The movie about the career of Jackie Robinson — "42" — is being released today. Robinson is well known for being the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball.
The movie probably won’t mention, and most of my readers might be surprised to learn, that Robinson’s professional sports career began in Hawaii.
Jackie Robinson attended UCLA and was the first Bruin to letter in four different sports: baseball, football, basketball and track.
He was a running back at UCLA and averaged an impressive 11.4 yards per carry. He appeared in the college all-star football game in 1941, but the National Football League passed on him as well as other black players.
His wife, Rachel, and brother Mack both believed Jackie was better at football than baseball.
"In those days no major football or basketball clubs hired black players," Robinson said. "The only job offered me was with the Honolulu Bears, which was a racially integrated team."
Robinson came to Hawaii on the Matsonia in 1941 and lived in Kaimuki. Robinson was a celebrity when he arrived in Hawaii. A full-length picture ran in The Honolulu Advertiser with an invitation to "see the sensational, all-American half-back, Jackie Robinson."
The Honolulu Bears (formerly the Honolulu Polar Bears) of the semiprofessional Hawaii Senior Football League offered him $100 a game (about $1,500 in 2013 dollars) as well as a job in construction during the day at Pearl Harbor.
Rounding out the Hawaii Senior Football League were the University of Hawaii Rainbows, the Healani Maroons and Na Aliis.
Robinson stayed awhile at Palama Settlement, then moved into a duplex apartment in Kaimuki near Saint Louis College. A record crowd of 20,000 came to see his first game, in which the Honolulu Bears lost to the Healani Maroons.
"Robinson reeled off some brilliant runs," the newspaper said, "but faltered in his passing, many of his attempts being intercepted." By the end of the season in December, Robinson was injured, the Bears fared poorly and the crowd dwindled to less than 600.
Jackie Robinson was discouraged and homesick. He left Hawaii on the Lurline on Dec. 5, 1941. Two days later the captain called the passengers together and notified them of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The ship sailed with the portholes blacked out, and slipped in and out of sea lanes to avoid possible enemy submarines.
Robinson joined the Army as a second lieutenant but refused to sit in the back of a military bus in Texas and was court-martialed. He was acquitted but left the service.
In the spring of 1944 he joined the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Baseball League, where he made the all-star team.
After World War II in 1945, Brooklyn Dodgers co-owner Branch Rickey wanted to integrate baseball. This was still three years before the armed forces were integrated and nine years before segregation was outlawed in public schools.
Rickey offered Robinson a $600-a-month salary and a $3,500 bonus. That would be about $7,000 a month today. He played AAA minor league ball for the Montreal Royals in his first year and led the league with a .349 batting average.
In April 1947, Robinson donned a Dodger uniform at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn before a crowd of 26,000 and became the first African-American in Major League Baseball. He was Rookie of the Year that year. He went on to play in six World Series and six All-Star Games in a career that spanned only 10 seasons.
Robinson retired in 1956, when I was just 5 years old. My parents were big Dodger fans and were proud of Jackie Robinson more for bringing equality to Major League Baseball than for his indisputable on-field talent.
His number — 42 — was universally retired in 1997, the first time for an athlete in any U.S. sport.
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Bob Sigall is the author of the “Companies We Keep” books. Every Friday, he writes about Hawaii people, places and companies. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
