October 24, 1972: Jackie Robinson Dies

October 24, 1972: Jackie Robinson dies. The 1st black player in modern baseball had been suffering from diabetes, which had robbed him of most his eyesight, caused such poor circulation in his legs that amputation was being considered, and damaged his heart to the point where it killed him at age 53.

Just 9 days earlier, he had flown from his home in Stamford, Connecticut, and was a special guest at Game 2 of the World Series between the A's and Reds in Cincinnati. It had been 25 years since the great experiment that he and Brooklyn Dodger president Branch Rickey (who died in 1965) had reached its successful conclusion with the Dodgers winning the Pennant and Jackie making it through the season, not just surviving but excelling. His former teammate, Pee Wee Reese, was on hand, and former Dodger broadcaster Red Barber introduced him.

Jackie said, "I'm extremely pleased to be here, but I must confess, I'm going to be even more pleased when I see a black face managing in baseball."

Jackie's eulogy was delivered by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and his funeral was attended by most of his surviving teammates. Roy Campanella was there in his wheelchair. Among his pallbearers were former Dodger pitcher Don Newcombe and basketball legend Bill Russell, who had been the 1st black head coach in the NBA.

Earlier in the year, on June 4, in Los Angeles, Jackie's hometown (if not the team's), the Dodgers retired uniform numbers for the first time, packing away Jackie's Number 42, Campy's Number 39 and Sandy Koufax' Number 32. Jackie was the 1st black player in the Hall of Fame, Campy the 2nd, and Koufax had been newly elected at the time of the ceremony.

It would be 2 more years, on October 3, 1974, before Frank Robinson, no relation, was hired as Major League Baseball's 1st black manager, with the Cleveland Indians, the team that had been the first in the American League to add black players, with Larry Doby and Satchel Paige.

Oddly, Frank beat Jackie to being the 1st black player to get his number retired: The Orioles let him go before the 1972 season, and, though he was still active, announced the retirement of his number on March 10 of that year.

Ironically, while black Hispanics are the leading presence in the game in the 2020s, very few black Americans are in the major leagues. Jackie would probably be disturbed by that, but not puzzled, as he would surely factor in the rise of pro football and basketball as sports preferred by African-Americans, especially since he played those, in addition to baseball, at UCLA.

Of the 30 current MLB franchises, only the Houston Astros currently have a black manager: Dusty Baker, and he is 73 years old and managing his 5th different team. There's 3 others that have a Hispanic manager: Alex Cora of the Boston Red Sox, Oliver Marmol of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Dave Martinez of the Washington Nationals.

And 4 teams have never had a manager who was either black or Hispanic: The Yankees, the Minnesota Twins, the Oakland Athletics, and the Philadelphia Phillies -- by an unfortunate coincidence, also the last National League team to have had a black player.

(The Yankees have had black coaches, such as Elston Howard, Willie Randolph and Tony Peña, but no black or Hispanic managers, unless you count Peña on those occasions when Joe Torre or Joe Girardi was thrown out of a game, or took a personal day.)

As of this posting, 5 teams' managerial offices are vacant: The Chicago White Sox, the Kansas City Royals, the Miami Marlins, the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays. That's right: More teams have their manager's jobs vacant than have them filled with a nonwhite man.

It took until 2016, with former Red Sox star Dave Roberts, for the Dodgers to have their 1st black manager. Currently, of the 24 MLB teams that don't have vacancies, 5 have a black or Hispanic manager.

In 1997, on the 50th Anniversary of Jackie's arrival, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced that Jackie's Number 42 would be retired for all of baseball, as yet a unique honor. All players then wearing it would be allowed to continue to do so for the remainder of their careers, but no new players could wear it, and no current players could switch to it.

The last remaining Number 42 in baseball was Mariano Rivera of the Yankees; the Yankees appeared to have been waiting for Mariano to retire before retiring the number for both him and Jackie, but in 2007, on the 60th Anniversary of Jackie's arrival, they retired it for Jackie, and did so again for Mariano when he hung 'em up in 2013, just as they retired Number 8 for both Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra.

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October 24, 1972 was a Tuesday. The baseball season had ended 2 days earlier, with the Oakland Athletics beating the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. Football was in midweek. There were 5 NBA games played:

* The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 123-90 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Buffalo Braves, 105-97 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, 114-94 at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Phoenix Suns, 107-106 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. Charlie Scott scored 42 points for the Suns, but, for the Bulls, Bob Love scored 29 and Chet "the Jet" Walker scored 28.

* And the Atlanta Hawks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 118-110 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 2 games played in the American Basketball Association. The Virginia Squires beat the Memphis Tams, 123-111 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 35 for the Squires. And the San Diego Conquistadors beat the Carolina Cougars, 123-109 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The expansion New York Islanders lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat their then-geographic rivals, the California Golden Seals, 5-0 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. The Seals, the Memphis Tams, and the Oakland A's were all owned by Charlie Finley, and, at the time, all wore green and gold uniforms. But, unlike the A's, the Tams and the Seals never won anything.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-0 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

And there were 4 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Houston Aeros, 5-3 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The New England Whalers beat the Cleveland Crusaders, 3-2 in overtime at the Cleveland Arena.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Philadelphia Blazers, 5-3 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Alberta Oilers and the Chicago Cougars played to a tie, 3-3 at the Edmonton Coliseum. The next season, the Oilers changed their name to the Edmonton Oilers.