Noah Velicer Mrs. Holan English 3 5 May, 2017 Jackie Robinson’s Legacy of Greatness Jackie Robinson was born January 31, 1919. He moved to California when he was just a little boy. People said the color barrier would never be broken but Jackie Robinson proved last one of the doubters wrong time and time again. Jackie Robinson changed the entire sports world. Our world today is filled with countless amounts of diversity in everything we do from going to work to playing competitive sports. Jackie Robinson is the reason why we have all of this diversity in sports and in our world. “Jackie Robinson’s young life was a very poor one, but he made the most of it Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919, in Cairo, Georgia ( A&E Television Networks 2017). The youngest of five children, Robinson was raised in relative poverty by a single mother” ( A&E Television Networks 2017). Jackie overcame so much adversity as a child and that is why he succeeded so greatly in the rest of his life. Jackie had it hard when he was a child, being raised by a single mother in poverty was not easy, but he was a determined athlete in junior high and he dominated in all the sports he participated in. “He attended John Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College, where he was an excellent athlete and played four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball”(A&E Television Networks 2017). Jackie Robinson was an exceptional athlete through and through, any sport he played and excelled to the highest level. Jackie did not know that in his near future he would be one of the most impactful people to ever walk the earth. Jackie was destined for big things. Education and college life was very good and bad for Jackie Roosevelt Robinson. After high school Jackie continued his education at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he became the university's first student to win varsity letters in four sports. “In 1941, despite his athletic success, Robinson was forced to leave UCLA just shy of graduation due to financial hardship” ( A&E Television Networks 2017). “Jackie Robinson pursued his dream of being a college athlete and on the athletic side of things he dominated as usual, but earlier, Jackie had to drop out of college just short of graduating due to lack of money to pay tuition” ( A&E Television Networks 2017). No matter what hardship Jackie faced, he continued his trek for greatness. “He moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he played football for the semi-professional Honolulu Bears” ( A&E Television Networks 2017). This is just a sneak peek to all the things that Jackie achieved during his long and eventful life. Jackie is an iconic figure and he always will be not only in the world of baseball or the civil rights movement, But he made an impact around the whole world. The middle of Jackie’s Life was the most complicated for him. His season with the Bears was cut short when the United States entered into World War II. “From 1942 to 1944, Robinson served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army, however, he never saw combat” ( A&E Television Networks 2017). “During boot camp at Fort Hood, Texas, Robinson was arrested and court-martialed in 1944 for refusing to give up his seat and move to the back of a segregated bus” ( A&E Television Networks 2017). “Robinson's excellent reputation, combined with the efforts of friends, the NAACP and various black newspapers, shed public light on the injustice, and he was ultimately acquitted of the charges” ( A&E Television Networks 2017). Jackie Received an honorable discharge for is courage and moral objection to segregation were precursors to the impact Robinson would have in major league baseball. On April 3, 1942, at a Los Angeles induction center, Robinson reported for military duty as required. He joined millions of other draftees—800,000 or more of them black—called by their Uncle Sam to serve. With suspect physical condition—damaged ankle—and his mother largely dependent on welfare, Robinson should not have had to serve in the armed services. His ankle, first broken while playing football in 1937 for Pasadena Junior College and later in 1941 while performing for the semi pro Los Angeles Bulldogs, contained a large bone chip, which occasionally caused the joint to lock up entirely. When aggravated by sustained and especially vigorous physical activity, this condition required intermittent visits to military doctors and hospitals during his more than two-and-a-half-year stint in the service. One of Jackie’s biggest impacts was in the world of Major League Baseball After his discharge from the Army in 1944, Robinson began to play baseball professionally. At the time, the sport was segregated, and African-Americans and whites played in separate leaguesRobinson began playing in the Negro Leagues, but he was soon chosen by Branch Rickey president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, to help integrate major league baseball. He joined the all-white Montreal Royals, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1946. Robinson later moved to Florida to begin spring training with the Royals.“Branch Rickey knew there would be tough times ahead for the youthful athlete, so he made Robinson promise that he would not fight back when confronted with racist actions and comments.”( A&E Television Networks 2017). Through thick and thin Jackie never blinked, he faced the most adversity that anyone had ever faced from people yelling racial slurs at him, to him getting death threats sent to his house, Someone even threw a rock through his window attached was a racial slur directed towards him and the rest of his family. “This alone should attest the mental toughness that Jackie possessed no matter what they said to Jackie he stayed steadfast in his career and continued to dominate and take Major League Baseball by storm.” ( A&E Television Networks 2017). “He died from heart problems and diabetes on October 24, 1972, in Stamford, Connecticut .”( A&E Television Networks 2017). The sports world today is dominated by so many different races different types of people, Jackie is the biggest reason that all of this diversity exists in not only the sports world but the world around us. Even though Jackie Robinson faced tough and rigid times when he was making his journey to greatness he had something different inside of him, something very few people have these days. He was destined for greatness from the beginning. Jackie Robinson defied all the norms of our society and he created a new kind of mold that every person strives for, that mold is: integrity, persistence, and perseverance.