Scholarly Swing:
Jackie Robinson's College Triumphs

In 1939 Robinson entered the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he became the first student ever to earn letters in four different sports.
College

UCLA Track Star, Jackie Robinson broke molds in the early 1940s

After graduating high school, Jackie attended Pasadena Junior College for two years, where he continued to have success in all four sports. Following the death of another older brother, Frank, in a motorcycle accident, Jackie decided to honor his memory by enrolling at UCLA in 1939.

There, he became the first Bruin to earn varsity letters in four sports — the same four in which he starred in high school — and he won the NCAA long jump championship in 1940. Jackie also met his future wife, Rachel, while at UCLA.

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Jackie Robinson Professional Football Player

At UCLA, Robinson became the first athlete to letter in four varsity sports and in 1941 was named to the All-American football team. Jackie ultimately left college in the spring of his senior year, just a few credits short of his graduation.

He briefly played professional football for the Honolulu Bears in 1941, leaving Hawaii just two days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

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Military

Jackie was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942

Jackie was drafted into the U.S. Army in the spring of 1942, during World War II, although he never saw combat. He was accepted into Officer Candidate School and was assigned to segregated Army units, first in Kansas and then in Texas.

In 1944, Jackie was nearly court-martialed after he boarded a bus at Fort Hood in Texas and refused the driver’s order to sit in the back, as segregationist practices in the United States dictated at the time.

Jackie was honorably discharged from the Army in November 1944, and he took a job coaching basketball at a college in Austin, Texas.

Learn More at the WW2 Museum
gettyimages 514867314 960 October 23, 1945 : Jackie Robinson, in military uniform, becomes the first African American to sign with a white professional baseball team. He signs a contract with the minor league club in Montreal, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Photo by Getty Images.