Jackie Robinson's Legacy
5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Man Who Changed Baseball Forever
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He Played Basketball Professionally
Robinson was looking to make a little extra dough in the winter of 1946-1947 when he joined the Los Angeles
Red Devils, a barnstorming basketball team
owned and operated by Chapman University star Jack Duddy. The squad’s integrated roster also featured two other future Major League ballplayers, including New York Yankees outfielder Irv Noren and Cincinnati Redlegs first baseman George Crowe.
Asked about Robinson years later, Crowe said his speedy teammate was a “good basketball player” who gave him the impetus to pursue his lifelong dream of playing in the big leagues. "We had hope once Jackie got in. Everybody started taking it seriously," he said. "[We thought], 'If I'm good enough, maybe I can make it someday.'"
He Has An Asteroid Named After Him
American astronomer Schelte J. Bus honored Robinson posthumously on March 1, 1981, when he named a newly discovered main-belt asteroid after the former Dodgers star. 4319 Jackierobinson, as it is officially known, was first spotted at Australia’s Siding Spring Observatory in the course of the U.K. Schmidt-Caltech Asteroid Survey.
Baseball Was His Worst Sport In University
Robinson first rose to national prominence in 1939 when he became a four-sport star at UCLA. This fleet-footed phenom was especially devastating on the gridiron, where he led the Bruins in rushing, passing, total offense, scoring, and punt returns during his senior season. He also won the NCAA title
in the broad jump and twice led the Pacific Coast Conference's Southern Division in scoring as an All-PCC hoops star. Ironically, the only sport he didn’t dominate was baseball. Robinson hit just .097 for the Bruins during his first — and only — season on the squad in 1940. He could have attempted to improve his batting average in the spring of 1941 but decided instead to leave school early to become an assistant athletic director at the government's National Youth Administration.