Jackie robinson 2
Jackie robinson 2Robinson, Jackie (1919-72), American athlete and business executive. He was born Jack Roosevelt Robinson in Cairo, Georgia. He attended Pasadena Junior College (now Pasadena City College) in California and the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undergraduate, Robinson excelled in football, basketball, baseball, and track. He left college in 1941 in his junior year and shortly thereafter joined the U.S. Army.
Discharged early in 1945 with the rank of first lieutenant, Robinson signed a contract to play professional baseball with the Monarchs, a Kansas City, Missouri, team of the Negro American League. Later in 1945 Robinson signed with Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, to play with the minor league Royals in Montr�al. After one season with the Royals, Robinson joined the Brooklyn team and became the first black to play modern major league baseball. From 1947 to 1956, mostly as a second baseman, Robinson batted .311 in 1382 games. He was also a daring baserunner. In 1962 Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the first black player so honored.
After leaving baseball, Robinson was vice president of a restaurant chain in New York City. From 1964 to 1968 he served as special assistant for civil rights to Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. Robinson starred in the motion picture The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) and was the author, with Alfred Duckett, of I Never Had It Made (1972)
ROBINSON, Jackie (1919-72). The first black player in either of the major baseball leagues was Jackie Robinson. He broke the color barrier in 1947, two years after he was signed by Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn (now Los Angeles) Dodgers.
Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born in Cairo, Ga., on Jan. 31, 1919. He grew up in Pasadena, Calif. In high school and...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.