Every pro team’s Jackie Robinson Identifying the athletes who integrated professional sports during a 20-year period
Every Pro Team’s Jackie Robinson Research by David Sabino and Dana Lee Text by JK Turner For every person familiar with baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson, there are others who don’t know about Emlen Tunnell, the first Black Pro Football Hall of Famer, or Ann Gregory, the first Black woman to enter a United States Golf Association-sponsored event. Inspired by the endeavors of these less-celebrated competitors, The Undefeated presents a visual timeline of the 20 years major pro teams and many individual sports were desegregated. We identify the Black and Afro-Latino players who integrated all-white professional teams starting in 1942, five years before Robinson’s Major League debut, through 1962, the year he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The dates stated are when players debuted in a game. American Football League, which launched in 1960, and expansion teams from that era in other sports, all of which began with players of color, are not in...