Jackie Robinson, track star

On this day each of the last two years, I’ve talked about Jackie Robinson’s football career and I’ve explored his basketball career.  This year, for Jackie Robinson Day, we’re going to look at Robinson as a track star.  Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information out there regarding Jackie’s track career, likely due to track season and baseball season both falling in the spring.  But we’ll take a look at what we can find.

As many well know, before Jackie Robinson made history by breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier, he had been a four-sport star at UCLA, playing baseball, football, basketball, and participating in track and field.  He remains the only four-letter athlete in the school’s history.  But his athletic achievements certainly didn’t begin there.

Inspired by his older brother Matthew (a.k.a. “Mack”), who won a silver medal in the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Robinson had been a four-letter athlete even before college.  He attended John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, earning varsity letters in those same four sports he would continue competing in through college.  As part of the track and field team, Robinson competed in the long jump.

After graduating high school, Jackie attended Pasadena Junior College for two years, where he continued to have success in all four sports.  In track and field, Robinson broke school records in the long jump previously held by his older brother Mack.  A brief story in the June 26, 1938 issue of the Los Angeles Times made reference to Robinson’s talents as he headed to Buffalo, New York for the National AAU Track and Field Championships:

Following his two years at Pasadena Junior College, Jackie Robinson went on to enroll at UCLA.  He missed most of the 1940 track season because of his baseball duties, but still went on to win the Pacific Coast Conference and NCAA titles in long jump with leaps of 25’0″ and 24’10”.

Had the 1940 and 1944 Olympics not been canceled due to World War II, some contend that Robinson likely could have competed at the Olympic level.  Unfortunately, while he would go on to play football, basketball, and (of course) baseball at the professional level, the end of Robinson’s time at UCLA also seems to have marked the end of his track and field career.

Jackie Robinson Foundation