What was the name of the minor league team Robinson played for in 1946?

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The minor-league team Jackie Robinson played for in 1946 was the Montreal Royals. The Royals were the Brooklyn Dodgers' top farm club in the International League, and Robinson spent the season with them before reaching the major leagues.

Robinson joined Montreal after Branch Rickey signed him in 1945. His assignment was a deliberate step toward integrating Organized Baseball. The Royals trained in Florida, where segregation created obstacles: Robinson was sometimes separated from his teammates in hotels and faced attempts to cancel or relocate games.

On April 18, 1946, Robinson made his regular-season debut with the Royals at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey. He excelled immediately, winning the International League batting title and helping Montreal capture the league championship. His success made it impossible for the Dodgers to treat his promotion as merely symbolic.

The Montreal Royals were not the Montreal Expos, who began play much later in 1969. The Kansas City Monarchs were Robinson's previous team in the Negro leagues, while the Brooklyn Dodgers became his major-league club in 1947.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026

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