Name: Christina Nowicki
Date: Fall 2012
Understanding of
Content
Exceptional - 4
4 – I did my
research and
understood him
fully.
3 – Since this is a
more of a
research paper,
there wasn’t
much critical
thinking involved
Evidence of
Critical Thinking
Evidence of
Content
Development
Evidence of
Creativity/
Audience Interest
Building
Evidence of Rich
Variety of Style
4 – I included the
appropriate facts
and stories.
4 – Solely because
I think he is an
interest building
character
3 – I wouldn’t
say a superb
amount of variety
was involved
3 – Grammar
isn’t perfect but
good.
Evidence of
Grammatical and
Mechanical
Control
Evidence of SelfAssessment
Evidence of Best
Practice Choice
Commendable - 3
3 – My passion
for him and
baseball comes
out in this paper
4 – Like I said, I
love Jackie
Robinson and I feel
it showed in my
writing.
Acceptable - 2
Unsatisfactory - 1
Jackie Robinson
By
Christina Nowicki
Modern Western Culture
Northern Oklahoma College
October 3, 2012
A sports legend is not defined by the number of dollars in his bank account, the amount
of fame he receives, or the number of accolades he accumulates in his lifetime. In my opinion, a
sports legend is defined by the impact he has both on and off the field, whatever type of field it
may be. It’s about making a difference in the lives of others and being the best role model
possible for the younger generation to come. According to this definition, the great Jackie
Robinson is the sports legend to end all sports legends. Athletics aside, Jackie was also one of
the great civil rights activists. His approach was not as peaceful as Dr. King but not nearly as
extreme as Malcolm X. He was his own unique brand of activism. There was never anyone like
him before he came along and there will never be anyone like him in the future. Jackie himself
once said, “There's not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.” Truer
words were never spoken.
On August 28, 1945, the story of baseball was forever changed. Jackie Robinson shook
hands with Branch Rickey, the President of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and began his extraordinary
baseball career. On a fateful April day in 1947, he started the season as first basemen for the
Dodgers wearing the number forty-two jersey. He was the first black man to play for a Major
League Baseball team. Unfortunately, this accomplishment was far overshadowed by the bigotry
following that April day. He was faced with violent discrimination I feel no one should ever go
through. The worst part is some of this narrow-mindedness came from other players and
coaches. Catchers even spit on Robinson's shoe during his at bats! When I read this, it troubled
me very much. Baseball is a sport. Teams should have camaraderie among their players. Just
like soldiers fighting wars, they should stick together no matter what they think of one another.
Racism is the biggest war the human race has ever fought.
There was a book written by Jackie’s daughter, Sharon Robinson, titled “Jackie’s Nine”
that I think shows how truly inspirational Mr. Robinson was to our society. The book talks about
her dad’s nine values that he lived by and these are what helped him accomplish all that he had
in his life. The nine values are courage, determination, teamwork, persistence, integrity,
citizenship, justice, commitment, and excellence. I personally think these are nine extremely
powerful words. This is further proof that Jackie was a very smart and strong man who fought
for civil rights until his early death in 1972. He did so much in that fight, it’s almost hard to put
into words.
Most people knew Jackie Robinson was a civil rights activist, but most did not know the
lengths he went to as this activist. There is a collection of hundreds of letter he wrote to various
leaders of the world telling them of the things needed to be done to help in the fight against
racism and discrimination. These leaders included Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, John F.
Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and many more. A letter that stuck out for me
was one he wrote to John F. Kennedy urging him to get angry again because he took action
better when he was angry. If there were more people that would take action like Jackie did with
these letters, I honestly feel our country would be a much better place.
There is no way to describe fully the impact Jackie made on our culture. Narrowing it
down to the sports world, there simply would not be as many possibilities for the AfricanAmerican men currently in any sport. In a broader sense, his accomplishments on the field shed
a new light in the eyes of Americans when they saw an African-American man dominating in all
Caucasian sport. This is almost pathetic that a baseball player had to aide in this, but these were
different times. I also believed baseball had a huge effect on Jackie. Before he entered the sport,
he was very outspoken, especially about civil rights. However, when he came into the sport, he
was respectful and held his tongue when racist remarks were made. This couldn’t have been
easy for him but he did it anyway. In the end, he looked like the better person for it. The pain
and suffering he endured during his time on this earth not only lessened the pain and suffering
for future generations, it opened the eyes of so many closed-minded people during his time. He
earned respect from people who would die before letting a black person sit in the same theater as
them. Basically, he achieved the impossible. As I stated earlier, there was never anyone like
him before he came along and there will never be anyone like him in the future. He is the true
meaning of one-of-a-kind.
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”
-Jackie Robinson
Reference Page
Sports Paper
Robinson, Jackie, and Michael G. Long. First class citizenship: The civil rights letters of Jackie
Robinson. New York: Times Books, 2007.
Robinson, Sharon. Jackie's Nine: Jacie Robinson's Values to Live By. New York: Scholastic,
2001.
Schwartz, Larry. "Jackie changed face of sports."
<http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016431.html>.