Jackie Robinson played four sports at the University of California, Los Angeles, better known as UCLA. He earned varsity letters in baseball, basketball, football, and track, making him UCLA’s first athlete to letter in four sports.
Robinson enrolled at UCLA in 1939 after attending Pasadena Junior College. His athletic range was remarkable: he played multiple positions in football, competed in basketball, ran track, and played baseball. Although baseball later became his professional sport, it was statistically his weakest of the four at UCLA; he hit .097 in his only varsity baseball season.
His strongest college achievements included football rushing and track-and-field performance. In 1940, he won the NCAA long-jump championship, recording a mark of 24 feet, 10 1/4 inches. He also played on UCLA’s undefeated 1939 football team, which finished with four ties.
A common mix-up is assuming Robinson was known only as a baseball player during college. His UCLA career demonstrated unusual versatility and placed him among the school’s most distinctive athletes well before he broke MLB’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.