The future Hall of Famer and man who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, Jackie Roosevelt Robinson was drafted into the Army in 1942 during World War II. This was following a distinguished college career at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he became the first athlete to letter in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.
He was initially assigned to a segregated cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas, before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1943. He joined the 761st “Black Panthers” Tank Battalion. In 1944, Robinson boarded an Army bus and was ordered to sit in the back but refused. He was taken into custody by military police and court-martialed. He was later acquitted and sent to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky.
There, he served as an Army athletics coach until receiving an honorable discharge in 1944. The next year, Robinson began playing baseball for the Missouri’s Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro leagues. He was spotted by Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Rickey signed Robinson and placed him with Brooklyn’s minor-league club, the Montreal Royals. Robinson was called up to make his major league debut with the Dodgers in 1947 as the first African-American player in MLB history.
He went on to be a six-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, and 1955 World Series champion. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962 and passed away in 1972. His number was retired by MLB in 1997.
