Читать книгу Jackie Robinson онлайн

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What saved Jackie’s life was sports, especially after he got to high school. His interest partly came from his older brother Mack, who was a track-and-field champion. Mack was good enough that he won the silver medal in the 200-meter dash at the 1936 Olympics. Years later, Jackie wrote in the Washington Post article, “My brother Mack had more to do with my athletic career than any one else. He’ll always be a real hero with me. I remember going to track meets with him and watching him run and listening to the crowd yell.”

Those cheers for his brother were important for Jackie.

He wrote, “Without him and his encouragement I don’t think there ever would have been a Jackie Robinson, baseball player.”

Almost from the moment he started high school, Jackie had his own athletic success. He starred on his school’s football, baseball, and basketball teams and won tennis championships. He was so good and so fast, one newspaper called him black lightning. In college, he became even better. He first went to Pasadena Junior College, where he played football, basketball, and baseball and competed in track. In football, he was the quarterback. The Los Angeles Times said he was the “most brilliant ball carrier ever developed” in the area. Sometimes 50,000 people came to one of his team’s games. The Los Angeles Times said that ninety-nine percent of those people were there because they wanted to see Jackie play. In track, he set the school record in the long jump. In baseball, he was the Southern California junior college most valuable player.