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Before icons, there had to be those who paved the way. They are the ones we should thank for the stars of today and yesteryear. These men faced extreme racism and adversity so that people of today would know such athletes as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Jim brown. Jackie Robinson broke major league baseball's color barrier over 50 years ago, but he wasn't the first black to play in the majors. In 1884, the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association had two black players: Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Welday. Although Welday appeared in just five games, Moses shared catching duties, playing in 42 games and batting .263. Both players were gone the next year and no black appeared in organized baseball again until 1946, when Robinson first played for the Brooklyn Dodgers' Montreal farm team. A year later, he moved into the majors with the Dodgers. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was the first player to break Major League Baseball's color barrier. Born in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of sharecroppers, he grew up in Pasadena California. His mother, Mallie Robinson, single-handedly raised Jackie and her four other children. They were the only black family on their block, and the prejudice they encountered only strengthened their bonds to each other. In 1945, there were few career opportunities open to a black man, even to those who had attended college. Jackie played one season in the Negro Baseball League, traveling all over the Midwest with the Kansas City Monarchs. In 1947, when Jackie Robinson first donned a Brooklyn Dodger uniform, he pioneered the integration of professional athletics in America. By breaking the color barrier in baseball, the nation's number one sport, he courageously challenged the deeply rooted custom of racial segregation in both the North and the South. At the end of Robinson's rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he had become National League Rookie of the Year with 12 homers, a league-leading 29 steals, and a .297 average. In 1949, he was selected as the N.L. Most Valuable player of the Year and also won the batting title with a .342 average that same year. In 1997, the world celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier. In doing so, we honored the man who stood defiantly against those who would work against racial equality and acknowledged the profound influence of one man's life on the American culture. To some, Jackie Robinson's life and legacy will be remembered as one of the most important in American history. Charles Follis played professional football in 1904 for a pro team known as the Shelby Blues and Fritz Pollard played in 1920 for the Akron Pros. In the modern era, well-known pro teams didn't have black players until 1946. That year, two of Jackie Robinson's former teammates at UCLA, Kenny Washington and Woody Strode, broke the barrier for the Los Angeles Rams, while Marion Motley and Bill Willis played for the Cleveland Browns later in 1946. Follis and Pollard paved the way for Hall of Fame fullback Jim Brown. Considered by many the greatest running back in history, Brown was also an exceptional all-around athlete. As a teen-ager, he turned down an offer to play baseball in the New York Yankee organization and, after graduating from Syracuse University, he turned down $150,000 to become a professional fighter. While in high school, he once jogged over from a pre-game lacrosse to win the high jump in a track meet. In his senior year in high school in Manhasset, Long Island, he averaged 38 points a game in basketball and 14.9 yards per carry as a football player.
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