42: The Legacy of a Hero
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Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in the city of Cairo, Georgia. He was the youngest of five children being raised by a single mother in California. There was no way to know of the man he would become or of the turns his life would take. After seeing what his brother went through when he returned home after winning a silver medal in the 1936 Olympic Games, who could predict Jackie’s name would be known throughout the ages?
Jackie Robinson not only changed baseball, but he also changed the world, and his actions reverberated through the country and through time itself. Robinson changed everything with the single act of playing the game that he loved. Many people would call Jackie Robinson a hero except for maybe the man himself. He didn’t consider himself a hero — he just wanted to play a game.
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” Jackie Robinson
But perhaps it was that act that made him one.
After all, what are the makings of a hero? Is it their past? Their actions? Their character? Is it the way they overcame adversity or how they carried themselves?
In Jackie Robinson’s case, it was all of the above.1947: That was when he broke the color barrier in baseball. If you think about it, that was only 74 years ago — not even a hundred years have passed. Black people weren’t allowed to play even when they knew the game, even when they were talented. All because of the color of their skin — something that is fully out of their control. And when they did, they were subjected to hate, death threats, leers, just the worst sides of humanity.
Jackie Robinson dealt with hatred from other teams, from his own teammates. Death threats that the FBI had to investigate. All for playing a game while black. Someone else would have given up. But Robinson never did — not even when it broke his heart. Through the strength of his character, he left a legacy as everlasting as his. He was a once-in-a-lifetime talent with a .313 batting average, 972 runs scored, 1,563 hits, and of course the 200 stolen bases, something he was known for.
He wasn’t just a master at baseball; while attending college, he was the first person in UCLA history to letter in four sports in the same year. Robinson was a vocal civil rights activist and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, making history once again as he became the first African American to do so. He’s been the topic of books, songs, museums, and movies — one of which he starred in himself, and the other had the late Chadwick Boseman in the role of Robinson.
His jersey number, 42, is the only number retired throughout all of baseball.
And since 2009, every April 15, on Jackie Robinson Day, every major league team wears the 42 as a reminder of the man who broke the barriers and transformed the game.
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