Page 27 - Sports Illustrated KIDS Magazine (January - February 2020)

history

Robinson was
hand-picked
by Branch
Rickey to
break the color
barrier. Rickey
wanted a
player who
Robinson signed with the Dodgers could handle
organization in October 1945, after the pressure
spending one season in the Negro leagues. and hatred—
But Dodgers president Branch Rickey and had plenty
wanted to ease his transition to the majors, of support. For
so Rickey decided that Robinson would Robinson, that
spend the 1946 season with the Montreal was a fellow UCLA student named Rachel Isum.
Royals of the Triple A International League. They married in 1946, a year before Robinson’s
Robinson was largely welcomed in major league debut, after a five-year courtship.
Canada. He and his wife, Rachel, lived below “When they try to destroy me, it’s Rachel who
a family with eight French-speaking keeps me sane,” Robinson said. They would have
children. When Rachel was pregnant, the three children, and Rachel went on to become a
kids would always carry her groceries for her. nurse and then a professor.
And Robinson gave fans plenty of reason
to cheer on the field. He led the league in
batting average (.349) and runs scored as
the Royals put up a record of 100–54.
Family
That was good enough to earn them a
Man
JOHN LENT/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK (ROYALS); NINA LEEN/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES (FAMILY);
spot in the Junior World Series, against
After leaning
the champions of the Triple A American on his wife
Association, the Louisville Colonels. to fight
When the series began in Kentucky, prejudice,
Robinson
Robinson wasn’t allowed to stay in the
became
team hotel, which was for whites only. so beloved
The Royals considered not playing, but that he was
the series went on. welcomed
on the
Robinson got off to a slow start in the enormously
CBS PHOTO ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES (ED SULLIVAN SHOW) clinch the series. After the final game, Show after Robinson retired from the majors in 1957. Forty-
first three games in Louisville, but he
popular Ed
led the Royals to three straight wins to
Sullivan
he retired.
he was mobbed by ecstatic fans, who
seven years after his death, he remains one of the
hugged him and tore at his clothes.
“I will always feel a deep sense of gratitude
most popular players in history. The Rookie of the
Year Award is named for him, and the number 42
and appreciation for the attitudes of
was retired league-wide in his honor. Every April 15,
the people in Montreal,” Rachel told
the anniversary of his first game, all major leaguers
Smithsonian Magazine in 2015. “It had
a lot to do with our future success.”
wear 42 on their jerseys.

SIKIDS.COM / 23