The A Student Who Gave Up Law for Baseball

It's been 50 years since Jackie Robinson made history by striding onto the diamond at Ebberts Field in the uniform of a Brooklyn Dodger. Few people realized that Robinson was following in the footsteps of another black major league baseball player who had preceded him by 60 years. The Law Schoool was part of this making of history-twice. The following essay is based on a similar commentary that appeared last spring in the Detroit News.

It was written in recognition of Jackie Robinson's major league debut 50 years ago with the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first Black player in the major leagues. Editor's note: Before Yale Kamisar decided on law as a career, he considered sports reporting. In 1948, the Newspaper Guild of New York City named him the best college sportswriter in the New York City metropolitan area.