Jackie Robinson and Mr. Rickey
For the past two weeks, Major League Baseball has celebrated the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson
breaking the color barrier as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke into the major leagues on
April 15, 1947. He played 10 years for the Dodgers and his legacy and story lives on today.
Most of the baseball world celebrated the anniversary when more than 200 players, managers and coaches wore
the famous number forty-two. The Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig presented to Mrs. Rachel Robinson,
widow of Jackie, the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award for her work with the Jackie Robinson
Foundation, formed to help raise scholarship money for qualified minorities.
Jackie Robinson was a terrific athlete. He was the first athlete in UCLA's history to earn a letter in four different
sports (football, basketball, track and baseball.) He spent a couple of years in the US Army and joined the
Kansas City Monarchs of the American Negro League. That same year, a talent scout told Robinson that the
Brooklyn Dodgers general manager, Branch Rickey, would like to meet him.
African Americans had indeed played a big part in the country’s war effort. Happy Chandler, the newly
installed Baseball Commissioner said, "If they can fight and die on Okinawa, Guadalcanal and in the South
Pacific, they can play ball in America." The Negro Leagues had been flourishing but having people of color
playing the Major Leagues, especially African Americans, seemed to be taboo. Branch Rickey agreed
something had to be done. He knew that the player had to be talented but also strong enough to handle
inevitable racial taunts that would come his way. Back in those days, segregation seemed to be a way of life and
was especially predominant in our southern states where slavery flourished for many years.
On August 28, 1945, during an initial three-hour meeting of Robinson and Rickey, challenges were made.
Rickey said, "I need a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back! You’ve got to do this job with base hits,
stolen bases and fielding groundballs, Jackie, nothing else!" They talked about turning the other cheek.
In Matthew 5:39-40. Jesus said, "But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also." Rickey knew that sharpened metal spikes would be flying high towards
Robinson and pitchers would take aim at his head or legs with whizzing fastballs. When we are wronged, often
our first reaction is to get even. Instead, Jesus said we should do good to those who wrong us. Our desire
should not be to keep score, but to love and forgive. This is not a natural thing. Only God can give us the
strength to love as He does. Instead of planning vengeance, we should pray for those who hurt us.
Rickey shared with Jackie Robinson reading a chapter out of "Pappin's Life of Christ" six months before anyone
knew he had signed Robinson to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. "He was not an ideal man for the job. He was
resentful of criticism, quickly retaliating to insults by nature. He had a sense of tremendous injustice that any
should discriminate against him because of different pigmentation of skin." But Rickey’s sharing of how Christ
responded to all of the insults and criticism Robinson was about to experience would make a big difference in
Robinson's successful baseball career. He told Robinson that he would have to have compassion, understanding
and love for even his worst enemies. Rickey always looked for what he called "the red thread" of discipline,
courage, confidence, and commitment to Christ in a man's life. He looked for it in every rookie he interviewed
and if it were not there, he would look for qualities, which might produce it.
Jackie Robinson was assigned to the Montreal Royals, which was a Dodger's farm team for the 1946 season.
Robinson was moved up to the Dodgers at the beginning of the 1947 season. He played 10 years with the
Dodgers, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, and spent much of his remaining life
working in the corporate world. Robinson was the spokesman for a popular company called “Chock Full of
Nuts”. He also fought for civil rights issues. He died at a relatively young age of 53 years old.
During the past celebration, I believe that many missed the significance of the role that Mr. Rickey had which
led to Robinson crossing the color line in the major league. Jackie was quoted by saying, "It isn’t right to say I
broke the color line. Mr. Rickey made it possible for me to play. Of all the men I met in baseball, Mr. Rickey
was the finest, in a class by himself."
Rickey was known as the Father of Modern Baseball. He established the baseball farm system, started Ladies
Day to attract females to the ballparks, originated the Knothole Gang to develop young fans and was the first to
have his team travel by airplane rather than trains. In 1956, Rickey was the keynote speaker at the very first
FCA Camp, which was celebrated last October on the fiftieth year anniversary.
Gary Demarest, who attended the anniversary of the very first camp, remembered meeting Branch Rickey at the
Denver airport. He shared that only a month before, there were just 38 actual reservations and there was cause
to think that his dreams for the event and those of FCA's founder Don McClanen, would not come true. On that
two-hour drive up into the mountains, Rickey responded, "Don't forget Jesus started with 12." That night, 256
student/athletes and coaches had arrived from all over America. Mr. Rickey gave the first evening keynote
message. He called out for the young men to be bold witnesses for Christ and the church. Out of that Camp
grew a network of citywide programs, chapters, Huddles and all the rest that’s made FCA national in scope.
Don McClanen remembered, "The first Conference at Estes Park was a miracle, an absolute miracle." He
recalled vividly what transpired the night Rickey gave his powerful speech that lasted 53 minutes. Dressed in a
suit as usual, with a pokadoted bow tie and horn rimmed glasses over his thick eyebrows, Rickey stood behind a
podium made out of a tree trunk. He didn't talk about his own major league career of four years or the 10 years
he managed in the major leagues, he touched on several areas of life including intellectual and spiritual content.
Rickey began by talking about the significance of athletics. "It is an integral part of our nation. We could
hardly get along without it. It's so meaningful. Our language is continually filled with it. Illustrations in the
ministry and even in the field of statesmanship constantly use and understand the significance of sports. The
Olympics belongs to the world."
At age 75, Rickey shared with the crowd in the Hyde Chapel about his Christian heritage, which he received
from his godly parents in his native state of Ohio. He had promised them that he would not go near a ballpark
on Sunday, a promise he kept as a player and manager. "My father and mother lived in the hills of southern
Ohio, some distance from any railroad, or even good highways of any sort. They had no college degrees.
Theology was a remote word to them. They had never sat at the feet of a philosopher anywhere, but in the quiet
laboratory of experience, down on bended knees on an uncarpeted kitchen floor, they had something that didn’t
need proof. Nobody could tell my father and mother that there was no God or that Jesus was not the Son of
God. They had empirical knowledge out of experience. It worked."
Branch Rickey was clear in his love for Christ. He mentioned the name of Jesus numerous times in his address.
"Jesus in not a myth," Rickey said. "He's not a fraud. He's not the plausible but illogical philosopher. He's the
light of the world. (John 8:12) He is to me. And there’s some explanation of His life when I think that when
He was only 12 years of age… I wish somehow I could learn more about what happened to Him in the next 18
as a young man, the very age that ballplayers, with their knowledge and ability, are at their best, this Man died
at age thirty-three. What a marvelous thing it is for young manhood to have some sort of knowledge of their
direction so early."
Speaking with conviction, Rickey stated, "This Fellowship of Christian Athletes is not a namby-pamby thing; it
is a courageous organization. It is not a physical conditioning process; it is a cooperative grouping of athletes to
embrace and have others embrace Jesus as the Christ, the measure of divinity through which we come to find
and know God. It is an effort that challenges our best intelligence and all our emotions. We must proceed to
the task with conviction, with contriteness and with courage even to the point of ardor."
He concluded this historic message by saying, "I don't think I've ever been faced with a situation that seemed so
pregnant with potential as the immediate possibilities of a great crowd of young men coming to feel the
presence of God and the duty of service to the King of Kings. The potential is almost beyond conception."
For over 50 years, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes has believed that sports are much more than a game or
pastime. Sports continue to impact our culture and world just like Rickey suggested at the FCA Camp back in
1956. The playing field is where many young people cultivate their values. As astounding 38 million kids
between 8 and 18 play competitive sports in the United States. And, 93% of Fortune 500 CEO's played sports
in school. That's why, as the largest Christian sports ministry in the world, we remain passionately committed
to our vision, "to see the world impacted for Jesus Christ through the influence of athletes and coaches."
It is amazing how One man can impact the world so greatly! However, when your foundation is strong in Christ
there is nothing you can’t do or can’t accomplish!!! I often share with young people how they can leave a
legacy at their schools and impact their teammates, their schoolmates, their city, their county, their state, their
country and ultimately the World for Christ IF they will stand on the principles laid out in the Bible, just as
Rickey and so many like him have done. My favorite quote is by A.W. Tozer. He said, “God is looking for
people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity we plan only the things we can do by ourselves. “
Final Prayer: Branch Rickey concluded his talk to the very first gathering at the first camp with this prayer.
"The Great Father, who is everywhere about, look down upon us tonight and give us new insights into the life
of Jesus and a new desire to know more about Him. God grant that I may not by this talk tonight place myself
upon a pedestal of uprightness, holier than thou. Give me a marvelous humility to understand the teachings of
the great Master and to boldly say that I worship Him as the Son of God. Amen."
Some of the material is from the FCA history book: "Impact for Christ" by Wayne Atcheson.