What a legend is made of

Who is the most important and significant sports figure in history?

Babe Ruth? Muhammad Ali? Michael Jordan? Jim Thorpe? Babe Didrikson Zaharias? Wayne Gretzky? Billie Jean King? Walter Camp? Tiger Woods? Joe Montana? Willie Mays?

The list goes on and on. Don’t you love discussions of sports legends, all you sports nuts out there? There’s rarely agreement on who’s the greatest or best. But it’s always fun, and usually educational, to talk about our sports heroes.

I’ve been a sports writer for more than 30 years, concentrating mostly on youth and high school sports. But I am also a passionate follower of college and professional sports, from the Stanley Cup of hockey to the Triple Crown of horse racing, from the World Series of baseball to the Final Four of college basketball.

Fifteen years ago, Brad Herzog, a sportswriter and author, wrote a book called “The Sports 100, the Most Important People in American Sports History.” He selected men and women for the historical, influential, and pioneering impact they had on their sport and society. He bypassed criteria such as outstanding, skilled, or famous, and focused on impact and significance. How would the person’s sport—or sports in general—have unfolded had he or she not existed? Did their actions alter the course of sports history? Did they change their sport?

So who was his number-one choice? Whom did he believe was the most important sports figure in history? Jackie Robinson.

Robinson’s story of being catapulted onto center stage of Major League Baseball by Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is familiar to most of us. By the end of World War II, Rickey, one of the most innovative sports executives of his time, had decided that it was time to break the color barrier in pro baseball, and let deserving black players play in the bigs. But Rickey knew that Jim Crowism and racism would make the job extremely difficult. Rickey and Robinson developed faith in each other and in their quest and etched their names in sports history forever.

But how much do we know of Robinson? He obviously was a skilled infielder, peerless base runner and base stealer, and exciting hitter. But history defines him as a pioneering athlete who endured physical, mental, and social abuse without complaint or retaliation. In doing so, he opened the Major League doors for black players and changed the face of the sport forever.

But did you also know he was one of the most versatile and talented multi-sport athletes in history? At UCLA, baseball was a secondary interest of his. He played basketball and twice led the Pacific Coast Conference in scoring. He averaged 11 yards per carry as a football running back. He won swimming championships, a golf title, and a national Negro tennis tournament. He even broke his brother’s college long jump record in track and field.

Drafted by the Army in 1942, he refused an order to sit in the back of a bus and was almost court-martialed for insubordination.

Jackie Robinson—multi-talented athlete, thoughtful and intelligent gentlemen, with the patience of a saint. I agree with Herzog: he is the most important and significant person in sports history.

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