LOS ANGELES, CA — Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shared recollections of Jackie Robinson Tuesday at the Dodgers’ annual “team reflection” on Jackie Robinson Day.
“It’s great to be here on this day, especially, because he was a hero of mine from Day 1 when I became aware of him,” Abdul-Jabbar said, telling stories about becoming a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers because of Robinson and then getting to meet him for the first time in 1969.
“Jack always had the idea that he was an equal human being to everybody else. I’m very proud of being able to emulate Jackie in the right way. You can do things the wrong way but Jackie showed us how to do it the right way and I’m very thankful for that.”
The Dodgers joined the rest of Major League Baseball in marking Tuesday’s 78th anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball’s color line, including gathering with the Colorado Rockies at the statue of Robinson in Dodger Stadium’s Centerfield Plaza to hear speeches about him.
The Dodgers have been gathering at the statue on Jackie Robinson Day annually since 2021 to hear manager Dave Roberts and others talk about Robinson. In 2023, they began being joined by their opponent.
Two of Robinson’s granddaughters, Sonya Pankey and Ayo Robinson, were in attendance as were Jackie Robinson Foundation scholars.
Robinson’s widow, Rachel Robinson, founded the foundation in 1973, the year following her husband’s death at the age of 53. It provides four-year college scholarships to disadvantaged students of color.
The Jackie Robinson Foundation is among the beneficiaries of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, the team’s charitable arm whose mission is “to improve education, health care, homelessness, and social justice for all Angelenos.”
Pankey threw the ceremonial first pitch preceding the Dodgers’ 6-2 victory.
Jackie Robinson Foundation scholars made the announcement preceding every Dodger game at Dodger Stadium, “It’s time for Dodger baseball.”
Abdul-Jabbar was born in Harlem on April 16, 1947, the day after Robinson’s debut.
In a 2010 interview with ESPN when he was also at Dodger Stadium on Jackie Robinson Day, Abdul-Jabbar said Robinson was his hero and while he was in high school he received a letter from Robinson “telling me that UCLA would be a good place for me to go to school.”
In 1969, when the then-Lew Alcindor won his third consecutive national player of the year award as a Bruin, he was finally able to meet Robinson at an awards dinner.
“I was in awe,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “I was sitting with Jackie Robinson and Bill Russell and I was just in awe. I didn’t say much, I just let them say what they had to say.”
All players, coaches and managers wore Robinson’s No. 42 for all of Tuesday’s major league games as they have done on each Jackie Robinson Day since 2009, with all teams using Dodger blue for their “42” jersey numbers regardless of their primary team colors for the fourth consecutive year.
All players, coaches, managers and umpires wore caps with a “42” side patch.
A special tribute video, produced by MLB Network featuring AJ Andrews, the former LSU and professional softball player who hosts the network’s Saturday morning show, “Play Ball,” was shown in all ballparks.
The No. 42 was retired throughout Major League Baseball in 1997, on the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s April 15, 1947, debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Robinson — who was raised in Pasadena and attended Muir High School, Pasadena City College and UCLA — went hitless in four at-bats in his major league debut, but scored what proved to be the winning run in Brooklyn’s 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves in front of a crowd announced at 25,623 at Ebbets Field.
Robinson played his entire major league career with Brooklyn, helping lead the Dodgers to six National League pennants during his 10 seasons, and, in 1955, their only World Series championship in Brooklyn.
Robinson’s successful integration of Major League Baseball is credited with helping change Americans’ attitudes toward Black players and being a catalyst toward later civil rights advances.
