UCLA

Those letters are synonymous with greatness. A university where MacArthur Fellows and Nobel Laureates have walked the campus, and giants in the sports world have cast shadows down through the generations. Perhaps none bigger than Jackie Robinson.

Between 1939 and 1941, Robinson was a four-sport star with the Bruins, an incredible feat that foretold of his eventual greatness. Jackie was the definition of a pure athlete. He broke records in track and field and set all time marks on the football field. He blazed up and down the basketball court and began to leave his mark on a baseball field.

And he did all of this before he was 21 years old.

Pioneer? Revolutionary. Unprecedented? Jackie became the precedent — the gold standard for UCLA gold and blue. Courageous? He personified the very word. Nothing was going to stop him. If it weren’t for World War II cancelling the 1940 and 1944 games, Jackie would have been an Olympic star long before he broke the color barrier in baseball later that decade. The courage that made him transcendent in the pros was there in Westwood. It showed up at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum when he ran to the open field, and as he soared 25 feet through the air in the long jump.

How far did Jackie leap beyond that? Over every barrier ever encountered. Into the hearts of every athlete to come along in his wake. At UCLA he was history in the making. A campus legend. And when it was all said and done, history had to keep up.

Introducing the Roots of Fight Jackie Robinson collection as part of our new Campus Legends program!