Yesterday, Major League Baseball commemorated the debut of famed baseball player Jackie Robinson with the 18th celebration of Jackie Robinson Day.
To honor the barrier breaker, all MLB players wore Robinson’s number, No. 42, on their jerseys. Since 2022 marks the 75th celebration of Robinson’s debut, the number was in blue, the color of the Dodgers, on all of the players’ jerseys regardless of their own team colors. Other tributes included a new logo and a program about Robinson featuring interviews with Bo Jackson and more called “Remembering Jackie.” The feature premiered on the MLB network.
On April 15, 1947, Robinson made history when he started for the Brooklyn Dodgers- now the Los Angeles Dodgers- at the first-base position, officially ending almost 60 years of segregation in MLB. That same year he won the first national MLB Rookie of the Year Award. Through his ten-year run with the Dodgers, he helped bring them to the World Series six times. In 1955, Robinson and the Dodgers won the World Series for the first time. Two years later, he retired from playing and became heavily involved in politics and the Civil Rights Movement as an active member in the NAACP.
While Robinson may be one of the most known, he wasn’t the only Black athlete to stand up against prejudice.
Here are some other Black athletes who overcame the race barrier and helped change the sports world.
Wilma Rudolph (Track & Field): In 1960, Rudolph cemented her place in sports history at the summer Olympics where she was dubbed “the fastest woman in the world.” At the event, she won three gold medals and broke multiple world records, including becoming the first American woman to be decorated with three gold medals in track and field for the same event. Two years later, she retired from participating in track and field events and dedicated her life to education and helping the youth succeed in the sport. Once told that she would not be able to walk after contracting polio, Wilma Rudolph became a track and field legend and won the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Silver Anniversary Award, becoming the first woman to do so.
Major Taylor (Bicyclist): After being entered in his first biking competition by the cycling shop he worked at for promotion, Taylor became one of the first Black athletes to become notable in the sports world as a superstar. As a Black athlete during the Jim Crow Era, he was often banned from participating officially in races and was physically and verbally abused during competitions he was allowed in. Still, Taylor fought against the discrimination and broke multiple world records. In 1899, he became the first Black athlete to become a world champion in cycling and the second Black athlete ever to be a world champion across all sports.
Fritz Pollard (Football): As a player for Brown University, Pollard became the first Black player to join their team, eventually leading them to the 1916 Rose Bowl. When he joined the Akron Pros, a professional football team that had just become part of the American Professional Football Team (now known as the NFL), Pollard helped them become the league’s first champions in 1920. At the time, Pollard along with Bobby Marshall broke barriers as the first Black players in the NFL. A year later, in 1921, he was named co-coach of the Pros, becoming the first Black coach in the NFL. In 1926, Pollard was one of ten Black players to be banned from the NFL, turning his attention to other ventures such as founding his own team and getting involved in business.
Lucy Diggs Slowe (Tennis): Although she’s mostly known as an educator that helped found the first sorority for Black women and served as the first Dean of Women at Howard University, Lucy Diggs Slowe is an important figure in sports, specifically tennis. In 1917, having already started her teaching career, Slowe won the American Tennis Association Women’s Singles championship the first year it was held. Her achievement officially made her the first Black woman to get a major sports title win.
George Poage (Track & Field): In the early 1900s, George Poage made himself known as a track and field athlete at the University of Wisconsin. At the university, Poage became the first Black athlete in the school’s history to make their track and field team. As part of the team, he became the first Black athlete to win the track championship at the Big Ten Conference, a series of sports competitions between the Big Ten colleges. In the same year, Poage won two bronze medals at the 1904 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Black athlete to ever win a medal in the Olympics.
