Early life:

           Jack "Jackie" Roosevelt Robinson was born January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia.

He was the youngest of five children born to Mallie (McGriff) and Jerry Robinson. 

Shortly after his birth, his family moved and settled in Pasadena, California. President

Theodore Roosevelt, who died 25 days beforeRobinson was born, was the inspiration for his middle name, Roosevelt. Robinson and his minority friends were excluded from many recreational opportunities, As a result, Robinson joined a neighborhood gang, but his friend Carl Anderson persuaded him to abandon it. 

           In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High

School and enrolled at John Muir High School .Recognizing his

athletic talents, Robinson's older brothers, Mack inspired Jackie to

pursue his interest in sports. After Muir, Robinson attended 

 

Pasadena Junior College (PJC), where he continued his athletic career by participating in basketball, football, baseball, and track.

After graduating from  Pasadena Junior College in spring 1939, Robinson transferred to University of California, Los Angeles, where he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.

           He was one of four black players on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team. the others were Woody Strode, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett. In track and field, Robinson won the 1940 NCAA Men's Track and Field Championships in the Long Jump, jumping 24 ft 10 1/4 in.

While a senior at UCLA, Robinson met his future wife, Rachel Isum, a UCLA freshman who was familiar with Robinson's athletic career at Pasadena Junior College. 

In the spring semester of 1941, despite his mother's and Isum's reservations, Robinson left college just shy of graduation. He took a job as an assistant athletic director with the government's National Youth Administration in Atascadero, California.

 

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