60 Fun Facts About Jackie Robinson

On what date did Jackie Robinson make his major league debut, breaking the color line?

He started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers before 26,623 fans at Ebbets Field, more than 14,000 of them black.

In which state was Jackie Robinson born?

He was the youngest of five children of sharecroppers in Cairo; the family moved to Pasadena after his father left in 1920.

Robinson's middle name honoured which president, who died 25 days before Jackie was born?

His full name was Jack Roosevelt Robinson.

Robinson's brother Mack won an Olympic silver medal in 1936 behind which sprinter?

Mack finished second in the 200 metres in Berlin; a Pasadena memorial shows nine-foot busts of both brothers.

Robinson was the first UCLA athlete to win varsity letters in how many sports?

Baseball, basketball, football and track; baseball was actually his worst sport there.

In which event did Robinson win the 1940 NCAA championship?

He jumped 24 ft 10 1/4 in; two years earlier he had broken his brother Mack's junior college broad-jump record.

What was Robinson's batting average in his only baseball season at UCLA?

He still went 4-for-4 in his first game and twice stole home.

Which heavyweight champion, stationed at Fort Riley with Jackie Robinson, protested to get Black soldiers into OCS?

The two became personal friends, and Robinson was commissioned a second lieutenant in January 1943.

Robinson was court-martialled in 1944 after refusing to do what?

An all-white panel of nine officers acquitted him of the two remaining insubordination charges.

Robinson's Army unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, was nicknamed what?

It became the first black tank unit to see combat, but Robinson's court-martial kept him from deploying overseas.

Which Negro league team did Robinson sign with in 1945, for $400 a month?

He hit .387 in 47 games at shortstop but hated the disorganisation and gambling around the league.

Which team held a sham tryout for Robinson at Fenway Park in 1945, then became the last to integrate in 1959?

The tryout was staged to placate a Boston city councilman, and Robinson was subjected to slurs even in the empty stands.

Who was the last black player in the majors before Robinson, in 1884?

That gap of over 60 years is what came to be called the baseball color line.

Robinson asked if Rickey wanted 'a Negro afraid to fight back'. What did Rickey say he wanted?

The famous exchange on August 28, 1945 lasted three hours.

How much a month did Rickey agree to pay Robinson under his first contract with the Dodgers organisation?

Rickey paid the Monarchs nothing, arguing Negro league contracts had no reserve clause.

Which Pittsburgh Courier sportswriter did Bill Veeck credit with influencing Rickey to sign Robinson?

Smith later wrote the 1948 book Jackie Robinson: My Own Story.

Rickey said the mistreatment of which black catcher he coached at Ohio Wesleyan in 1903-04 inspired him to sign Jackie?

Rickey also invented the farm system, the batting helmet and the 20-80 scouting scale.

With which minor league club, the Dodgers' International League affiliate, did Robinson spend 1946?

He led the league with a .349 average and was named its MVP; Montreal fans adored him.

Where did Robinson make his professional debut for Montreal on April 18, 1946?

He went 4-for-5 with 4 runs, 3 RBIs and 2 steals.

Why did Robinson play first base rather than his natural infield spot as a 1947 rookie?

He moved to second in 1948 after Stanky was traded to the Boston Braves.

Which Dodgers manager squashed a mutiny by saying he didn't care if a player 'has stripes like a zebra'?

He added that Robinson could make them all rich, and anyone who could not use the money would be traded.

Which team was reported to be planning a strike rather than play against Robinson in 1947?

NL president Ford Frick reportedly warned that strikers would be suspended "if it wrecks the National League for five years".

Which Phillies manager's dugout abuse of rookie Robinson was said by Rickey to have "united the Dodgers"?

Rickey said the abuse "solidified and united thirty men".

Which Dodger is said to have put his arm around Robinson as fans jeered, a moment now cast in bronze in Coney Island?

His line was "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them."

Which Jewish slugger whispered encouragement to Robinson after a collision at first base?

He advised Robinson to beat his critics by beating them in games.

Who broke the American League colour line with Cleveland just 11 weeks after Robinson?

The two spoke by telephone throughout the 1947 season to support each other.

How many stolen bases did Robinson record in 1947, leading the National League?

He also led the league in sacrifice hits with 28 and batted .297.

Robinson won the inaugural Rookie of the Year Award in 1947. What was unusual about it?

Separate NL and AL awards began two years later; both were renamed the Jackie Robinson Award in 1987.

Which Hall of Famer and Dodgers advisor worked with Robinson at a batting tee, lifting his average from .296 to .342?

He taught Robinson to anticipate the fastball and hit to right field.

In what year did Robinson win the National League MVP award, the first black player to do so?

He hit .342 with 37 steals and 124 RBIs that season and started at second base in the first All-Star Game to include black players.

Whose "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?" reached number 13 in Robinson's MVP year?

Count Basie recorded a famous version.

Robinson reluctantly testified before HUAC about statements by which Black actor and singer?

He feared refusing might damage his career.

Which actress played Rachel Robinson in the 1950 biopic The Jackie Robinson Story?

The New York Times praised Robinson's "calm assurance and composure" in the leading role.

Which Dodgers co-owner sneered at Robinson as 'Rickey's prima donna' over his 1950 salary?

Rickey left the Dodgers at the end of 1950 and became general manager of the Pirates.

After the 1951 'Shot Heard 'Round the World', what did Robinson do as the Giants celebrated?

Vin Scully said it showed "how much of a competitor Robinson was".

How many times did Robinson steal home in his career?

None were double steals, and author David Falkner called him "the father of modern base-stealing".

Robinson's only World Series title came in which year?

It was the worst season of his career, and he did not even play in the deciding game.

How many World Series did Robinson play in during his ten seasons?

All were against the Yankees, and the Dodgers won only one of them.

How did Robinson's playing career end in Game 7 of the 1956 World Series?

After the season the Dodgers traded him to the Giants for Dick Littlefield and $35,000, but he had already decided to retire.

Which company made Robinson vice president for personnel, the first black VP of a major US corporation?

His retirement was announced through Look magazine, to which he had sold the exclusive story two years earlier.

What was Robinson's career batting average?

He also drew far more walks (740) than strikeouts (291) and had a .409 on-base percentage.

In what year was Robinson elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, on his first ballot?

He asked voters to judge only his on-field record, not his cultural impact.

Robinson helped found which Harlem-based, black-owned lender in 1964 and served as its first chairman?

He also chaired the NAACP's million-dollar Freedom Fund Drive in 1957.

Whose 1964 nomination made Robinson say he understood "how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler's Germany"?

He had been a national director of Nelson Rockefeller's rival campaign.

In October 1972, what did Robinson say he wanted to see on the third-base coaching line one day?

Frank Robinson became the first black manager two years later, after Jackie's death.

Robinson died of a heart attack in October 1972 at what age?

Diabetes and heart disease had left him almost blind; his son Jackie Jr. had died in a car crash the year before.

Robinson's number 42 was retired across all of Major League Baseball on April 15 of which year?

It was the first number retired league-wide in any of the big American sports leagues.

Who was the last player to wear number 42 under the grandfather clause, retiring in 2013?

Only Wayne Gretzky's 99 and Bill Russell's 6 have since been retired league-wide in other sports.

Whose idea was it for players to wear number 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, first done in 2007?

He asked Rachel Robinson's permission first; since 2009 all uniformed personnel wear 42 on April 15.

Who played Robinson in the 2013 film 42?

Harrison Ford played Branch Rickey; the film earned $97.5 million on a $40 million budget.

The Jackie Robinson Rotunda is the main entrance of which ballpark?

It is modelled on the entrance of the old Ebbets Field and features a giant freestanding 42.

Who was the first baseball player to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, before Jackie Robinson in 2005?

Ronald Reagan had given him the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1984.

In which Georgia town was Jackie Robinson born to a family of sharecroppers in 1919?

He was the youngest of five children; after his father left in 1920 the family moved to Pasadena, California.

Which friend persuaded the young Robinson to leave a Pasadena neighbourhood gang?

Excluded from much of affluent Pasadena's recreation, Robinson and his friends had drifted into the gang.

In 1936 Robinson won a junior singles title in which sport at the Pacific Coast Negro tournament?

The same year he made a Pomona baseball all-star team alongside future Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Lemon.

In the fall of 1941 Robinson played semi-pro football for the racially integrated Bears of which city?

He returned to California in December 1941 to join the Los Angeles Bulldogs, just as the US entered the war.

Where did Robinson work as an assistant athletic director for the National Youth Administration?

He had left UCLA just shy of graduation to earn money for his mother and his future wife Rachel Isum.

After the 1956 season the Dodgers traded Robinson to the Giants for cash and which pitcher?

The deal was never completed: Robinson had already agreed to retire and join Chock full o'Nuts as an executive.

Robinson's retirement was announced through which magazine, to which he had sold the story rights?

The Dodgers only learned of his decision that way, two years after he sold the exclusive rights.

Which comedian played Robinson in The First, a 1981 Broadway musical?

Robinson had played himself in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story.