 1939, he played his last basketball game at Pasadena Junior College. Thereupon Robinson was awarded a gold pin and was named to the school's "Order of the Mast and Dagger" (Omicron Mu Delta).
After leaving PJC, Robinson chose to attend the nearby University of California, Los Angeles, where became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track.
Robinson led Pacific Coast Conference's Southern Division in scoring in both 1940 (12.4 average in 12 league games) and 1941 (11.1 average in 12 league games) and was named All-PCC Southern Division in 1940.
In the 1946-47 season, Robinson played for the Los Angeles Red Devils independent pro basketball team.
John Isaacs, who played with the New York Rens, reported that the 5'11" Robinson was the first person he had heard of able to dunk the ball.
Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 and was named as a charter member of UCLA's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984.
